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🏆 USSR Championship (1940)

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
The 12th Soviet Chess Championship was played in the capital city of Moscow from September 5 to October 3, 1940. Twenty of the Soviet Union's strongest masters competed in the round robin event, six of whom qualified from the semi-final tournament in Kiev earlier in the year: Eduard Gerstenfeld, Mark Stolberg, Igor Bondarevsky, Iosif Rudakovsky, Alexander Konstantinopolsky and Peter Dubinin. The remaining invitations went to the elite of Soviet chess (new and old), including Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslo ... [more]

Player: Paul Keres

 page 1 of 1; 19 games  PGN Download 
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. M Stolberg vs Keres 0-1311940USSR ChampionshipA28 English
2. Keres vs Ragozin  1-0471940USSR ChampionshipC79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred
3. Panov vs Keres  ½-½251940USSR ChampionshipC75 Ruy Lopez, Modern Steinitz Defense
4. Keres vs Veresov 0-1601940USSR ChampionshipE20 Nimzo-Indian
5. V Makogonov vs Keres 1-0341940USSR ChampionshipE87 King's Indian, Samisch, Orthodox
6. Lisitsin vs Keres  0-1321940USSR ChampionshipA09 Reti Opening
7. Keres vs Kotov  1-0551940USSR ChampionshipE33 Nimzo-Indian, Classical
8. Konstantinopolsky vs Keres 0-1421940USSR ChampionshipC29 Vienna Gambit
9. Keres vs V Mikenas ½-½581940USSR ChampionshipC15 French, Winawer
10. E Gerstenfeld vs Keres 0-1401940USSR ChampionshipC79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred
11. Keres vs Lilienthal  ½-½411940USSR ChampionshipC19 French, Winawer, Advance
12. Botvinnik vs Keres  ½-½291940USSR ChampionshipE21 Nimzo-Indian, Three Knights
13. Keres vs I Rudakovsky  0-1481940USSR ChampionshipD50 Queen's Gambit Declined
14. Bondarevsky vs Keres 1-0561940USSR ChampionshipE33 Nimzo-Indian, Classical
15. Keres vs Boleslavsky  ½-½411940USSR ChampionshipC15 French, Winawer
16. Smyslov vs Keres  ½-½401940USSR ChampionshipC68 Ruy Lopez, Exchange
17. Keres vs Levenfish 1-0801940USSR ChampionshipD50 Queen's Gambit Declined
18. P Dubinin vs Keres  0-1411940USSR ChampionshipC90 Ruy Lopez, Closed
19. Keres vs Vladimir Petrov 1-0241940USSR ChampionshipC32 King's Gambit Declined, Falkbeer Counter Gambit
 page 1 of 1; 19 games  PGN Download 
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Keres wins | Keres loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
Dec-28-12  Blunderdome: Only three draws in nineteen games for Kotov.
Dec-29-12
Premium Chessgames Member		  GrahamClayton: Due to the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states, as well as the partitioning of Poland with Germany, Keres, Petrov, Mikenas and Gerstenfeld were now considered Soviet "citizens", and thus were eligible to compete.
Jan-02-13  Nosnibor: There appears to be something wrong with the table at the top.Bondarevsky is credited with 1/2 point more than Lilienthal although it is well known that they both tied for first place on 13.5 points each.This appears to be due by showing a win over Konstantinopolsky by Bondarevsky when the historical record clearly indicates that this game was drawn.Methinks that the game shown in the database was from another event.It does of course also miscalculates Konstantinopolsk`s final score.
Jan-02-13  Kangaroo: Here is the game that should have been included!

<Bondarevsky vs Konstantinopolsky, 1940>

to replace

<Bondarevsky vs Konstantinopolsky, 1940> which might have been played in the semi-final or other tournament!

Jan-02-13
Premium Chessgames Member		  Phony Benoni: <Nosnibor>: I think I see what happened. The database has two Bondarevsky - Konstatninopolsky games in the database which claim to be from the 1940 Championship.

Bondarevsky vs Konstantinopolsky, 1940 (1-0), which was added to the original collection, was actually from the Semi-Final in Kiev. Bondarevsky vs Konstantinopolsky, 1940 (1/2-1/2) is the correct game.

