User:Ivanov941/Chess in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War

Chess life in our country went on even during the Great Patriotic War. Some recommendations concerning organisation of recreation and leisure for the wounded soldiers were given in the brochure written by V.A. Alatortsev in 1943 under the title "Chess in a hospital". Leading chess players performed in hospitals in front of wounded Red Army soldiers, read lectures, organized tournaments and gave simultaneous game sessions.

Tournaments were held in Moscow and Leningrad in 1941-1942 during their siege.

Lieutenant of the Red Army Isaak Yakovlevich Mazel took first place in the Moscow Chess Championship 1941/1942. He used to come to the chess tours directly from the front line as the front line was nearby. The Chess Championship of Leningrad, which took place in 1941, was not completed. The two-round tournament was held in Moscow in 1942 with the winner I. Bondarevsky. Another chess tournament was held in Sverdlovsk in 1942 where the winner was V.V. Rogozhin. The two-round tournament was held in Sverdlovsk in 1943 where for the first time during the war time the leader of Soviet chess players Mikhail Botvinnik took part and won. The tournament in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Red Army took place in Moscow with the winners E. Zagoryansky and Rogozhin. Two chess tournaments were held in Kuibyshev. The winner of the first became A.M. Konstantinopolsky; the winner of the second was Boleslavsky I.E. The last military championship took place in 1944 in Leningrad after the end of the siege. It was won by Abram Model.

The next USSR championship was held in Moscow in May-June 1944 – it was the first championship during the war years and the thirteenth championship in the whole history of Soviet chess. The final round was preceded by three semi-final rounds - a procedure that had never happened before in peacetime. The tournament bulletin was regularly issued. The winner became M.M. Botvinnik. Masters of sports Belavenets, L. Kayev, M. Stolberg, Silich were killed in the front line.

During the siege of Leningrad the Soviet chess organization lost A. Ilyin-Zhenevsky, I. Rabinovich, A. Troitsky, L. Kubbel, Rauser and others. In 1945 Marshal Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov organized a unique chess match between the Soviet and American groups of forces in Germany. The representatives of the allied powers played on 10 boards, the USSR won 10-0.

The first major international competition after the war was the radio match between the teams of the USSR and the USA from September 1st to 4th, 1945, which ended with the victory of the Soviet chess players. The match showed that the USSR became the strongest chess power in the world.