Botvinnik’s disciplined research and iron logic was a strange parallel of the era of Stalin, the man of steel; Smyslov’s chess was something altogether lighter and more intuitive.
Smyslov could often distil something clear and attractive from a game in ferment, and bring a fresh eye to familiar settings.
In the
1980s, he had a remarkable second wind, playing his elegant, modern
chess all the way to the Candidate’s Matches, where he was stopped
by Kasparov.
Opening
Smyslov’s best-known contribution to opening theory is his eponymous variation of the Grunfeld, but in fact he innovated across the whole spectrum of opening systems, and could improvise happily at the board. Here’s Smyslow equalising happily with his Grunfeld:
I was struck by this little-known game, which showed an unprejudiced eye:
And a bit of opening preparation that came off:
Middlegame
A couple of standard themes that I always use with groups, the IQP and the Knight outpost, but to impose these ideas on other Grandmasters is impressive.
A celebrated game where Smyslov ensnared his opponent with position play, then faced with a sacrifice for counterplay by his opponent… sacrificed his Queen! Kasparov and his computer piddled over this game, but as Tal says, years of analysis and minutes of play are not quite the same thing.
Endgame
Smyslov was famed for his endgame play. A notable win, sustained by intuition as much as calculation, was this one:
Another wonderful Smyslov display, showing great insight into the difficulties of playing with a Knight in a closed(!) position.