Zurich 1953 was a chess tournament won by Vasily Smyslov. It was a Candidates Tournament for the 1954 World Chess Championship, which led to the match between Smyslov and Mikhail Botvinnik. The tournament is famous for the strength of the players, the high quality of the games, and books on the tournament by David Bronstein and Miguel Najdorf that are regarded as among the best tournament books ever written. In May 2022 Yuri Averbakh died at the age of 100, having been the last living player to have played in the tournament.
The tournament was a double Round-robin event. Players were assigned one point for every win and a half-point for each draw. In later years, Bronstein claimed that the Soviet players were accompanied by KGB agents. According to Bronstein, during the tournament, the KGB handlers started to worry that the American candidate, Samuel Reshevsky, would win, and began pressuring some of the Soviet players to throw their games against Smyslov, who was leading the other Soviet players in points.[1]
# Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Total 1 
Vasily Smyslov (USSR)½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 18 2 David Bronstein (USSR)½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 16 3 Paul Keres (USSR)0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 16 4 
Samuel Reshevsky (USA)½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½1 1½ ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 16 5 Tigran Petrosian (USSR)½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 15 6 Efim Geller (USSR)0 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 0 0 1 ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ 1 0 1 ½ ½ 14½ 7 
Miguel Najdorf (Argentina)½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 0 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 14½ 8 Alexander Kotov (USSR)½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 0 0 1 0 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 14 9 Mark Taimanov (USSR)½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 0 ½ 0 1 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 1 1 14 10 Yuri Averbakh (USSR)½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 0 13½ 11 Isaac Boleslavsky (USSR)½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 13½ 12 
László Szabó (Hungary)½ ½ 1 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 13 13 
Svetozar Gligorić (Yugoslavia)0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 12½ 14 
Max Euwe (Netherlands)0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 11½ 15 
Gideon Ståhlberg (Sweden)0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 8
Bronstein, David (1979) [1960], Zurich International chess tournament, 1953 (2nd ed.), Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-23800-8
- ^ Bronstein, David. "Soviet cheating in FIDE competition: Zurich 1953". chess.com. Retrieved 16 June 2022.