Nottingham 1936

In the summer of 1936 fifteen of the world's leading masters gathered at the University of Nottingham for what many still call the greatest tournament ever assembled — a field that held five past, present, or future world champions. When the fourteen rounds were over, two men stood level at the top: the 25-year-old Soviet star Mikhail Botvinnik and the ageless José Raúl Capablanca, sharing first on 10/14, half a point clear of Euwe, Fine, and Reshevsky.

◇The strongest field ever assembled

Nottingham 1936 has a fair claim to be the strongest tournament of the pre-war era. It is one of the very few events in chess history to gather five past, present, or future world champions at a single board — Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, and Mikhail Botvinnik — and, by later Chessmetrics reckoning, one of only a handful of tournaments ever to seat the top eight players in the world.

Around the champions stood the rising generation and the established elite: Reuben Fine, Samuel Reshevsky, Salo Flohr, Milan Vidmar, Efim Bogoljubow, Savielly Tartakower, and a strong British contingent. Fifteen players contested a single round-robin over fourteen rounds and 105 games. Alekhine himself wrote the tournament book, an annotated volume that remains a classic; its introduction called the event "the most important chess event the world has so far seen."

◇A shared first place

Botvinnik and Capablanca finished level on 10/14 — their own individual game a hard-fought draw — and split the first and second prizes. Behind them Euwe, Fine, and Reshevsky tied for third on 9½, with Alekhine sixth on 9. Lasker, at 67, held his own in what proved to be his last great tournament.

The tie was sealed in the final round. Botvinnik, having ground out seven wins and seven draws, stood worse against the British master William Winter — who then offered a draw that let the Soviet player hold his share of first. For Botvinnik, who celebrated his 25th birthday during the event, it was the first major success by a Soviet player outside the USSR, and an early marker of the state-backed school that would soon dominate the game.

“The most important chess event the world has so far seen.”

“When it comes to awarding the plum for 'the greatest chess tournament ever', in 1936 the Nottingham Tournament was certainly just that.”

◇A changing of the guard

Nottingham marked a turning point. It was Lasker's last top-level tournament and the last great result of Capablanca's career, and even Alekhine, at 43, was past his best. The younger players were taking over. The historian Andrew Soltis called it "the last accomplishment by the generation that emerged before the first World War."

The games here are from that fortnight in Nottingham. The crosstable below shows the finish as it was: Botvinnik and Capablanca both on 10, sharing first place.