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Smyslov’s short reign (as World Champion) was marred by tragedy. His stepson, Vladimir Selimanov, was also a good player and was the Soviet representative in the 1957 World Junior Championship in Toronto, in August 1957, only a few months after Smyslov became world champion. But Selimanov, 18-year old son of Nadezluda Andreevna Selimanova whom Smyslov had married in 1948, failed to emulate his stepfather, finishing fourth behind Lombardy (who scored a brilliant 11/11 to take the title). Gerusel and Jongsma.
Geoffrey Martin, reporting on the World Junior Championship for BCM, wrote that, “the Russian representative, Selimanov, with grandmaster Bondarevsky as his second, was rather disappointing when compared with Soviet participants in the event of past years [in fact there had only ever been one such representative, Spassky, but he had won the title – ed], he managed to obtain fourth place with no inconsiderable amount of difficulty.”
Is it possible that Selimanov (whose natural father perished in a Stalinist purge) was deeply affected by this failure (other speculative reasons have been mooted); shortly after his return from Toronto, Selimanov took his own life.
This must have caused unimaginable suffering in the Smyslov household, so it must have been rather more than the reported cold that Smyslov was suffering from when he came to attempt the defence of his title in March 1958. Botvinnik got away to a 3 – 0 start and Smyslov was never able to reduce the deficit to fewer than two points.
(From British Chess Magazine, May 2010)
The young man must have been very unhappy to have done away with himself.
Selimanov played Lombardy in the first round, a Ruy Lopez, pushed too boldly on his 22nd move and fell under a beautiful counterattack.
In the second he met Gerusel of West Germany, attempted too much on the kingside, and then, on the defensive, overlooked a draw and lost.
Against Jongsma of the Netherlands in the third, he sacrificed the exchange just before the time control and in the rook and queen versus knight and queen ending that ensued, he missed a win, although it would have been most difficult to clinch it.
The games can be found on the chessgames site:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=96132
There are some interesting comments in Kibitzer’s Corner following. One references Lombardy’s recent book.
I have taken my comments from the tournament book, 1957 World Junior Chess Championship, Toronto. Frank R. Anderson is the main author.
The tourney was held at the Central YMCA on College Street from Aug. 3 to 17, 1957. There were twelve participants. The two Canadians were Peter Bates of Toronto and François Jobin of Quebec City. Only three official seconds were present – IGM I. Bondarevsky of the USSR, Dr. R. Sernas of Mexico and Dr. Florencio Compomanes of the Philippines.
The latter was the President of FIDE from 1982 to 1995. Toronto was his springboard to notoriety.
One last note from the book: The tournament was capably directed by Mr. F. W. Watson, well-known Canadian chess problemist. He had a difficult decision to make in the game Cardoso-Lombardy. The latter arrived 20 minutes late and found his clock has been set in motion but that Cardoso had only written down his first move, not made it on the board. Lombardy claimed, because of this omission, that he should suffer no time penalty but his claim was not allowed by Mr. Watson.
Geoffrey Martin, reporting on the World Junior Championship for BCM, wrote that, “the Russian representative, Selimanov, with grandmaster Bondarevsky as his second, was rather disappointing when compared with Soviet participants in the event of past years [in fact there had only ever been one such representative, Spassky, but he had won the title – ed], he managed to obtain fourth place with no inconsiderable amount of difficulty.”
Is it possible that Selimanov (whose natural father perished in a Stalinist purge) was deeply affected by this failure (other speculative reasons have been mooted); shortly after his return from Toronto, Selimanov took his own life.
This must have caused unimaginable suffering in the Smyslov household, so it must have been rather more than the reported cold that Smyslov was suffering from when he came to attempt the defence of his title in March 1958. Botvinnik got away to a 3 – 0 start and Smyslov was never able to reduce the deficit to fewer than two points.
(From British Chess Magazine, May 2010)
The young man must have been very unhappy to have done away with himself.
Selimanov played Lombardy in the first round, a Ruy Lopez, pushed too boldly on his 22nd move and fell under a beautiful counterattack.
In the second he met Gerusel of West Germany, attempted too much on the kingside, and then, on the defensive, overlooked a draw and lost.
Against Jongsma of the Netherlands in the third, he sacrificed the exchange just before the time control and in the rook and queen versus knight and queen ending that ensued, he missed a win, although it would have been most difficult to clinch it.
The games can be found on the chessgames site:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=96132
There are some interesting comments in Kibitzer’s Corner following. One references Lombardy’s recent book.
I have taken my comments from the tournament book, 1957 World Junior Chess Championship, Toronto. Frank R. Anderson is the main author.
The tourney was held at the Central YMCA on College Street from Aug. 3 to 17, 1957. There were twelve participants. The two Canadians were Peter Bates of Toronto and François Jobin of Quebec City. Only three official seconds were present – IGM I. Bondarevsky of the USSR, Dr. R. Sernas of Mexico and Dr. Florencio Compomanes of the Philippines.
The latter was the President of FIDE from 1982 to 1995. Toronto was his springboard to notoriety.
One last note from the book: The tournament was capably directed by Mr. F. W. Watson, well-known Canadian chess problemist. He had a difficult decision to make in the game Cardoso-Lombardy. The latter arrived 20 minutes late and found his clock has been set in motion but that Cardoso had only written down his first move, not made it on the board. Lombardy claimed, because of this omission, that he should suffer no time penalty but his claim was not allowed by Mr. Watson.
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