On Dec 7, 4:22 am, "Wlodzimierz Holsztynski (Wlod)"
wrote:
On Dec 5, 4:10 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]

I don't think so. Botvinnik was not active in those years.

I would hardly characterize Botvinnik as "not active" during that
time. True, he did not play much for a while after Hague-Moscow 1948,
but in 1951 he played in the USSR Championship (10-7, 5th place), and
the World Championship match with Bronstein. In 1952 he played in the
Maroczy Memorial in Budapest (11-6, =3rd-4th), and the Soviet
Championship (13 1/2-5 1/2, =1st w/ Taimanov); he later won a playoff match
+2 -1 =3. So while he was not as active as some players, he certainly
was not entirely inactive.