Samuel Reshevsky - Chess Career

Chess Career

Reshevsky won the U.S. Open Chess Championship in 1931 at Tulsa; this event was known as the Western Open at the time. He shared the 1934 U.S. Open title with Reuben Fine at Chicago.

Reshevsky won the U.S. Chess Championship in 1936, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, and 1969. He also tied for first in 1972, but lost the playoff in 1973 to Robert Byrne. He competed in a record 21 U.S. Championships, and achieved a plus score every time except for 1966–67, when he scored just 4½/11. He also holds U.S. Championship records for most finishes in the top three places (15), most games played (269), and most games won (127).

Reshevsky's international career began in 1935 with a trip to England, where he won at Great Yarmouth with 10/11. He then won first place at the Margate tournament where he beat, among others, former world champion José Raúl Capablanca; the game followed the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. The game score follows. Reshevsky had the white pieces:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.e3 Be7 7.Bd3 0-0 8.Qc2 c5 9.Nf3 c4 10.Bf5 Re8 11.0-0 g6 12.Bh3 Nf8 13.Bxc8 Rxc8 14.Bxf6 Bxf6 15.b3 Qa5 16.b4 Qd8 17.Qa4 a6 18.b5 Re6 19.Rab1 Rb8 20.Rb2 Be7 21.bxa6 Rxa6 22.Qc2 Ne6 23.Rfb1 Ra7 24.a4 Nc7 25.Ne5 Qe8 26.f4 f6 27.Ng4 Qd7 28.h3 Kg7 29.Nf2 Ba3 30.Ra2 Bd6 31.Nfd1 f5 32.Nb5 Ra5 33.Nxc7 Bxc7 34.Nc3 Qd6 35.Qf2 b6 36.Qf3 Rd8 37.Rab2 Qe7 38.Rb4 Rd7 39.Kh1 Bd8 40.g4 fxg4 41.hxg4 Qd6 42.Kg1 Bc7 43.Kf2 Rf7 44.g5 Bd8 45.Ke2 Bxg5 46.Rxb6 Qa3 47.Kd2 Be7 48.Rb7 Rxa4 49.Qxd5 Ra5 50.Qxc4 Rh5 51.Kd3 Qa8 52.Qe6 Qa3 53.Rd7 Rhf5 54.Rb3 Qa1 55.Rxe7 Qf1+ 56.Kd2 1–0

A year later Reshevsky shared third place at the Nottingham 1936 chess tournament. In 1937 he shared first at Kemeri, Latvia, and in 1938 shared fourth in the famous AVRO tournament in the Netherlands, which featured arguably the eight strongest players in the world. Reshevsky won his third U.S. Open title at Boston 1944.

Reshevsky was a serious contender for the World Championship from roughly 1935 to the mid-1960s. He was one of the five chess grandmasters to compete in the World Championship match tournament in The Hague/Moscow 1948 and finished in joint third place with Paul Keres, behind Mikhail Botvinnik and Vasily Smyslov. This tournament was organized because World Champion Alexander Alekhine had died in 1946 while holding the title, which was an unprecedented situation.

In 1950, Reshevsky was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, on its inaugural list. Although eligible, he did not play in the Candidates Tournament in Budapest. It has generally been believed that he was barred from attending by the U.S. State Department due to the Cold War. The only other eligible active player from a NATO country, Max Euwe of the Netherlands, also did not play. In 1991, however, Reshevsky said the decision not to go was his.

The following Candidates in Zurich 1953 tournament was probably Reshevsky's best chance to qualify for a World Championship match, but he finished in joint second place with David Bronstein and Keres, two points behind Smyslov. Bronstein, in his last book, Secret Notes, published in 2007 just after his death the previous year, confirmed long-standing rumours by writing that the nine Soviet grandmasters (out of a field of 15 players) at Zurich were under orders from both their chess leadership and the KGB to not let Reshevsky win the tournament under any circumstances, with Smyslov being the preferred victor. When Reshevsky maintained his strong contention late into the two-month event, Bronstein claims that the Soviets prearranged several results in games amongst themselves to successfully prevent Reshevsky's overall victory, while also ensuring that Reshevsky faced the maximum test in his own games against the Soviet players; Bronstein had earlier (1995) written that he was ordered by the Soviet delegation leader to win as Black against Reshevsky in the second cycle at Zurich, and managed to do so after a very hard struggle. Several other writers, including GM Alexei Suetin (who was the second of Tigran Petrosian at Zurich 1953), also confirmed the Soviet collusion in Zurich. Reshevsky qualified for one more Candidates' in 1967, but lost the subsequent quarterfinal match to Viktor Korchnoi the following year.

Reshevsky competed eight times for the USA at the Chess Olympiads, six times on board one, over a 37-year span, helping the U.S. team to win the gold in 1937 and bronze in 1974, and winning an individual bronze medal for his performance on board one in 1950. His complete results were (+39 −12 =49) in 100 games, for 63.5 percent. He played at Stockholm 1937, Dubrovnik 1950, Helsinki 1952, Munich 1958, Tel Aviv 1964, Lugano 1968, Siegen 1970, and Nice 1974.