Name the five chess players in this photo:

http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=124

On Feb 13, 2:46 pm, RookHouse wrote:
Name the five chess players in this photo:

http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=124

All Soviets are they?
Well Petrosian in the middle and Spassky at the fare right are easy to
spot. That looks like Boleslavsky at the far left. Could be Smyslov
without glasses next to him. The other one - I dunno - Tolush?
I'll say the tournament was Bucharest 1953.

On Feb 13, 9:46*am, RookHouse wrote:
Name the five chess players in this photo:

http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=124

Left to right: Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Petrosian, Tolush, Spassky.
Taken at Bucharest 1953. Tolush won, probably the greatest triumph of
his career.

On Feb 13, 9:31*pm, wrote:
On Feb 13, 9:46*am, RookHouse wrote:

Name the five chess players in this photo:

http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=124

* Left to right: Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Petrosian, Tolush, Spassky.
Taken at Bucharest 1953. Tolush won, probably the greatest triumph of
his career.

Well done.

Bye
Sanny

Play Chess at: http://www.GetClub.com/Chess.html

On Feb 13, 11:31*am, wrote:

* Left to right: Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Petrosian, Tolush, Spassky.
Taken at Bucharest 1953. Tolush won, probably the greatest triumph of
his career.

Wow. You guys are good. Bucharest 1953 was one of the first foreign
tournaments in which several Soviet chess players participated. The
five Soviet players in the picture finished at the top, along with
Laszlo Szabo. Tolush gained the title of international grandmaster and
his pupil (Spassky) became an international master.

1. Tolush 14
2. Petrosian 13
3. Smyslov 12½
4. Spassky 12
5. Boleslavsky 12
6. Szabó,L 12

Morphy,
http://www.rookhouse.com

On Feb 13, 11:31*am, wrote:
On Feb 13, 9:46*am, RookHouse wrote:

Name the five chess players in this photo:

http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=124

* Left to right: Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Petrosian, Tolush, Spassky.
Taken at Bucharest 1953. Tolush won, probably the greatest triumph of
his career.

It's interesting that these were the top 5 finishers. Their scores:

Tolush 14-5
Petrosian 13-6
Smyslov: 12½-6½
Boleslavsky, Spassky, Szabo: 12-7

One of the clearest examples of the Soviet hegemony in the 1950s.
Szabo (of Hungary) was the only non-Soviet in the top six. Overall the
Communist-bloc countries dominated; the only Western player with a
plus score was O'Kelly (Belgium) at 11-8. Other Westerners: Barda
(Norway) 8-11, Stoltz (Sweden) 7-12, Golombek (GB) 6-13.
Tolush was a highly variable player; later in the year managed to
come only =4th-7th at Hastings. Generally he was not in the same class
as the other Soviet GMs at Bucharest; he was helped somewhat by the
fact that most of the field was well below their level.
Tolush had an interesting soubriquet, "the g7 specialist," because
of his penchant for attacks and mating threats aimed at that square.
Here is an example from Bucharest:

[Event "Bucharest"]
[Site "Bucharest"]
[Date "1953.??.??"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Tolush, Alexander V"]
[Black "Ciocaltea, Victor"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E81"]
[PlyCount "59"]
[EventDate "1953.??.??"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "19"]
[EventCountry "ROM"]
[Source "ChessBase"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. Nc3 g6 4. e4 Bg7 5. f3 O-O 6. Bg5 c5 7. d5 Re8
8. Qd2 Qa5 9. g4 e6 10. Be2 exd5 11. exd5 a6 12. h4 Nbd7 13. h5 Ne5
14. hxg6 hxg6 15.O-O-O b5 16. cxb5 c4 17. b6 Qxb6 18. Nh3 Rb8 19. Rh2
Nfd7 20. Rdh1 Nc5 21. Nf2 Bd7 22. Bh6 Bf6 23. Nfe4 Nxe4 24. Nxe4 Nxg4
25. Nxf6+ Nxf6 26. Bg7! -- The trademark move. -- 26...Nh5 27. Rxh5
gxh5 28. Bd4 Qd8 29. Qh6 Re5 30. Rxh5 1-0

On Feb 13, 2:38*pm, wrote:
On Feb 13, 11:31*am, wrote:

On Feb 13, 9:46*am, RookHouse wrote:

Name the five chess players in this photo:

http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=124

* Left to right: Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Petrosian, Tolush, Spassky.
Taken at Bucharest 1953. Tolush won, probably the greatest triumph of
his career.

* It's interesting that these were the top 5 finishers. Their scores:

Tolush 14-5
Petrosian 13-6
Smyslov: 12½-6½
Boleslavsky, Spassky, Szabo: 12-7

* One of the clearest examples of the Soviet hegemony in the 1950s.
Szabo (of Hungary) was the only non-Soviet in the top six. Overall the
Communist-bloc countries dominated; the only Western player with a
plus score was O'Kelly (Belgium) at 11-8. Other Westerners: Barda
(Norway) 8-11, Stoltz (Sweden) 7-12, Golombek (GB) 6-13.
* Tolush was a highly variable player; later in the year managed to
come only =4th-7th at Hastings. Generally he was not in the same class
as the other Soviet GMs at Bucharest; he was helped somewhat by the
fact that most of the field was well below their level.
* Tolush had an interesting soubriquet, "the g7 specialist," because
of his penchant for attacks and mating threats aimed at that square.
Here is an example from Bucharest:

[Event "Bucharest"]
[Site "Bucharest"]
[Date "1953.??.??"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Tolush, Alexander V"]
[Black "Ciocaltea, Victor"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E81"]
[PlyCount "59"]
[EventDate "1953.??.??"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "19"]
[EventCountry "ROM"]
[Source "ChessBase"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. Nc3 g6 4. e4 Bg7 5. f3 O-O 6. Bg5 c5 7. d5 Re8
8. Qd2 Qa5 9. g4 e6 10. Be2 exd5 11. exd5 a6 12. h4 Nbd7 13. h5 Ne5
14. hxg6 hxg6 15.O-O-O b5 16. cxb5 c4 17. b6 Qxb6 18. Nh3 Rb8 19. Rh2
Nfd7 20. Rdh1 Nc5 21. Nf2 Bd7 22. Bh6 Bf6 23. Nfe4 Nxe4 24. Nxe4 Nxg4
25. Nxf6+ Nxf6 26. Bg7! -- The trademark move. -- 26...Nh5 27. Rxh5
gxh5 28. Bd4 Qd8 29. Qh6 Re5 30. Rxh5 1-0

I have the PGN file for this entire tournament. Let me know if anyone
is interested and I can e-mail it to you.


Thanks,
Morphy
http://www.rookhouse.com

On Feb 13, 2:38*pm, wrote:

* It's interesting that these were the top 5 finishers. Their scores:

Tolush 14-5
Petrosian 13-6
Smyslov: 12½-6½
Boleslavsky, Spassky, Szabo: 12-7

Another game from this 1953 tournament (Spassky's first encounter w/
Smyslov):

[Site "Bucharest"]
[Date "1953.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Boris Spassky"]
[Black "Vasily Smyslov"]
[ECO "E31"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "69"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bh4 c5 6. d5 d6
7. e3 exd5 8. cxd5 Nbd7 9. Bb5 O-O 10. Nge2 Ne5 11. O-O Ng6
12. Bg3 Nh5 13. Bd3 Nxg3 14. Nxg3 Ne5 15. Be2 Bxc3 16. bxc3
Qh4 17. f4 Ng4 18. Bxg4 Bxg4 19. Qa4 Bc8 20. e4 Qg4 21. Qc2 h5
22. Rf2 b5 23. e5 h4 24. Nf1 Bf5 25. Qd2 dxe5 26. fxe5 Bg6
27. Re1 h3 28. d6 Be4 29. Ne3 Qe6 30. Rf4 Bxg2 31. Nf5 Rfe8
32. Re3 Rad8 33. Nxg7 Rxd6 34. Nxe6 Rxd2 35. Rg3+ 1-0

On Feb 13, 6:46 am, RookHouse wrote:
Name the five chess players in this photo:

http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=124

I've instantly have recognized the three WChs,
they were with me virtually throughout all my life,
but I never confined to my memory the faces
of the other two great grandmasters.

I still have Boleslavky's "Selected games"
(exactly 100 of them), published in Russian,
in 1957, and that's the year I'd bought the book,
alas it has no picture of Boleslavsky.

It's amazing how modest and unassuming Boleslavsky
was. The book has an intro just a page and one third
long, the commented 100 games, the index of games
and openings, and nothing else. If you want to learn
from this book about Bleslavsky's chess tournament
achievements, you will not. His authobiographical
record, half a page long, ends in 1939, when he
got the master title. By that time his experience
was unubelievably limited to 2 meetings of masters
(perhaps just 2 games), and up to 20 games
against A-players (Soviet 1st class players - but
most likely they were as good as USCF masters).

Bleslavsky was as profound chess thinker as any
but he was otherwise an opposite of Fischer -
"Oh, you need a draw? Ok, I will not checkmate you
in two, I agree to draw." I am exaggerating but very
slightly. Boleslavsky indeed was like that. If you were
attempting to overcome him in the tournament, in
the last round, he would still assist you in
analyzing the ending of your adjourned game
against another player.

Regards,

Wlod

On Feb 15, 11:05*pm, "Wlodzimierz Holsztynski (Wlod)"
wrote:
On Feb 13, 6:46 am, RookHouse wrote:

Name the five chess players in this photo:

http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=124

I've instantly have recognized the three WChs,
they were with me virtually throughout all my life,
but I never confined to my memory the faces
of the other two great grandmasters.

I still have Boleslavky's "Selected games"
(exactly 100 of them), published in Russian,
in 1957, and that's the year I'd bought the book,
alas it has no picture of Boleslavsky.

It's amazing how modest and unassuming Boleslavsky
was. The book has an intro just a page and one third
long, the commented 100 games, the index of games
and openings, and nothing else. If you want to learn
from this book about Bleslavsky's chess tournament
achievements, you will not. His authobiographical
record, half a page long, ends in 1939, when he
got the master title. By that time his experience
was unubelievably limited to 2 meetings of masters
(perhaps just 2 games), and up to 20 games
against A-players (Soviet 1st class players - but
most likely they were as good as USCF masters).

Bleslavsky was as profound chess thinker as any
but he was otherwise an opposite of Fischer -
"Oh, you need a draw? Ok, I will not checkmate you
in two, I agree to draw." I am exaggerating but very
slightly. Boleslavsky indeed was like that. If you were
attempting to overcome him in the tournament, in
the last round, he would still assist you in
analyzing the ending of your adjourned game
against another player.

Regards,

* * Wlod

What do we know about Tolush, other than he was Spassky's mentor and
won the 1953 Bucharest tournament??