Vasily Smyslov: the master of incisive calculation
How did the late Russian grandmaster deal with this situation?
Ronan Bennett & Daniel King
The Guardian, Tuesday 6 July 2010
Smyslov-Ribli, London 1983.
White to move.
The life of a professional chess-player is mentally and physically challenging. After the age of 40, for most professionals, there is a seemingly inevitable slide down the rankings. Garry Kasparov retired at 42, rated No 1 in the world, but I suspect he felt that the chasing pack was getting too close. That’s why Vassily Smyslov’s career was so remarkable. Smyslov, who died earlier this year, became world champion in 1957 at the age of 36, but continued playing at the highest levels, qualifying for the final of the world championship at the age of 63. This was the victory that got him there and shows his ability to calculate incisively.
Here is the full article.
Smyslov is an amazing player. He’s my favourite.
Smyslov is one of my favourite chess players. I’ve studied many of his games, over and over. He would try to always play the best move. If the best move was a sharp tatical combination then that’s what he’d play. Most people think of him as a positional player, but I don’t think that. He was very universal. Many of the games against Botvinnik with Black he’d play the King’s Indian and be pushing for the initiative. He could play solid positional chess or dynamic chess, whatever was needed. A great chess talent!