I'll institute repairs immediately. Thanks for spotting that.

May-12-13
Premium Chessgames Member		  wordfunph: "My favorite game was my win against Botvinnik in the Soviet Championship of 1940. It was stronger than any grandmaster tournament, the 20 strongest chess players were in it, including Botvinnik, Smyslov and Keres. I was undefeated in first place. I've won lots of tournaments, but this was the best."

- Andre Lilienthal

Source: Curse of Kirsan by Sarah Hurst

Jan-26-14
Premium Chessgames Member		  WCC Editing Project:

<Peter Romanovsky> tells the gripping story of Vasily Smyslov in this tournament:

<"Smyslov began the tournament brilliantly and after fourteen rounds, five rounds before the end, having won five games in succession, he headed the table with 10 1/2 points without the loss of a game. Bondarevsky, playing very well, had 10 points, while Lilienthal and Botvinnik had 9 1/2 each. It seemed that first place and <<<the title of grandmaster was almost assured>>> to Smyslov, however in the fifteenth round he suffered his one and only loss in the tournament at the hands of Makogonov. In the four remaining rounds he conceded three draws, and with 13 points finished behind Bondarevsky and Lilienthal, who each had 13 1/2. Keres, Botvinnik, and Boleslavsky were below Symslov. by this success Smyslov showed himself to be of grandmaster strength.">

-P.A. Romanovsky, "Vassily Vassilievitch Smyslov."

Published in
Vasily Smyslov, "My Best Games of Chess (1935-1957)" P.H. Clarke ed., transl. (Routledge and Kegan Paul 1958), pp. xi-xxvii (First published as "Izbrannie partii" in Russian in 1952)

#####################

When <Smyslov> again managed 3d place in the USSR Absolute Championship (1941), on the strength of both 3d place efforts he was indeed awarded the title of Soviet Grandmaster.

Of further interest, <Makogonov>, the only player to defeat <Smyslov> in this event, later went on to serve as his second in his World Chess championship matches against <Botvinnik> in 1954 and 1957.

<Smyslov> acknowledges the assistance of <Makogonov>:

<"During the match against Botvinnik, Makogonov was one of my coaches <<<And the fact that I became world champion is due in large part to his work.>>> He expounded his ideas clearly and persuasively. I remember his excellent analysis, which he summed up with the help of diagrams. This method is best to fix in memory the most important opening positions.">

(translation by Google. I adjusted some of the punctuation, diction and phrasing for clearer English idiom and sense)

-http://sultanov.azeriland.com/chess...

Jan-26-14  AsosLight: Staggering roster.
Nov-30-14  visayanbraindoctor: Yes the roster is mighty impressive. It probably was the strongest Soviet Championship held until at this point in time, with two future World Champions and an Almost World Champion, and a host of very strong veterans and rising stars.

Take a look at the openings in this tournament. Sicilians (including the Scheveningen and the Dragon), KIDs, Grunfelds, QIDs, Catalans, Nimzo-Indians, English. This tournament's openings looks indistinguishable from one played yesterday.

I have found out that kibitzers usually associate the term 'modern' with these openings. In fact, these openings were already played by 1930s masters. Post WW2, it's their frequency and the attention given to them that has changed, increased. The only opening pawn structure I don't see pre WW2 is the Hedgehog.

At this point in time, Botvinnik was still not clearly superior to Keres. The younger Keres had placed ahead of him in AVRO 1938, and again placed ahead of him in this tournament. So did a rising youthful Smyslov. Lilienthal and Bondarevsky won. Botvinnik was the unofficial face of Soviet Chess. The authorities probably were not exactly ecstatic over the results. The 1941 Soviet tournament was most probably held in order to allow Botvinnik the chance to rectify the 'wrong' results in this one.

From these perspectives, this tournament is an important one in chess history.

Feb-10-18  ughaibu: I guess the best explanation is that Botvinnik was under orders to lose.
Dec-23-18
Premium Chessgames Member		  perfidious: While I have often mooted the 1955 and 1973 Soviet title brawls as being, in all probability, the toughest fields in those most formidable events, and one can certainly make a case for '88, this event was indeed tremendously strong.
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