Vasily Smyslov is read about 185 times a day, in 61 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 23 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 398 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He held the world chess title for one year in the 1950s, competed for it across four decades, and sang baritone at a near-professional level - a combination that made him chess's most unlikely Renaissance figure.
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Photos 8
Interpolisschaaktoernooi Tilburg 1819 Smyslov aan zet, Bestanddeelnr 929-3630%2C_Smuslov_(zittend)%2C_Bestanddeelnr_916-5619.jpg?width=1200)
Interzonaal schaaktoernooi, Larsen (staand), Smuslov (zittend), Bestanddeelnr 916-5619
Interzonaal schaaktoernooi, Larsen, Smuslov, Bestanddeelnr 916-5620
Interzonaal schaaktoernooi, Larsen, Smuslov, Bestanddeelnr 916-5621
Interzonaal schaaktoernooi, Larsen, Smuslov, Bestanddeelnr 916-5622
Interzonaal schaaktoernooi, slotpartij links Larsen en Smyslov, Bestanddeelnr 916-5617.jpg?width=1200)
Komsomolskaya-Pravda-77-1942-12-04-all (page 4 crop)
Международная Леонардо-премия 14Awards
About this person
Born in Moscow in 1921, Vasily Smyslov became a Soviet grandmaster who challenged for the World Chess Championship eight times between 1948 and 1985, finally winning the crown in 1957 and holding it until 1958. He tied for first at the USSR Championships twice, accumulated a record 17 Chess Olympiad medals, and claimed ten golds across five European Team Championships. He kept competing past sixty even as his eyesight failed, composing problems nearly until his death in March 2010, three days after his eighty-ninth birthday. Outside the board, he trained as a baritone and performed publicly, serious enough about music that the two pursuits ran in parallel through most of his life.
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