Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953

by David Ionovich Bronstein, Jim Marfia (Translator), Boris Samoilovich Vainshtein

This legendary tournament features 210 hotly contested games, many of them masterpieces of the first rank. The first authoritative English translation from the Russian, this volume was written by one of the leading competitors. Its perceptive coverage includes games by Smyslov, Keres, Reshevsky, Petrosian and 11 others. Algebraic notation. 352 diagrams.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Games, Technical, Reference, Sports

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[notgettingenough]

Never ask a question unless you know the answer.

So, I'm about to do the thing you do with this book. You call it stellar, you say it alone would be sufficient justification for the entire life of the writer, you rave on too much.

But then you see this, at Edward Winter's site:

Bronstein expressed irritation that he was remembered for his world championship match with Botvinnik and his book on the 1953 Candidates’ tournament.

Forget I mentioned your book David Bronstein.

And it gets worse. No wonder it irritates him to be remembered for this book.

Concerning the book on the Candidates’ tournament, Bronstein revealed that much of the text was by Boris Vainstein

Fuck.

And an update 25/10/2017. It gets so much worse: http://en.chessbase.com/post/shattere...

[Serge Pierro]

One of the most important books ever written on chess. Bronstein does an amazing job annotating the games between many of the greatest players of the day at the 1953 Zurich International Chess Tournament. There is so much useful instruction throughout this book, that one reading will not suffice. I lost track of how many times I went from cover to cover. A must read for the serious chess aficionado!

[Andy]

Among the strongest chess tournaments ever, the 210 games played in Zurich, 1953, were annotated by participant David Bronstein shortly after the tournament ended. Written in Russian, the book, first published in the late 1950s, was not published in an English translation until the late 1970s. The openings and the endgames are not much attended to in Bronstein's comments, but with the comments that he does provide Bronstein has given us a sort of textbook on the middle game. Bronstein considered these games to represent "a step forward in the development of chess creativity." While he seems to be more interested in ideas than in alternate lines, alternate lines are considered, sometimes even when a strong engine such as StockFish finds nothing to comment on. He occasionally cites lines considered by Najdorf as well. The remarks are often refreshingly candid, as, when remarking on a poor move, Bronstein reminds the reader that grandmasters are human too and thus prone to error. Many of these games begin 1. d4 and go into either the King's Indian or the Nimzoindian, with the Queen's Gambit being played less often and the Queen's Indian even less often than that. All in all a highly readable and instructive book.

[P.E.]

This is a meeting of minds.

As with Tartakower's chess textbook, Bronstein's passion, personality and writing style take presidence over hard science! Or is it Boris Vainstein's? Anyway, that's a keen joy to read.

The Soviet chess player comments on one massive event of his times : Zurich international chess tournament in 1953, when the top ranking chess masters met :

Issaak Boleslavski, USSR ;
David Bronstein, USSR ;
Vassily Smyslov, USSR ;
Paul Keres, USSR ;
Miguel Najdorf, Argentina ;
Alexandre Kotov, USSR ;
Tigran Petrossian, USSR, future world champion;
Mark Taïmanov, USSR ;
Efim Geller, USSR ;
Youri Averbakh, USSR ;
Gideon Ståhlberg, Sweden ;
László Szabó, Hungary ;
Svetozar Gligorić, Yugoslavia ;
Samuel Reshevsky, USA ;
Max Euwe, Netherlands, world chess champion (1935-1937).

--------------

La passion de Bronstein (ou de son nègre Boris Vainstein) ressort à chaque page et prend le pas sur l'analyse méthodique et rigoureuse des parties. C'est un vrai plaisir à lire.

Le matériau de ce livre, c'est le tournoi international d'échecs de Zurich de 1953, où se sont affrontés des joueurs de première force :

Issaak Boleslavski, URSS ;
David Bronstein, URSS ;
Vassily Smyslov, URSS ;
Paul Keres, URSS ;
Miguel Najdorf, Argentine ;
Alexandre Kotov, URSS ;
Tigran Petrossian, URSS, future world champion;
Mark Taïmanov, URSS ;
Efim Geller, URSS ;
Youri Averbakh, URSS ;
Gideon Ståhlberg, Suède ;
László Szabó, Hongrie ;
Svetozar Gligorić, Yougoslavie ;
Samuel Reshevsky, États-Unis ;
Max Euwe, Pays-Bas, world chess champion (1935-1937).

