| Feb-01-04 |
| Benjamin Lau: Nice zugzwang threats. Reminds me a lot of Fischer vs Taimanov, 1971 |
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Apr-26-06
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| Resignation Trap: Here is a photo of this game in progress after Black's 19th move: http://www.rebel.nl/smyslov/photo19... . |
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Mar-18-08
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| Knight13: Botvinnik's knight sucked, and good strategic play by Smyslov in the end. |
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| Oct-18-08 |
| vikinx: Very interesting. Surprised to see little kibitzing. |
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Oct-24-08
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| RandomVisitor: 9.Bf4 or 9.Be3 might be more promising. |
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| Oct-24-08 |
| sfm: <BL: Nice zugzwang threats.> Indeed. In fact it is more or less zugzwang all the way through since move 56.
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The player with a knight is more likely to get into zugswang problems, simply because a knight, unlike the bishop, always have to give up coverage of all its squares when it moves. |
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| Oct-24-08 |
| Bobwhoosta: <sfm: Zugzwang> The knight's problem is compounded by the fact that he cannot make waiting moves, instead he will always take an even number of moves to get back to the position he was in before. If he could make waiting moves, it would make things much easier on the defending side. |
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Oct-24-08
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| al wazir: This game is like a midterm exam in endgame theory and practice. I would have flunked by move 30. |
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| Oct-24-08 |
| njchess: Great game which illustrates the power of the bishop over the knight in the endgame. Botvinnik saw that 70. Na2 c2 71. Kxc2 Ke2 led to the capture of white's central pawns, and then black's central pawns would eventually steamroller their way through. The fact that the knight cannot make a waiting move without changing the position is nicely shown here. |
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| Oct-24-08 |
| Samagonka: I rate this "Unsatisfactory" on my chart. I expected to see some blood in the endgame but it's like both players were opting for a draw. |
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Oct-24-08
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| Mulyahnto: <Samagonka: I rate this "Unsatisfactory"> Huh? The endgame is actually very instructive. Zugzwang is the key word here. A bishop is not necessarily better than a knight in the endgame, but in this one it was. |
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Oct-24-08
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| wanabe2000: The position of white's knights after move 38 made me laugh. |
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Oct-24-08
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| kevin86: A good zugzwang finish...
Smyslov wins title! |
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Oct-24-08
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| Marmot PFL: I don't know how Botvinnik expected to get good games in the opening or analyze adjournments without using a second (if that is true). Any adjourned game would be an automatic advantage for Smyslov. |
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Oct-24-08
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| karnak64: Fascinating endgame. Cool photo. thanks, cg.com! |
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Oct-25-08
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| patzer2: White's 35. g4?! seems to make it easy for Black to create a weak isolated pawn. Instead, IMO 35. Kg2  puts up more resistance. Earlier in the opening, 12. e4 = might be worth considering.In the final position, White wins after <69...Ke1> 70. Na2 (70.
Nc2+ Kd1 71. Na1 (71. Nb4 Bxb4 72. axb4 c2  ) 71... Kc1 72. Nc2 Kb1 73. Ne1
c2 74. Nxc2 Kb2 75. b6 Bxb6 76. Ne1 Bc7 77. Kd2 Kxa3 ) 70... c2 71. Kxc2 Ke2 . |
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May-25-09
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| talisman: the english played a big role in this match at the beginning and end.3 decisive games out of 4.this one put it away for vasily. |
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Jul-14-09
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| LIFE Master AJ: An amazing game. In 1974, I checked out a book from the library, it had all the games of all the W.C.S. matches up until that point. It took me about six months to go over all the games, but I eventually did. This was one of those games that I remember not understanding too well. (Back then.) Cool comment, Al Wazir! |
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Jul-14-09
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| LIFE Master AJ: I am currently reviewing the new book bi NIC (by Botvinnik) that contains the annotated games of all three of these matches. [ISBN: 978-90-5691-271-0] I think its easy to forget just how great these players were, and how well they actually played. How many players today could have actually won this game as Black? |
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Jul-14-09
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| blacksburg: if you ever get confused about what <outflanking> means, this is the game to look at. |
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Jul-14-09
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| An Englishman: Good Evening: A quite quiet little brilliancy--fascinating to watch Botvinnik's defense's slowly dissolve. I think 35.g4 might have been the losing move, although it's hard to be certain. Also, don't mean to nitpick, but I think this opening is a Neo-Grunfeld by transposition. |
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| Sep-17-09 |
| paavoh: Detailed analysis of this game after move 40 in today's Endgame Corner by Karsten Müller in Chesscafe. The link may be valid for a week. Enjoy! http://www.chesscafe.com/mueller/mu...
Briefly, an immediate 41.b4 axb4 42.Nxb4 Kh6 43.a4 would have equalized according to Kasparov or even 44.a4 as analyzed by Sullivan. |
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