7th World Champion
1957 - 1958
Vasily Vasilievich Smyslov was born in Moscow, Russia in 1921.
He learned to play chess at the age of 6. He learned much about
chess from his father and studied the chess books in his father's
library. Smyslov was an opera singer but made chess his career
after narrowly failing an audition for the Bolshoi Opera in 1950.
He once said, "I have always lived between chess and music." and
brought music to his games. He once sang operatic extracts on Swiss
radio and during the interval of a serious living chess game
against Botvinnik; he sang to an audience of thousands. He defeated
Botvinnik in 1957 World Championship match but lost the title to
Botvinnik in the 1958 rematch.
He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight
occasions. Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship
(1949, 1955), and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won is an
all-time record. In five European Team Championships, Smyslov won
ten gold medals. He remained active and successful in competitive
chess well into the 1960s and 1970s and he qualified for the finals
of the World Championship Candidates' Matches as late as 1983.
Despite failing eyesight, he has remained active in the composition
of chess problems and studies and he is currently the oldest living
former World Chess Champion.
The puzzle:
Who is your teacher, he's lived very long.
It's true he's half blind, but he sings a nice song.