World Championship 1957: Smyslov – Botvinnik
On his second attempt, Vasily Smyslov — famed for the harmony of his play — outprepared and outplayed Botvinnik to take the title with games to spare, becoming the seventh World Champion.
◈Better prepared, better nerves
Smyslov earned his return by winning a second successive Candidates tournament, edging Paul Keres at Amsterdam 1956. He arrived with far deeper opening preparation than in 1954 — his sharp Grünfeld work told so heavily that the ever-suspicious Botvinnik accused his own seconds of leaking secrets.
The experience of the first match, Smyslov said, had taught him exactly how hard the encounter would be.
◈In command from the sixth game
Smyslov won the opening game; Botvinnik hit back in the fourth and fifth, but from the sixth onward the challenger simply took over. Two points clear after seventeen games, he wrapped up the match after twenty-two, 12½–9½, to become the seventh World Champion (+6−3=13).
Under the rules of the day, though, a dethroned Botvinnik held the right to demand an immediate return match — and he would.
◈Cross Table
| Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smyslov | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 12½ |
| Botvinnik | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 9½ |
1 win · ½ draw · 0 loss — click a game number to replay it.
“The experience of my previous match with Botvinnik proved useful, and I had gained a clear impression of the difficulty of the encounter.”