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1948 World Chess Championship

ROUND 15

The 1948 World Chess Championship was a historic milestone. After the death of World Champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946, the title became vacant for the first time. FIDE stepped in and organized a special tournament to crown the new World Champion.

The tournament gathered five chess giants:

Mikhail Botvinnik (USSR)

Vasily Smyslov (USSR)

Paul Keres (USSR)

Samuel Reshevsky (USA)

Max Euwe (Netherlands, former World Champion)

The format was a quintuple round-robin: each player faced the other four opponents five times. The first half took place in The Hague (Netherlands), and the second half in Moscow (USSR).

📊 Final Standings:

🏆 Botvinnik: 14 points (Champion)

Smyslov: 11 points

Keres: 10.5 points

Reshevsky: 10.5 points

Euwe: 4 points

Botvinnik displayed a revolutionary approach to preparation, relying on scientific study of openings, strategic planning, and discipline. His consistency and dominance set a new standard for what it meant to be a chess World Champion.

The event was not free from controversy: some historians suggest that Paul Keres may have been politically pressured by Soviet authorities not to win the title, as he lost four out of five games to Botvinnik despite being one of the strongest contenders.

With his victory, Mikhail Botvinnik became the 6th World Chess Champion, marking the beginning of the Soviet era in chess, which would last until Bobby Fischer’s triumph in 1972.