2/20/2024 – On 19 February 2024 David Bronstein, one of the most creative players in the history of chess, who in 1951 missed the World Champion title by only a draw, would have celebrated his 100th birthday. Emil Sutovsky pays tribute to this outstanding grandmaster. | Photo: juegosdeajedrez.com

7/29/2022 – A few weeks ago, Karsten Müller invited readers to analyze an interesting endgame that occurred in a game Bobby Fischer and David Bronstein played at the Interzonal Tournament Portoroz 1958. Bronstein was better but could not convert his advantage, and this crucial draw later helped Fischer to qualify for the Candidates. However, according to the analyzes of Karsten Müller and the ChessBase readers, Bronstein missed a win in the endgame. | Photo: Bobby Fischer at the Candidates Tournament 1959 | Photo: Tournament Book

7/7/2020 – One draw in a crucial game and David Bronstein would have been World Champion. After losing a difficult ending in the crucial 23rd game Bronstein drew the World Championship Match 1951 against Mikhail Botvinnik which allowed Botvinnik to keep the title. Now Karsten Müller wanted to know whether this ending was indeed lost or whether Bronstein had a draw. Karsten Müller asked the ChessBase readers for help to solve this historical riddle, and now, after long and difficult analyses and a debate about the 50-move-rule he has an answer: Bronstein indeed missed a draw in this historically important game!

6/10/2020 – After the 2nd World War the Soviet Union largely dominated world chess. Mikhail Botvinnik won the World Championship tournament in The Hague and Moscow in 1948. In 1951 Botvinnik was the clear favourite in the World Championship match against David Bronstein which was played in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. After 22 games Bronstein was leading 11½-10½, and needed just one win (or two draws) to become World Champion. Did he miss a chance in game 23?

4/28/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the Candidates Tournament 1950 that ended almost on the day 70 ago, on May 1, 1950. Isaak Boleslavsky and David Bronstein shared first place. | Lawrence' show is available at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

10/11/2018 – David Bronstein was certainly one of the most creative players in the history of chess. In 1951 he drew a World Championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik who thus narrowly defended the title. Vlastimil Hort remembers encounters with "my David Ionovich", including how a promise to play the King's Gambit in 1970 came back to haunt him 24 years later!

8/23/2018 – For more than three decades Wolfgang Uhlmann was East Germany's number one player and in the 60s and 70s he was one of the world's best players. Uhlmann is particularly famous for his handling of the French Defense. After 1.e4 he invariably played 1...e6, no matter how well-prepared the opponent might be. Of course, he contributed a lot of ideas to the French. Conrad Schormann takes a look at one particularly useful and important defensive concept Uhlmann introduced into practice. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

4/2/2018 – Samuel "Sammy" Reshevsky was possibly the greatest player ever to never be a full-time chess professional, even as he vied for the no.1 spot during his prime. He was also one of the greatest prodigies of his day, conducting master level simuls around the world as a child. He played in many World Championship cycles, including the 1948 World Championship tournament. We bring you photos and a historic game commented by Reshevsky himself! | Photo: Kadel and Herbert

3/7/2018 – On March 10th, the Candidates tournament 2018 will begin in Berlin. In November, the winner of this tournament will play a match for the world championship against Magnus Carlsen in London. Candidates tournaments have always been special, providing memorable moments in chess history, with scandals, drama and, of course, brilliant games. In the run-up to the start of this year's tournament, it's a good time to take a look at some previous classics. | Photo: Herbert Behrens (ANEFO) (Cropped from GaHetNa (Nationaal Archief NL)) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

10/25/2017 – David Bronstein is a chess legend. In his critical memoir, The Rise and Fall of David Bronstein, Genna Sosonko shares memories of the life and the career of the grandmaster who has inspired the chess world with his ideas and his games, and who in 1951 almost became World Champion. | Photo (right): Anne Fürstenberg

1/30/2012 – He was born on January 30, 1937 in Leningrad, learnt the moves at five and was one of the great child prodigies in chess. Boris Spassky went on to win multiple USSR championships and qualify for Candidates and World Championship matches. In 1969 he beat Petrosian to become the tenth chess world champion. Combatting illness Spassky is still in good spirits and has interesting plans.

5/10/2003 – Bobby Fischer was teary-eyed when lost a game to Boris Spassky in 1960. "Listen," said Soviet GM David Bronstein, "they forced me to lose an entire match to Botvinnik, and I didn't cry." In 1951 Bronstein narrowly failed to beat Mikhail Botvinnik and become the 7th world champion. But was he pressured into losing, as the Moscow Times suggests? Let us take a closer look.