USA vs. USSR radio chess match 1945
The USA vs. USSR radio chess match 1945 was a chess match between the United States and the USSR that was conducted over the radio from September 1 to September 4, 1945.[1] The ten leading masters of the United States played the ten leading masters of the Soviet Union (except for Paul Keres) for chess supremacy. The match was played by radio and was a two-game head-to-head match between the teams. The time control was 40 moves in 2½ hours and 16 moves per hour after that. Moves were transmitted using the Uedemann Code.[2] It took an average of 5 minutes to transmit a move. The US team played at the Henry Hudson Hotel in New York. The Soviet team met at the Central Club of Art Masters in Moscow. The USSR team won the match 15½–4½.
This result was met with astonishment around the chess world, since the USA had won four straight Chess Olympiads from 1931 to 1937; however, the Soviet Union had not competed in those tournaments. The Soviet program for producing a new generation of chess masters, originated and supervised by Nikolai Krylenko from the early 1930s, clearly was paying dividends. From 1945 onwards, Soviet players would dominate international chess for most of the rest of the 20th century. The radio match proved a watershed and a changing of the guard in the chess world (Hooper & Whyld 1992:330).
Other radio matches took place around this time.
The matchups
The matchup and results are in this table. Scores are from a Soviet point of view: "1" for a Soviet win, "0" for an American win and "½" for a drawn game.[3][4][5]
| Board |  Soviet Union | Game 1 | Game 2 |  USA | Result (USSR–USA) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikhail Botvinnik | 1 | 1 | Arnold Denker | 2–0 |
| 2 | Vasily Smyslov | 1 | 1 | Samuel Reshevsky | 2–0 |
| 3 | Isaac Boleslavsky | ½ | 1 | Reuben Fine | 1½–½ |
| 4 | Salo Flohr | 1 | 0 | I.A. Horowitz | 1–1 |
| 5 | Alexander Kotov | 1 | 1 | Isaac Kashdan | 2–0 |
| 6 | Igor Bondarevsky | 0 | ½ | Herman Steiner | ½–1½ |
| 7 | Andor Lilienthal | ½ | ½ | Albert Pinkus | 1–1 |
| 8 | Viacheslav Ragozin | 1 | 1 | Herbert Seidman | 2–0 |
| 9 | Vladimir Makogonov | 1 | ½ | Abraham Kupchik | 1½–½ |
| 10 | David Bronstein | 1 | 1 | Anthony Santasiere | 2–0 |
| Total | 15½–4½ | ||||
Nine of ten Americans and six of ten Soviets were Jewish.[6][7]
The match featured most of the leading players in the world: including the first, second and equal third placegetters at the 1948 World Championship (Botvinnik, Smyslov, Reshevsky); Fine, who declined his invitation to the 1948 Championship; and the top two placegetters in the 1950 Candidates tournament (Bronstein and Boleslavsky).
Reserve players
The following players were reservists in the U.S. team, to be called on, in the order given, if any of the primary team are unable to compete: Alexander Kevitz, Robert Willman, Jacob Levin, George Shainswit, Weaver W. Adams, Edward Lasker, Fred Reinfeld, Edward S. Jackson, Jr., Samuel Factor, and Martin C. Stark.[8] The Soviet reserves were: Alexander Konstantinopolsky, Vitaly Chekhover, Iosif Rudakovsky, and Peter Romanovsky.[9]
Other radio matches
- Moscow vs. Leningrad, March 1941
- USSR vs. England, 18-6, 1946
- Australia vs. France, 5½-4½, 1946
- Spain vs. Argentina, 8-7, 1946 (Hooper & Whyld 1992:330).
The USSR also won these matches:
- USSR vs. United Kingdom, 1947
- USSR vs. United Kingdom, 1954
- USSR vs. United States, 1954
- USSR vs. United States, 1955 (Brace 1977:233).
Notes
- "Sinfree.net". Sbchess.sinfree.net. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
- Uedemann Code is usually an incorrect name for Gringmuth notation which was designed for transmission over telegraph. Both systems assign two-letter names to each square of the chessboard and moves are transmitted as a four-character group giving the starting and ending square.
- "USA vs USSR radio match, 1945". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on October 28, 2009. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
- https://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/al2055perv/matches/1945/ursusa45.html&date=2009-10-25+16:13:02
- https://web.archive.org/web/20091028083510/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/history.txt
- "Exhibit Page @ Virtual Museum". Jews In Sports. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
- JINFO (1985-08-16). "Jewish Chess Players". Jinfo.org. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
- "Sinfree.net". Sbchess.sinfree.net. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
- "Sinfree.net". Sbchess.sinfree.net. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
References
- Brace, Edward (1977), "radio chess", An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, Craftwell, ISBN 978-1-55521-394-7
- Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), "radio match", The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-280049-7