On Dec 5, 7:10 am, " wrote:

SAIDY INTERVIEWS BRONSTEIN

From Chess Life, December 2007 (page 27)

SAIDY: The Soviet olympic team for Helsinki in 1952 was very curious
-- the world champion was omitted. Is it true that your other players
voted him off the team? So democratic!

BRONSTEIN: No. First, we voted for the team line-up, and we placed
Botvinnik second, after Keres. [Was it to signify that Keres was
forced to lose to Botvinnik in 1948 for the crown -- AS]

That seems rather a stretch. The plain fact was that Keres'
tournament record over 1950-52 was phenomenal, almost inarguably the
best in the world at that time. After 4th place in the Budapest
Candidates Tournament (behind Bronstein, Boleslavsky, and Smyslov, but
ahead of Najdorf, Kotov, Stahlberg, Lilienthal, Szabo and Flohr), he
won:

-- The 1950 Soviet Championship 11 1/2-5 1/2 (+8 -2 =7) ahead of Lipnitsky,
Tolush, Aronin, Smyslov, Konstantinopolsky, Alatortsev, Boleslavsky,
Geller, Flohr, Mikenas, Bondarevsky, Petrosian, Averbakh, Suetin, et
al),

-- The Przepiorka Memorial at Sczawno Zdroj 14 1/2-4 1/2 (+11 -1 =7) over
Szabo, Barcza, Taimanov, Bondarevsky, Foltys, Geller, Averbakh et
al,

-- The 1951 Soviet Championship 12-6 (+9 -2 =6) ahead of Geller,
Petrosian, Smyslov, *_Botvinnik_*, Averbakh, Bronstein, Taimanov,
Aronin, Flohr, et al,

-- Budapest 1952 12 1/2-4 1/2 (+10 -2 =5) ahead of Geller, *_Botvinnik_*,
Smyslov, Stahlberg, Szabo, Petrosian, et al.

It was around this time that Euwe called Keres "de facto World
Champion" (or words to that effect). So with Keres winning such major
tournaments, ahead of everyone *_including_* Botvinnik, it was not
entirely surprising that he would be put at board 1 for the USSR team.
Unfortunately, his great form did not carry forward into the Olympiad,
to Botvinnik's delight (as he made clear in his autobiography
"Achieving the Aim").