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USSR – USA Radio Match 1945
September 6, 2015
Chess24.com has a feature on the 70th anniversary of the USSR-USA radio match of 1945:
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/70t...sr-radio-match
It starts, “The Soviet team led by future World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, trounced their American rivals 15½–4½, in the 10-board, two-game match held between September 1 and 4, 1945, just two weeks after the surrender of Japan ended the war. In fact it was the first international sports event since the outbreak of the conflict.”
There is a 3-minute video clip of a Russian newsreel. It has shots of all the grandmasters – Botvinnik, Boleslavsky, Bondarevsky, Lilienthal, Kotov, Smyslov, Ragozin (smoking like a chimney), Flohr, Bronstein (with a beautiful full head of hair) and Makogonov.
Vladimir Makogonov was from Azerbaijan and actually didn’t get his GM title until 1987. He played in eight USSR Championships between 1927 and 1947 and was considered one of the strongest players of the 40s.
He stopped playing competitively in the 50s and became a chess coach, eventually becoming one of young Garry Kasparov’s first teachers.
The video clip has all the hurly-burly of the match from the Moscow side, with the couriers taking the moves played to the telegraph operators. Chess Review says that 2163 messages were exchanged by radio telegraphy.
Here is a description of the opening hours of the match from the American side in Chess Review, October 1945:
During the first hour or two, the operating staff was working at top speed. Most of the players – with some notable exceptions – were moving fairly rapidly. As each move was transmitted or received it was announced to the audience from a microphone on the control balcony and the move was made on one of the exhibition boards in the hall. With ten boards to follow there was plenty of action. From another microphone on the stage, Edward Lasker explained the moves to the audience.
As the session continued, spectators streamed in at a steady rate. By early afternoon, almost every seat on the floor and mezzanine gallery was filled. Most of the interest centered around the top five boards where it was expected that the United States would score several points. Denker was an unknown quantity, playing in an international contest for the first time. His opponent, the great Mikhail Botvinnik, was in the best form of his career. But at boards two and three, Reshevsky and Fine were expected to win.
Botvinnik had made mincemeat out of Smyslov in their last encounter – so why couldn’t Reshevsky do the same thing? And Fine had demonstrated at AVRO and other tournaments that he was more than a match for the best players in the world. His opponent, Boleslavky, had never even played in an international tournament. At boards 4 and 5, Horowitz and Kashdan were well matched against Flohr and Kotov. At the remaining five boards anything could happen but it was conceded that we were probably outclassed on some of them.
But it didn’t turn out that way. It soon became apparent that several Americans had been outplayed in the openings. There was some excitement when Botvinnik gave up a pawn to Denker. Hopes soared for the prospects at this board, but the U.S. Champion was apparently unfamiliar with the opening. By the late afternoon Denker was in plenty of trouble. At Board 2, Reshevsky had walked into a thoroughly prepared variation. The former U.S. Champion took 1 hour, 39 minutes to play the first 23 moves. Young Smyslov rattled them off in 8 minutes flat! He was playing “book” – but the book was in Russian.
At 7:15 p.m. the Moscow transmitter broke down and we were off the air for 22 minutes. There was some delay in getting started again.
The first blow fell at 8:44 p.m. when Denker resigned after receiving Botvinnik’s 25th move. It was murder. An hour later, at 9:48 p.m., Reshevsky admitted defeat. Smyslov had played 41 moves in 1 hour, 11 minutes and had 1 hour, 19 minutes to spare. Reshevsky had used his entire 2.5 hours.
At 9:57 p.m., after about 12 hours of play, Moscow warned that the radio signals might fade. We replied that we would be willing to adjourn as we were all getting groggy. Some of our players, however, protested that they were in critical positions and would rather continue to the 40th move. When this request for continuation was relayed to Moscow, they answered that boards 4, 5, 8 and 9 had sealed and departed and boards 6 and 7 asked the USA players to seal. Boards 3 and 10 would continue. They added, “Remember, it’s six a.m. here and we are more than groggy.”
Consequently, the only boards to continue were the Fine-Boleslavsky and Bronstein-Santasiere games. At precisely midnight – after a 14-hour session – we adjourned.
At the end of the second session, the next day, the final score was 8-2. The Soviet team had won seven, drawn two, lost only one (Steiner-Bondarevsky).
The final score in the second round was 7.5 to 2.5. The American team had taken another licking and lost the match by 15.5 points to 4.5.
