(David Ames) writes:

EZoto wrote in message ws.com...
Isn't this old news. Everything about Reshevsky is well known isn't
it? Even Tal said that Botvinnik was a guy who spoke as if he was the
world champion in everything. Sounds arrogant to me. By the way the
russians feared Reshevsky. I repeat " FEARED " Reshevsky because they
knew he was a genuine talent. Reshevsky didn't become world champ
because because of his practical views on life more than anything
else. If Reshevsky devoted his life to chess he would have become
world champion. Not probably.......he would have become a world
champion.

EZoto

Reshevsky didn't go to the Budapest 1950 tournament because Americans
were then forbidden to go to Hungary.

I don't know what to make of it, but Reshevsky himself
later denied this. He was quite adamant about it.


His next chance was Zurich
1953, following the three-year World Championship cycle that was then
in effect.

He was seeded into this despite not playing in the
qualifier, which makes me think his non-appearance
at Budapest was really involuntary. But then, we have
his statement to the contrary. Euwe was also seeded
into Zurich.

Reportedly Reshevsky demanded an appearance fee that was
considered (by post-war European standards) to be rather high.

I'm somewhat surprised to hear that he got any appearance
fee at all. I don't think there were appearance fees at
any FIDE event. The prize for winning the championship
was only a couple of thousand dollars.


In the subsequent USA - USSR matches, Reshevsky played first board
against Botvinnik and he scored a success that was even featured in
the magazine Sports Illustrated.


Alexander also beat Botvinnik spectacularly in a
USSR-UK match.

William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University