Weeks after victory in Europe, the strongest masters in the Soviet Union gathered in Moscow, and Mikhail Botvinnik produced the finest championship of his career — an undefeated 15/17 that finished three full points clear of the entire field.
Chess in the first summer of peace
The fourteenth championship opened on 1 June 1945, less than a month after the end of the war in Europe. Nineteen masters started on a nineteen-round schedule. Salo Flohr fell ill after playing three games and withdrew; those results were annulled, leaving eighteen finishers and seventeen counted games per player.
Botvinnik, the defending champion, needed no help from attrition. He won thirteen of his seventeen games and drew the other four, finishing on 15/17 without a single loss — a result later historians and Botvinnik himself regarded as the greatest of his Soviet-championship performances, and his fifth national title.
A new generation, and a larger target
Isaac Boleslavsky took clear second on 12, but the result people remembered was third place for the twenty-one-year-old David Bronstein, on 10. He had upset Botvinnik at the 1944 championship, and this confirmed his place among the Soviet elite. The result earned him a seat on the national team for the USSR–USA radio match that September.
The dominance served a larger ambition. Botvinnik's back-to-back championships in 1944 and 1945 were arguments in his long campaign for a world-title match with Alekhine; when the champion died in 1946 before it could be arranged, Botvinnik went on to win the 1948 match-tournament for the vacant crown, opening the era of Soviet control of the world championship.
The annulled Flohr games
Botvinnik and Alexander Konstantinopolsky defeated Flohr, who beat Ilya Kan before withdrawing. All three played games remain available alongside the 153 games counted in the final table.
The championship’s official standings exclude these three results. The archive preserves their original scores and source identities.
Final standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Botvinnik, Mikhail | 15/17 | +13 -0 =4 | games |
| 2 | Boleslavsky, Isaak | 12/17 | +9 -2 =6 | games |
| 3 | Bronstein, David Ionovich | 10/17 | +7 -4 =6 | games |
| =4 | Kotov, Alexander | 9½/17 | +6 -4 =7 | games |
| =4 | Bondarevsky, Igor Tsakharovich | 9½/17 | +5 -3 =9 | games |
| =4 | Konstantinopolsky, Alexander Markovich | 9½/17 | +5 -3 =9 | games |
| =7 | Ragozin, Viacheslav | 9/17 | +7 -6 =4 | games |
| =7 | Rudakovsky, Iosif | 9/17 | +7 -6 =4 | games |
| =7 | Lilienthal, Andor | 9/17 | +6 -5 =6 | games |
| =10 | Smyslov, Vasily V | 8½/17 | +6 -6 =5 | games |
| =10 | Chekhover, Vitaly A | 8½/17 | +4 -4 =9 | games |
| =12 | Tolush, Alexander V | 7½/17 | +7 -9 =1 | games |
| =12 | Alatortsev, Vladimir | 7½/17 | +3 -5 =9 | games |
| 14 | Koblencs, Aleksandrs | 7/17 | +3 -6 =8 | games |
| 15 | Romanovsky, Peter Arsenievich | 6½/17 | +4 -8 =5 | games |
| 16 | Ratner, Boris | 6/17 | +3 -8 =6 | games |
| 17 | Kan, Ilia Abramovich | 5/17 | +3 -10 =4 | games |
| 18 | Goldberg, Grigory Abramovich | 4/17 | +2 -11 =4 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Botvinnik, Mikhail | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Boleslavsky, Isaak | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Bronstein, David Ionovich | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Kotov, Alexander | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | |
| 5 | Bondarevsky, Igor Tsakharovich | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | |
| 6 | Konstantinopolsky, Alexander Markovich | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 7 | Ragozin, Viacheslav | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Rudakovsky, Iosif | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | Lilienthal, Andor | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | |
| 10 | Smyslov, Vasily V | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 11 | Chekhover, Vitaly A | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | |
| 12 | Tolush, Alexander V | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 13 | Alatortsev, Vladimir | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | |
| 14 | Koblencs, Aleksandrs | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | |
| 15 | Romanovsky, Peter Arsenievich | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | |
| 16 | Ratner, Boris | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 17 | Kan, Ilia Abramovich | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 18 | Goldberg, Grigory Abramovich | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player.