All Vasily Smyslov games from the <Szolnok International Tournament>.

This tournament was held 14-28 October 1975, in order to mark the 900th anniversary of the foundation of Szolnok, Hungary.

At Szolnok, Smyslov unleashed one of the more successful "surprise weapons" in tournament history. He revived the <Ruy Lopez Fianchetto Defense (C60)>:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6

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In top-level competition, this opening had been played very rarely since its heyday in the late 19th century, when it was employed regularly by legendary masters such as Wilhelm Steinitz, Rezso Charousek, and Harry Pillsbury.

Smyslov used the fianchetto defense four times, beating Edmar Mednis, Peter Dely and George Rajna and drawing Heikki Westerinen to score 3.5/4.

Smyslov finished 1st overall, ahead of Laszlo Barczay, Westerinen, Vadim Zaitsev, Istvan Bilek and Pal Benko, with +5 -0 =9.

Thanks in large part to Smyslov, the Ruy Lopez Fianchetto Defense enjoyed a renaissance, subsequently adopted by such players as Boris Spassky, Hans Ree, and Gennadi Sosonko. It has been in regular use from 1975 to the present day.

Round order and dates:

r1: 1975-10-14
r2: 1975-10-15
r3: 1975-10-16
r4: 1975-10-17
r5: 1975-10-18
r6: 1975-10-20
r7: 1975-10-21
r8: 1975-10-22
r9: 1975-10-24
r10: 1975-10-25
r11: 1975-10-26
r12: 1975-10-27
r13: 1975-10-28
r14: 1975-10-29

Sources:

Edward Winter, ed. "World Chess Champions" (Pergamon Press 1981), p.152

"Schach" Dec 1975, p.370

http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Sing...

Opening Explorer

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

http://www.365chess.com/tournaments...

Intro written by JFQ with lots of help from User: whiteshark