Botvinnik–Levenfish Match 1937

Mikhail Botvinnik and Grigory Levenfish drew their thirteen-game 1937 match 6½–6½. Each player won five games and only three were drawn, so Levenfish retained the Soviet championship he had won in Tbilisi earlier that year.

◇A challenge for the Soviet title

Levenfish won the tenth USSR Championship in Tbilisi in the spring of 1937. Botvinnik then met him in an autumn match for the national title. The first eight games were played in Moscow and the final five in Leningrad.

A drawn match left the championship with Levenfish. The score was level in points and in decisive games: five wins for each player.

◇Ten decisive games

Only rounds four, five and nine were drawn. The other ten games produced a winner, and Levenfish's victory in the thirteenth game brought the final score back to 6½–6½.

The record is complete: all thirteen games are here, with no play-off.