(Kenneth Harkness)
USSR – USA Radio Match
Round 1, Sept. 1, 1945, Board 1
Denker, Arnold – Botvinnik, Mikhail
D44 QGD, Semi-Slav, Anti-Meran Gambit
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7 12.Be2 Qb6 13.O-O O-O-O 14.a4 b4 15.Ne4 c5 16.Qb1 Qc7 17.Ng3 cxd4 18.Bxc4 Qc6 19.f3 d3 20.Qc1 Bc5+ 21.Kh1 Qd6 22.Qf4 Rxh2+ 23.Kxh2 Rh8+ 24.Qh4 Rxh4+ 25.Bxh4 Qf4 0-1
USSR – USA Radio Match
Round 1, Sept. 1, 1945, Board 2
Smyslov, Vasily – Reshevsky, Samuel
C82 Ruy Lopez, Open, St. Petersburg Variation
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3 Bc5 10.Nbd2 O-O 11.Bc2 f5 12.Nb3 Bb6 13.Nfd4 Nxd4 14.Nxd4 Bxd4 15.cxd4 f4 16.f3 Ng3 17.hxg3 fxg3 18.Qd3 Bf5 19.Qxf5 Rxf5 20.Bxf5 Qh4 21.Bh3 Qxd4+ 22.Kh1 Qxe5 23.Bd2 Qxb2 24.Bf4 c5 25.Be6+ Kh8 26.Bxd5 Rd8 27.Rad1 c4 28.Bxg3 c3 29.Be5 b4 30.Bb3 Rd2 31.f4 h5 32.Rb1 Rf2 33.Rfe1 Qd2 34.Rbd1 Qb2 35.Rd8+ Kh7 36.Bg8+ Kg6 37.Rd6+ Kf5 38.Be6+ Kg6 39.Bd5+ Kh7 40.Be4+ Kg8 41.Bg6 1-0
In 2007 R. Kovach posted this comment to the game at chessgames.com:
I was a witness to the playing of this game. My part was to carry radiograms from the Henry Hudson's Grand Ballroom mezzanine, where the MacKay Radio operators were to the catering room, half a floor up, where the American players were.
Reshevsky sat for 45 minutes (!) on his 16th move. Shortly after receiving Smyslov's immediate reply, Reshevsky asked for time on Smyslov's clock - the response was "2 1/2 minutes" After several confirmations convinced him that it was indeed 2 1/2 minutes, Al Horowitz came up, turned the score so he could read it and asked Reshevsky, "Sammy, have you kept up with the Russian journals? - Smyslov published 22 pages on this line and beats it in every variation"
September 6, 2015
Chess24.com has a feature on the 70th anniversary of the USSR-USA radio match of 1945:
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/70t...sr-radio-match
It starts, “The Soviet team led by future World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, trounced their American rivals 15½–4½, in the 10-board, two-game match held between September 1 and 4, 1945, just two weeks after the surrender of Japan ended the war. In fact it was the first international sports event since the outbreak of the conflict.”
There is a 3-minute video clip of a Russian newsreel. It has shots of all the grandmasters – Botvinnik, Boleslavsky, Bondarevsky, Lilienthal, Kotov, Smyslov, Ragozin (smoking like a chimney), Flohr, Bronstein (with a beautiful full head of hair) and Makogonov.
Vladimir Makogonov was from Azerbaijan and actually didn’t get his GM title until 1987. He played in eight USSR Championships between 1927 and 1947 and was considered one of the strongest players of the 40s.
He stopped playing competitively in the 50s and became a chess coach, eventually becoming one of young Garry Kasparov’s first teachers.
The video clip has all the hurly-burly of the match from the Moscow side, with the couriers taking the moves played to the telegraph operators. Chess Review says that 2163 messages were exchanged by radio telegraphy.
Here is a description of the opening hours of the match from the American side in Chess Review, October 1945:
During the first hour or two, the operating staff was working at top speed. Most of the players – with some notable exceptions – were moving fairly rapidly. As each move was transmitted or received it was announced to the audience from a microphone on the control balcony and the move was made on one of the exhibition boards in the hall. With ten boards to follow there was plenty of action. From another microphone on the stage, Edward Lasker explained the moves to the audience.
As the session continued, spectators streamed in at a steady rate. By early afternoon, almost every seat on the floor and mezzanine gallery was filled. Most of the interest centered around the top five boards where it was expected that the United States would score several points. Denker was an unknown quantity, playing in an international contest for the first time. His opponent, the great Mikhail Botvinnik, was in the best form of his career. But at boards two and three, Reshevsky and Fine were expected to win.
Botvinnik had made mincemeat out of Smyslov in their last encounter – so why couldn’t Reshevsky do the same thing? And Fine had demonstrated at AVRO and other tournaments that he was more than a match for the best players in the world. His opponent, Boleslavky, had never even played in an international tournament. At boards 4 and 5, Horowitz and Kashdan were well matched against Flohr and Kotov. At the remaining five boards anything could happen but it was conceded that we were probably outclassed on some of them.
