English Chess Forum

27.03.2010
ПАМЯТИ В.В.СМЫСЛОВА (24.03.1921 - 27.03.2010)
Сегодня утром в больнице скончался седьмой в истории чемпион мира Василий Васильевич Смыслов. Глубокие соболезнования его родным и близким.

Now *that* has made me

Another giant of our game gone........

http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/o ... -1921-2010

http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2010/3 ... -2010.html

RIP

There will be a few posters here who met Vasily Vasilyevich in the flesh, of course...........

Any stories you would like to share??

The Guardian obituary is now online.....

yes, he was once caught kissing Ruth Cardoso

James Pratt wrote:yes, he was once caught kissing Ruth Cardoso

A more serious peccadillo is referred to in my obituary

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/chess

I met him a couple of times (Hastings and at Candidates match vs Ribli) and he was a most affable character. He always seemed completely relaxed.

Leonard Barden wrote:

James Pratt wrote:yes, he was once caught kissing Ruth Cardoso

A more serious peccadillo is referred to in my obituary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/chess

Indeed. Was it Lazarevic? Quite a looker in her day, so I've heard

A week on, and we are still waiting for the Indy and Torygraph obits

Matt Mackenzie wrote:A week on, and we are still waiting for the Indy and Torygraph obits

It's better to take one's time and produce something worth reading. Leonard's obituary was good. The same tribute cannot be paid to what appeared in The Murdoch.

In the meantime you could look at http://lifenews.ru/news/18641 , a sad end for a champion. Perhaps it is just as well that Lilienthal returned to Hungary.

Lilienthal is 99 next month, of course.

A major chapter in chess history will effectively pass with him, when his time is up.

I felt deeply touch by the recent tragedy and unexpected death of a previous world champion, Vasily Smyslov at the age of 89. I felt the need to comment on this as he had been one of many successful chess legends, and will no doubt go down as one of the best chess champions in history.

Some of Vasily Smyslov's successes include In 1957 he beat Botvinnik in the world championship match and held the title for a year. I can't comprehend the difficulty for his family at this horrific time, and I send my condolences too his whole family and his close friends.

Several interesting facts, along with astonishing attestations of the great ex world chess champion I thought I would mention some of his achievements include the following:

Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship (1949, 1955), and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won is an all-time record. In five European Team Championships, Smyslov won ten gold medals. He remained active and successful in competitive chess well into the 1960s and 1970s and he qualified for the finals of the World Championship Candidates' Matches as late as 1983"

What a inspiration to all chess players and Lastly I hope Vasily Smyslov will now rest in peace.

Kind Regards Matthew John Ward.

Skipping Matt Ward's post, which I presume has been extracted from the Beano, Smyslov has now been buried. See

http://eg.ru/daily/sports/18396/

and

http://eg.ru/daily/sports/18452/

It is reported that his wife is in too delicate a condition for her to be given the sad news. There doesn't appear to be a will.

Note the denial of the story that Smyslov died in poverty. A link to which I provided in my previous post in this thread. Apparently, though, Ilyumzhinov stopped his pension.

There is a reprise of the story about Smylov's step son.