Long on talent but short on ambition

Dennis Monokroussos writes:

Isaac Boleslavsky (1919-1977) was a Ukrainian grandmaster long on talent but short on ambition. His career-defining moment came in the Candidates tournament in 1950, when he led by a game with just two rounds to go (that shows the talent); unfortunately, a pair of quick draws allowed his friend (and later son-in-law!) David Bronstein to catch him for first (that illustrates the lack of ambition). The subsequent playoff match was tied after the allotted 12 games, and only after two more games did Bronstein succeed in gaining the right to play world champion Mikhail Botvinnik – who, ironically, kept his title by drawing the match with Bronstein.

Boleslavsky’s appearance in the 1953 Candidates was in a way similar, as he would outplay his opponents on a regular basis, but slip up time after time. He could easily have contended for first; instead, he finished at –1, and never again made it even to the Interzonal stage of the world championship cycle. Nevertheless, despite his lack of ambition, he maintained his great strength for years. In a 1966 training tournament in the USSR, for instance, he exchanged a pair of wins with the world champion, Tigran Petrosian, while defeating Viktor Korchnoi 2-0 in their games!

In addition to his achievements as a player, he was a fine analyst (Bobby Fischer praised his book of best games for its quality and objectivity), theoretician (his contributions to the King’s Indian and especially the Sicilian Defense was of great significance), and he proved very helpful as a second during Petrosian’s matches for the world title.

Enough background; on to the game for the show. We'll take a look at his first game with Alexander Kotov from the 1953 Zurich Candidates tournament. Boleslavsky achieves an advantageous isolated queen pawn position on the White side of a Queen's Gambit Accepted, and the way he makes use of this advantage with a well-timed d4-d5 break is instructive to anyone who plays either side of a typical isolani position. Kotov labors his way to a pawn-down ending, but Boleslavsky's accurate and instructive technique left his opponent without a chance.

It's an excellent game, and we may even have some bonus coverage. Either way, it's worth tuning in, and I hope to see you this Monday night at 9 p.m. ET!

Dennis Monokroussos is 38, lives in South Bend, IN, and is an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

He is fairly inactive as a player right now, spending most of his non-philosophy time being a husband and teaching chess. At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S., but quit for about eight years starting in his early 20s. His highest rating was 2434 USCF, but he has now fallen to the low-mid 2300s – "too much blitz, too little tournament chess", he says.

Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for seven years now, giving lessons to adults and kids both in person and on the internet, worked for a number of years for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, where he was one of the coaches of the 1997-8 US K-8 championship team from the Bronx, and was very active in working with many of CITS’s most talented juniors.

When Dennis Monokroussos presents a game, there are usually two main areas of focus: the opening-to-middlegame transition and the key moments of the middlegame (or endgame, when applicable). With respect to the latter, he attempts to present some serious analysis culled from his best sources (both text and database), which he has checked with his own efforts and then double-checked with his chess software.

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