But it didn’t turn out that way. It soon became apparent that several Americans had been outplayed in the openings. There was some excitement when Botvinnik gave up a pawn to Denker. Hopes soared for the prospects at this board, but the U.S. Champion was apparently unfamiliar with the opening. By the late afternoon Denker was in plenty of trouble. At Board 2, Reshevsky had walked into a thoroughly prepared variation. The former U.S. Champion took 1 hour, 39 minutes to play the first 23 moves. Young Smyslov rattled them off in 8 minutes flat! He was playing “book” – but the book was in Russian.
At 7:15 p.m. the Moscow transmitter broke down and we were off the air for 22 minutes. There was some delay in getting started again.
The first blow fell at 8:44 p.m. when Denker resigned after receiving Botvinnik’s 25th move. It was murder. An hour later, at 9:48 p.m., Reshevsky admitted defeat. Smyslov had played 41 moves in 1 hour, 11 minutes and had 1 hour, 19 minutes to spare. Reshevsky had used his entire 2.5 hours.
At 9:57 p.m., after about 12 hours of play, Moscow warned that the radio signals might fade. We replied that we would be willing to adjourn as we were all getting groggy. Some of our players, however, protested that they were in critical positions and would rather continue to the 40th move. When this request for continuation was relayed to Moscow, they answered that boards 4, 5, 8 and 9 had sealed and departed and boards 6 and 7 asked the USA players to seal. Boards 3 and 10 would continue. They added, “Remember, it’s six a.m. here and we are more than groggy.”
Consequently, the only boards to continue were the Fine-Boleslavsky and Bronstein-Santasiere games. At precisely midnight – after a 14-hour session – we adjourned.
At the end of the second session, the next day, the final score was 8-2. The Soviet team had won seven, drawn two, lost only one (Steiner-Bondarevsky).
The final score in the second round was 7.5 to 2.5. The American team had taken another licking and lost the match by 15.5 points to 4.5.
(Kenneth Harkness)
USSR – USA Radio Match
Round 1, Sept. 1, 1945, Board 1
Denker, Arnold – Botvinnik, Mikhail
D44 QGD, Semi-Slav, Anti-Meran Gambit
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7 12.Be2 Qb6 13.O-O O-O-O 14.a4 b4 15.Ne4 c5 16.Qb1 Qc7 17.Ng3 cxd4 18.Bxc4 Qc6 19.f3 d3 20.Qc1 Bc5+ 21.Kh1 Qd6 22.Qf4 Rxh2+ 23.Kxh2 Rh8+ 24.Qh4 Rxh4+ 25.Bxh4 Qf4 0-1
USSR – USA Radio Match
Round 1, Sept. 1, 1945, Board 2
Smyslov, Vasily – Reshevsky, Samuel
C82 Ruy Lopez, Open, St. Petersburg Variation
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3 Bc5 10.Nbd2 O-O 11.Bc2 f5 12.Nb3 Bb6 13.Nfd4 Nxd4 14.Nxd4 Bxd4 15.cxd4 f4 16.f3 Ng3 17.hxg3 fxg3 18.Qd3 Bf5 19.Qxf5 Rxf5 20.Bxf5 Qh4 21.Bh3 Qxd4+ 22.Kh1 Qxe5 23.Bd2 Qxb2 24.Bf4 c5 25.Be6+ Kh8 26.Bxd5 Rd8 27.Rad1 c4 28.Bxg3 c3 29.Be5 b4 30.Bb3 Rd2 31.f4 h5 32.Rb1 Rf2 33.Rfe1 Qd2 34.Rbd1 Qb2 35.Rd8+ Kh7 36.Bg8+ Kg6 37.Rd6+ Kf5 38.Be6+ Kg6 39.Bd5+ Kh7 40.Be4+ Kg8 41.Bg6 1-0
In 2007 R. Kovach posted this comment to the game at chessgames.com:
I was a witness to the playing of this game. My part was to carry radiograms from the Henry Hudson's Grand Ballroom mezzanine, where the MacKay Radio operators were to the catering room, half a floor up, where the American players were.
Reshevsky sat for 45 minutes (!) on his 16th move. Shortly after receiving Smyslov's immediate reply, Reshevsky asked for time on Smyslov's clock - the response was "2 1/2 minutes" After several confirmations convinced him that it was indeed 2 1/2 minutes, Al Horowitz came up, turned the score so he could read it and asked Reshevsky, "Sammy, have you kept up with the Russian journals? - Smyslov published 22 pages on this line and beats it in every variation"