Last year GM Yuri Averbakh turned 100 and set a world record. He became the oldest ever grandmaster in chess history. Sadly, he passed away in May. Averbakh led a rich and extraordinary life that he narrated himself in his autobiography, “Centre-stage and Behind the Scenes”. In the series here, our columnist draws on this important work and also explains much that was left unsaid. | Photo: Averbakh playing Kasparov (B. Dolmatovsky via <a href="https://dgriffinchess.wordpress.com/">Douglas Griffin’s website</a>)
I’m not a particular devotee of Westerns, but I’ve seen enough to know that at the end there’s normally a shoot-out in which the protagonists have to be at their best to avoid losing their lives. Games of chess are thankfully not fatal, but in many of them there is a final tactical shoot-out, and however well you’ve played beforehand, you have to be able to handle this at least passably to get the win or draw that you deserve. | Pictured: Benny Watts, a main character in Netflix’s ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster
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The World Championship Match Mikhail Botvinnik vs Mihail Tal, Moscow 1961
Some World Championship matches receive a lot of attention, others less. The 1960 World Championship match between Tal and Botvinnik received a lot of attention, their return match in 1961 created less interest and a lot of people thought that the wrong player won.
Tal won the 1960 match to become the then youngest world champion of all time. His bold dynamic play thrilled fans all over the world and his victory against Botvinnik seemed to be a victory of fearless imagination against cold and rational logic and promised to be the beginning of a new era. But only a year later, in the 1961 return match, disillusionment followed: Botvinnik won 13 to 8 (+10, -5, =6) and reclaimed the world title. But the second match was played under unequal conditions.