CHESS BY VICTOR STRUGO

Although Mikhail Tal was world champion for only a year, his daring style has turned him into an enduring legend. Yet for the same tenure, Vasily Smyslov is probably the most under-rated of world champs – and unfairly so. Smyslov had also tied his first crack at Botvinnik in 1954, so was effectively the ”co-champion” for the three years preceding his victory. And to get there, he had scored an emphatic 2-point victory in the incomparable 1953 Zürich Candidates.

Smyslov also reached the Candidates (tournament and matches) a record 8 (!!) times. His 1948 to 1985 timespan is the longest that any player has spent at that level and in 1983, it took Garry Kasparov to stop the evergreen 62-year-old before another crack at the world title.

His style was subtle, often quiet and hyper-accurate, particularly in the endgame but he was equally imaginative and tactically alert. In the Moscow 1956 tournament, after what looked like only a small opening inaccuracy by East Germany’s No. 1, he saw deeply into the position, immediately creating a winning attack out of nowhere.

Wolfgang Uhlmann - Vasily Smyslov [Queen’s Indian Defence]: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 g3 Ba6 (Taunting c4 is routine theory nowadays but was quite provocative back then) 5 b3 d5 6 Bg2 Bb4+ (6 ... dxc4 is simply met by 7 Ne5)

7 Nfd2?! (Flaunting control of the long white diagonal achieves nothing. The natural 7 Bd2 was preferable) 7 ... c5 8 dxc5 Bxc5 9 Bb2 O-O 10 O-O Nc6 (Black has equalised. Best now was (11 a3 when Black must parry the obvious threat, but Uhlmann wanted to heckle the Bc5 with his Knight. Misguidedly, as Smyslov shows) 11 Nc3 Rc8 12 cxd5 exd5 13 Na4? Nd4! 14 Nc3 (Stunned, he retreats meekly. Of course 14 Nxc5 loses the e-Pawn as does 14 Bxd4 Bxd4 15 Rc1 Rxc1 16 Qxc1 Bxe2. The open e-file brings more trouble.

14 ... Qe7! (Shedding an Exchange by

15 e3 was unappealing but White’s next loses even faster to a deep sacrificial motif that Smyslov must have entirely analysed before playing 13 … Nd4! 15 Re1 Nc2!! 16 Rf1 (Hopeless was 16 Qxc2 Bxf2+! 17 Kxf2 Ng4+ when 18 Kg1 allows smothered mate and even more beautiful is 18 Kf3 Qf6+! 19 Kxg4 Rc4+! 20 Nxc4 Bc8+ 21 Kh5 Qh6 mate) 16 ... Nxa1 17 Qxa1 Rfd8 18 Bf3 Ba3 (Soon ... d4 is coming, and with it Armageddon).

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Useful sites: https://chesswp.co.za/calendar-events/ , www.chesshub.org.za & facebook.com/SAChessplayers . White to move and win. In Wirtanen-Bergist, correspondence 1974, Black thought his defence was adequate till the postman delivered a letter-bomb.