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🏆 USSR Championship (1939)

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
The 11th USSR Championship was held in Leningrad from April 16 to May 15, 1939, with the following players: ... [more]

Player: Alexander Kotov

 page 1 of 1; 17 games  PGN Download 
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. I Kan vs Kotov  0-1541939USSR ChampionshipE07 Catalan, Closed
2. Kotov vs Lisitsin  1-0331939USSR ChampionshipE26 Nimzo-Indian, Samisch
3. A Chistiakov vs Kotov 0-1501939USSR ChampionshipC71 Ruy Lopez
4. Kotov vs I Pogrebissky  1-0301939USSR ChampionshipD70 Neo-Grunfeld Defense
5. Levenfish vs Kotov 1-0721939USSR ChampionshipD37 Queen's Gambit Declined
6. Kotov vs V Makogonov  1-0501939USSR ChampionshipD58 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower (Makagonov-Bondarevsky) Syst
7. V Chekhover vs Kotov 1-0401939USSR ChampionshipB10 Caro-Kann
8. Panov vs Kotov ½-½441939USSR ChampionshipB14 Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack
9. Kotov vs M Yudovich Sr. 1-0311939USSR ChampionshipD39 Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin, Vienna Variation
10. Tolush vs Kotov 0-1421939USSR ChampionshipB10 Caro-Kann
11. Kotov vs P Romanovsky ½-½501939USSR ChampionshipD07 Queen's Gambit Declined, Chigorin Defense
12. I Rabinovich vs Kotov  ½-½341939USSR ChampionshipA46 Queen's Pawn Game
13. Kotov vs Bondarevsky  ½-½371939USSR ChampionshipD58 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower (Makagonov-Bondarevsky) Syst
14. S Belavenets vs Kotov  ½-½361939USSR ChampionshipC49 Four Knights
15. Kotov vs Ragozin 1-0321939USSR ChampionshipE21 Nimzo-Indian, Three Knights
16. P Dubinin vs Kotov 0-11111939USSR ChampionshipD37 Queen's Gambit Declined
17. Kotov vs Botvinnik 0-1381939USSR ChampionshipE33 Nimzo-Indian, Classical
 page 1 of 1; 17 games  PGN Download 
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Kotov wins | Kotov loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
Jan-29-22  Z truth 000000001: Two semi-finals were run, in May-June 1938, in Kiev and Leningrad.

A supplemental qualifier was held in Moscow in Sept for some masters who couldn't make the sf's.

<Botvinnik: “The selection system was the basis for the formation of the XI championship. In May-June 1938 semi-finals were held in Leningrad and Kiev; all masters of the USSR and candidates for masters were invited to them. The winners of the semi-finals were supposed to make up the final of the championship, with the exception of personally invited grandmasters Levenfish and Botvinnik. Unfortunately, a number of strong masters (Alatortsev, Goglidze, Kan, Ragozin and Ryumin) could not play in the semi-finals, and therefore the All-Union Chess Section organized a special qualifying tournament for them in September in Moscow. Only four masters took part in it (Goglidze could not) ; the winners were Kan and Ragozin, thus winning the right to participate in the final.

...

The final was supposed to be played in November. However, an international tournament in Amsterdam was scheduled for the same month, in which the author of these lines was supposed to play. In view of this, the All-Union Chess Section postponed the championship to January 1939. Alas, the championship did not start even in January!.. This time, the training tournament of Soviet masters with the participation of foreign grandmasters Keres, Reshevsky and Flor prevented. This prompted the USSR championship to be finally postponed to April 15.

It turns out that at first Kiev was chosen as the venue. But Botvinnik, who had been seriously ill throughout January, writes in his book “To Achieve the Goal” that he convinced the new chairman of the Committee of Physical Education, V. Snegov, “to hold the USSR championship not in Kiev, but in Leningrad (I continued to be under the supervision of doctors).”

>

https://chesspro.ru/_events/2007/vo...

Jan-29-22  Z truth 000000001: The bio should probably mention Botvinnik's tournament book:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/odin...

<Одиннадцатое всесоюзное шахматное первенство (1939)>

<Eleventh All-Union Chess Championship (1939)>

Jan-29-22  RookFile: Everybody has their own point of view. Fischer would label guys like Flohr and Keres as Russians ("You're all Russians to me!") but Botvinnik labels them as "foreigners" because they are not Soviets.
Jan-29-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Botvinnik was, of course, the paragon of Soviet Man.
Jan-31-22  Z truth 000000001: Another historical fact missing from the above - is that 11e USSR ch, which they called the "All-Union" ch, was essentially the first not organized by Krylenko, who of course got caught up in the <Great Terror> of the 30's:

<Nikolai Vasilievich Krylenko - permanent chairman (from 1924 to 1938) of the All-Union chess and checkers section under the Supreme Council of Physical Culture of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Since 1936, he was People's Commissar of Justice of the USSR (and before that for many years the People's Commissar of Justice of the RSFSR), he was involved in unjustified repressions, from which he himself eventually suffered (he was shot in 1938).>

https://ok.ru/group53875099959535/t...

We can circle back later to discuss Botvinnik's role.

Oct-01-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  LRLeighton: @RookFile, Botvinnik labeled Keres and Flohr as foreigners because they -were- foreigners. It had nothing whatsoever to do with their politics. Keres was from Estonia. The tournament was held in 1939 and the USSR did not occupy Estonia until 1940. Flohr was a refugee from Czechoslovakia fleeing the Nazi occupation. At the time of the tournament, Flohr would have been living in either the Netherlands or possibly Great Britain at that point.

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