World champions have trademark styles. Petrosian was a defensive genius while Tal was an attacker. The hallmark of the seventh world champion, Vassily Vassilievich Smyslov (1921-2010) was harmony. He found simple moves to maximise piece coordination. Apart from huge contributions to opening theory, he was also among the very best endgame artists.
From 1954-57, “in attack or defence, Vassily was always right,”, according to his contemporary and rival, Svetozar Gligoric. VVS won two Candidates tournaments, drew a first title match and won the second. In 1958, after just one year as champion, he lost his third match. Mikhail Botvinnik was his permanent opponent through this era.
In 1983, VVS lost a Candidates Final to the 20-year-old Garry Kasparov. No 62-year-old had a right to get that far! Even in his 70s, he held his own at top-level. Boris Spassky once alleged VVS never needed to think, he let his hand play the best move. In-between chess, Smyslov sang in a baritone that almost won soloist status at the Bolshoi. He wrote a couple of magisterial books, on his career (entitled Search for Harmony) and on rook-ending in collaboration with Levenfish.
Kazakh GM Evgeny Vladimirov confessed that he had given up on early ambitions of becoming world champion after his first game against VVS when it became obvious in the post-mortem that Smyslov lived on a different plane.
I recall meeting him in the early 1990s when he played the Goodricke Open (and claimed inter-alia that Indian rum matched Cuban in quality). By then, he was legally blind. He requested the aid of a helper to call out his opponent’s moves and worked out responses with eyes closed! That gift of harmony still allowed him to achieve magical piece coordination.
Sadly, VVS died in near-penury, two days after his 89th birthday (March 24, 2010). He was increasingly dependent on well-wishers, as inflation ate away his state pension. He’s survived by his wife of 60 years, Nadezdha Andreevna and of course, by his games and endgame studies.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Smyslov Vs Ribli, Game 5, Candidates ½ Final 1983) is a classic. White’s queen is trapped. He plays 22.Bxh6! Nxe5 23.Nh5 Nf3+ 24.gxf3 Nf5 25.Nxf6 Nxh6 26.d5! Either Smyslov saw this before his 22nd or he “knew” something would work. Ribli is lost. The toughest defence would be 26. — gxf6 27. Qxh6+ Ke7 28. dxe6.
Instead Ribli went down in a blaze with 26. – Qxb2 27.Qh8+ Ke7 28.Rxe6+! fxe6 29.Qxg7+ Nf7 White always has a Kt-discovery picking up the queen. 30.d6+ Rxd6 31.Nd5+ Rxd5 32.Qxb2 b6. Now the 62-year-old mopped up with 33.Qb4+ Kf6 34.Re1 Rh8 35.h4 Rhd8 36.Re4 Nd6 37.Qc3+ e5 38.Rxe5 Rxe5 39.f4 Nf7 40.fxe5+ Ke6 41.Qc4+ (1–0).
