7/20/2021 – Vasily Smyslov defeated Mikhail Botvinnik at the second attempt in 1957 and thus became the 7th world champion in chess history, but had to relinquish the title in a rematch the following year. After that Smyslov belonged to the absolute world elite for many years. His performance in the 1982-1985 World Championship cycle was sensational, when he defeated Robert Hübner and Zoltan Ribli one after the other in the candidate matches and only lost in the final to the young Garry Kasparov - Smyslov himself was 62 years old at that time!
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Smyslov cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.
by Dr. Karsten Müller, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh, Yannick Pelletier
Smyslov had a particularly deep understanding of chess. Perhaps influenced by music (he was a trained opera singer), his play was characterised by naturalness and harmony.
He cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations, although he knew how to combine brilliantly when necessary.
On the other hand, he shied away from unclear intricacies. Smyslov had a special preference for the (early) exchange of queens as a precursor to his brilliant technique, especially in the endgame, where he was considered an absolute luminary.
The 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik called Smyslov “the truth in chess”.
Let our team of experts Yannick Pelletier, Mihail Marin, Karsten Müller and Oliver Reeh introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.
Video running time: 7 h 45 min (English)
All Smyslov games, short biography
Smyslov Powerbook: The opening repertoire of the 7th world champion as a variation tree
Smyslov cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.
Throughout the video course, Sasikran shows various examples from his career to explain sacrifices for initiative, an attack, a better pawn structure and much more.
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
Trompowsky Powerbook 2025 is based on 53,000 computer games from the engine room of playchess.com as well as 49,000 games from Mega and correspondence chess.
Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
Powerbook based on more than 618 000 games in which White already sidesteps the main variations of the Sicilian on move 2.
€9.90
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