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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: Georgy Lisitsin

 page 1 of 1; 17 games  PGN Download 
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Lisitsin vs V Chekhover  ½-½281939USSR ChampionshipA15 English
2. Kotov vs Lisitsin  1-0331939USSR ChampionshipE26 Nimzo-Indian, Samisch
3. Lisitsin vs M Yudovich Sr.  ½-½381939USSR ChampionshipC05 French, Tarrasch
4. Tolush vs Lisitsin  ½-½451939USSR ChampionshipC97 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin
5. Lisitsin vs P Romanovsky  ½-½241939USSR ChampionshipA06 Reti Opening
6. I Rabinovich vs Lisitsin  ½-½321939USSR ChampionshipD05 Queen's Pawn Game
7. Lisitsin vs Bondarevsky  1-0941939USSR ChampionshipC03 French, Tarrasch
8. S Belavenets vs Lisitsin  1-0501939USSR ChampionshipB75 Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack
9. Lisitsin vs Ragozin 0-1641939USSR ChampionshipD38 Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin Variation
10. P Dubinin vs Lisitsin  ½-½491939USSR ChampionshipC90 Ruy Lopez, Closed
11. Lisitsin vs Botvinnik  ½-½371939USSR ChampionshipC49 Four Knights
12. I Kan vs Lisitsin  0-1831939USSR ChampionshipE17 Queen's Indian
13. Lisitsin vs Panov  ½-½711939USSR ChampionshipA04 Reti Opening
14. Lisitsin vs A Chistiakov 1-0411939USSR ChampionshipA07 King's Indian Attack
15. I Pogrebissky vs Lisitsin  ½-½471939USSR ChampionshipA07 King's Indian Attack
16. Lisitsin vs Levenfish  1-0941939USSR ChampionshipA04 Reti Opening
17. V Makogonov vs Lisitsin  ½-½201939USSR ChampionshipE32 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) | Lisitsin wins | Lisitsin 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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