Isaac Boleslavsky: Selected Games

288 pages with diagrams and indexes. Octavo (8 3/4" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's teal blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. Edited and translated from the Russian Izbrannye partii, Moscow 1957, by Jimmy Adams. (Lusis: 1236) First British edition.

Includes a brief biography, tournament and match records 1936-1970 with 180 games.

Isaac Yefremovich Boleslavsky (1919-1977) was a Soviet chess grandmaster. Boleslavsky taught himself chess at age nine. In 1933, Boleslavsky became schoolboy champion of Dnipropetrovsk. Three years later, he won third prize in the 1936 USSR All-Union Junior Championship, held in Leningrad. In 1938, at nineteen, he won the Ukrainian Championship; the following year, he won the Ukraine SSR championship, qualified to play in the USSR Chess Championship at the age of 20, and gained his national chess master title. He earned a degree in philology at Sverdlovsk University. In 1940, Boleslavsky played in the 12th USSR championship final in Moscow. He won eight of his last ten games and tied for fifth/sixth place with Mikhail Botvinnik, but lost their personal meeting. At the end of 1940 he won the Ukrainian Championship for the third consecutive year. In March 1941, he took part in the match-tournament for the title of Absolute Champion of the USSR, finishing fourth of six participants. On the eve of the match-tournament, he had to pass an examination at the University, and his preparation for the chess event proved to be inadequate. In 1945 he took second place in the 14th USSR championship, behind Mikhail Botvinnik. He won nine games, drew six, and lost two. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in the USSR. He made his international debut on third board of the USSRâ€"USA radio match. He drew his first game with Reuben Fine and defeated him in the second game, winning a prize for the best game of the match.[1] Boleslavsky secured a clear advantage in the opening thanks to his superior pawn structure and won without allowing Fine much counterplay. The Soviets regarded Fine as possibly the strongest American player, based on his international results in the pre-World War II era. In the 1951 World Championship cycle, Boleslavsky qualified from the first-ever Interzonal at Saltsjöbaden 1948 into the Candidates Tournament two years later in Budapest. In the Candidates tournament -- the winner of which would play a World Chess Championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik -- he was the only undefeated player, and led for most of the tournament, but in the last round he was caught by Bronstein, who later won a playoff in Moscow later that same year (+3âˆ'2=9). This turned out to be Boleslavsky's last chance as a serious contender for the world championship. In 1953, he participated in the Candidates' tournament in Zürich, but finished in 10thâ€"11th places, and never qualified for subsequent world championship cycles.

Condition:

Corners bumped. Very good to fine in a near fine dust jacket.