David Bronstein, a 20th-century genius from Ukraine, competed for the chess crown against Botvinnik and stood up against the regime.

The Ukrainian land has produced a significant number of renowned chess masters. This is not surprising: during the Tsarist era, a strip of settlement existed in Ukraine where Jews were allowed to live. And chess, as is well-known, was once considered almost a national sport among Jews.

Among these Ukrainian Jewish chess players, the greatest success was achieved by David Bronstein, who many experts consider the best player among those masters who were never destined to become world champions. He is sometimes compared to the uncrowned world champion Paul Morphy, recognized as the creator of the intellectual game.

Fate also did not deprive him of sporting achievements. Bronstein was a two-time champion of the USSR (1948 and 1949); he won gold medals at the World Chess Olympiads four times as part of the USSR team (1952, 1954, 1956, and 1958); he was twice the European team champion (1957, 1965); and he became an international grandmaster in 1950 (the year the title was established).

But the main event of his sporting life was undoubtedly the dramatic match against Mikhail Botvinnik.

David from Bila Tserkva

David Ionovich Bronstein was born on February 19, 1924, in Bila Tserkva to a worker in the milling industry, Yokhonon (Iona) Bronstein, and Esther-Malka (Maria) Aptekhar, who at that time managed the women's department. His father, a native of Rotmistrovka in Cherkasy region, was a member of the Bund (a Jewish socialist party) and a participant in World War I.

In 1926, the family moved to Berdiansk, and in 1930 to Kyiv. David learned to play chess from his father when he was six years old. The boy trained at the chess club of the Kyiv Palace of Pioneers under the guidance of the well-known master Alexander Konstantinopolsky, who hailed from Zhytomyr.

Certain circumstances determined David's life path and firmly connected him with chess. In 1935, his father, who worked as the director of a mill in Podil, was expelled from the party and demoted to a worker at the same mill. In December 1937, Iona Bronstein was arrested as a "enemy of the people" and sentenced to 7 years in camps.

After this, for David, who dreamed of enrolling in the mathematics faculty of Kyiv University, such an opportunity was closed. The boy completely focused on chess. At just 15 years old (1939), he took second place in the Kyiv championship, and a year later, he finished second in the 1940 Ukrainian championship behind Isaac Boleslavsky and received the title of Master of Sports of the USSR. Later, Isaac Efremovich Boleslavsky, a native of Zolotonosha, became a very close friend and chess companion of Bronstein. Subsequently, in 1984, David Ionovich married Boleslavsky's daughter, Tatyana.

When the German-Soviet war began, David Bronstein left Kyiv on foot and eventually ended up in the Caucasus, where in 1942 he earned money by giving simultaneous chess exhibitions in hospitals. He often said afterward that he was pursued by the fate of a traveler. He was not drafted into the army due to severe myopia but was sent as a builder to restore the devastated Stalingrad.

He worked behind the lines as a laborer at sites reconstructing war-damaged buildings. Yet he continued to play chess. In 1944, Bronstein made his debut at the USSR championship, where he took a modest 15th place but managed to defeat the champion Mikhail Botvinnik! From that point on, his chess mastery began to rise sharply: at the 1945 USSR championship, he finished in third place (behind Botvinnik and Boleslavsky, with whom he drew) and won both games on the tenth board in the famous team radio match of the USSR against the USA. This was a significant claim to belong to the world chess elite.

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In 1944, Bronstein met NKVD officer Boris Weinstein, who was a great chess enthusiast. Weinstein arranged for David to move to Moscow as an instructor for the Dynamo sports society and even housed him in his apartment.

Rise to the Top

During these years, Bronstein became the USSR champion twice (1948 – together with Alexander Kotov, 1949 – together with Vasily Smyslov). His first successful international tournament was the interzonal tournament in Saltsjobaden in 1948, which he won. In 1950, he earned the title of grandmaster. Winning the interzonal tournament qualified him for the 1950 Candidates Tournament in Budapest, where Bronstein shared 1st place with Boleslavsky. The match between them determined who would play against the world champion Botvinnik; after a fierce struggle, Bronstein emerged victorious.

From March 15 to May 11, 1951, a match for the world championship took place in Moscow, in which the 39-year-old champion Mikhail Botvinnik defended his title against the challenger, 27-year-old David Bronstein.

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Bronstein and Botvinnik had very different playing styles, character traits, and lifestyles, and they did not like each other. Botvinnik was the favorite of the Soviet elite, a scientist, while Bronstein was the son of a condemned "enemy of the people," a former laborer in construction.

It should be noted that Botvinnik, after winning the title at the 1948 match-tournament, spent three years preparing his doctoral dissertation in electrical engineering and did not play in tournaments. He approached the match with Bronstein not in the best form. The champion played uncertainly, often falling into time trouble.

As Bronstein recalled, "the games of the match were characterized by chaotic struggle and numerous inaccuracies." Nevertheless, both participants displayed a high quality of play; the match saw the lead change four times. Bronstein won the 22nd game and went ahead by a point, but he experienced a nervous breakdown. He entered the 23rd game, underestimating the difficulties of the endgame, and lost. The final game ended in a draw, and according to FIDE regulations, Botvinnik retained the title of world champion (12:12).

Bronstein later wrote that perhaps it was for the best that he did not win the title of champion, as his rebellious character and inclination towards artistry would not have aligned with Soviet bureaucracy.

By inflicting 5 defeats on Botvinnik during the match, David Bronstein became a member of the symbolic club of world champions' victors, founded by Mikhail Chigorin.

Life After Botvinnik

David Bronstein participated in the next two Candidates Tournaments, but both times fell behind Vasily Smyslov by two points: in 1953 (Zurich) he shared second place with Paul Keres and Samuel Reshevsky, and in 1956 (Amsterdam) he took third place with Laszlo Szabo, Yefim Geller, Tigran Petrosian, and Boris Spassky (Keres came in second after Smyslov).

From the late 1950s, Bronstein's sporting results declined, and he did not qualify as a contender in 1959 and 1964. His desire for originality gradually overshadowed the sporting objectives in Bronstein's play. He placed in the middle of the standings at USSR championships and achieved success mainly in international tournaments.

David Bronstein authored many chess books and articles. For many years, he maintained a regular chess column in the newspaper "Izvestia." Perhaps he is most respected for his book "The International Tournament of Grandmasters 1953." This book was very popular in the former USSR, undergoing many reprints. It has been translated into foreign languages and is regarded as the best guide to middle game play.

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Grandmaster Bronstein made a significant contribution to chess theory. His research enriched the theory and practice of openings (the King's Gambit, French, Sicilian, Dutch, and especially the Old Indian Defense).

Bronstein was a chess dreamer. He was known for his original ideas for popularizing chess: he advocated for blitz, invented the "delay" time control, and introduced digital chess clocks. Since 1963, Bronstein often played against computer programs and generally achieved good results