[Ross]

Excellent, chatty, entertaining annotations. In lucid prefaces, Bronstein explains the evolution of the philosophy underlying chess strategy. This work captures the excitement of this iconic tournament, whilst being a great source of instruction for the ambitious learner who also enjoys the history of the game.

[Steven]

Read this years ago and it literally became my chess bible. Playing through these games is how I learned to play something other than the Ruy Lopez. Although Bronstein focuses on middle game strategy and tactics, he does not shirk from opening theory when there's something instructive to point out. As an index of the competitor's games but strangely does not have an index of openings. I made my own just to work through all the King's Indian and Nimzoindian games, which comprising 87 of the 210 games played, were the main theoretical battlegrounds of this tournament. Now that I've read the Najdorf book on Zurich, I somewhat prefer it, but that in no way diminishes how great this book is.

[Mark Thornton]

a fantastic tournament book, about a particularly special tournament: it was the first tournament in which new young chess players challenged the pre-war chess elite, and the outpouring of chess creativity was sensational.

[Sameer]

I'd restate what one fellow chess lover has stated, the three top game collection books are:

1)1953 Zurich
2)Botvinnik 100 Selected Games
3)My 60 Memorable Games

[Del Trigo]

En Zurich se jugó en 1953 el torneo de candidatos al título mundial de ajedrez por sistema de liga, ganando el soviético Smyslov. Bronstein nos ofrece de manera accesible sus análisis de todas las partidas

[Will]

Excelente material de estudio.

[Vishnuprasad R]

One of the best chess book. Annotated by David Bronstein. Zurich 1953 is a candidates tournament to determine the challenger for the world championship. Bronstein gives an in-depth analysis of all games played in the tournament.
Enjoy the mysteries with Bronstein.

[Dominic Carrasco]

A fascinating book. I would recommend it to anyone who has trouble understanding things like h5,d3 or opening like the English opening reti opening kings pawn queens pawn kings pawn game queens pawn game center game ross gambit etc

[Sart]

Rough out of date classic that is only high on list due to the fact that it is in the public domain and been reprinted to death. There are a few newer editions edited and rewiten by GMs that are MUCH better, Like the Fast Track Edition by Alex Fishbein

[Santiago Matías]

Es mi libro favorito de ajedrez. Una crónica bella sobre el que para muchos es (entre los cuales me incluyo yo) el torneo más fuerte de la historia. Maravilloso Bronstein, siempre será recordado como "El campeón sin corona"

[Hakkı Sayın]

Amazon'dan sipariş ettiğim ilk kitap. Dili, anlatımı ve analizleriyle müthiş bir eserdir.

[Tim Reisner]

One of my favourite chess books. It's really superb.

[Carson Feix]

The games are great, and the complete tournament format is really enjoyable, but I was a little underwhelmed with the amount of instructive material.

[Siva Prasad]

There is a reason this book is considered to be good even today when so much of chess theory has changed. Incredible book with simple explanations and no endless variations.

[Silvio]

Ein Klassiker unter den Schachbüchern, zu dem man immer wieder zurückkehren kann, um spannende Partien und interessante Ideen für sich (wieder) zu entdecken.

[Henrik Haapala]

Top chess book!
Zurich 1953 by Bronstein is a classic book. Rating 4/5. Maybe not the first book to get but contains many well annotated games which is a criteria for a book in this category.

Final score (max 5 points)
Depth: 4
Practical value: 4
Timelessness: 5
Frequency of use: 3

Total: 4

[Steven]

One of the greatest chess tournaments of all time, annotated by David Bronstein.

[Greg Getner]

one of the best tournaments ever, great games

[John]

You don't have a chess library if you don't gave this.

[Collin Holson]

Lotta good chess all in one place