<THE MATCH WITH THE USSR>

"The match with the USSR is a landmark in the history of chess from many points of view. Most important, of course, is the fact that for the first time a U.S. team and a Soviet team met across the board; those who organized the match know better than anybody else what an achievement that was.

From our point of view, it was encouraging that we did so much better than in the radio match of 1945. Many people had predicted another Soviet landslide and the team members themselves were none too optimistic about our chances. The main reason fot this pessimism was lack of adequate practice, since American masters, because of the poor organization of chess in this country, rarely have an opportunity to meet stiff competition. But apparently lack of practice is a less serious handicap than had been thought.

It was somewhat of a surprise to find that we made a better score on the lower five boards than on the upper five. Those of us who have played in both national and international tournaments tournaments know that the U.S. has a number of strong masters who are unable to take part in international competition, but that is a fact that is not too generally appreciated.

The presence of no less than five of the six participants in the proposed world championship tournament (Botvinnik, Reshevsky, Keres, Fine and Smyslov) made the match all the more significant.

By and large, the quality of chess was higher than in the radio match. Practically no games were lost by serious blunders, and many were long, hard-fought battles.