Born on this day in 1910 in Dubrovnik, in what was then Austria-Hungary - Petar Trifunović, grandmaster (1953), Olympiad gold-medal-winner (1950) & 5-time Yugoslav Champion. Pictured here at Beverwijk, 1962. (📷: H. Pot / ANEFO, via nationaalarchief.nl.) #chess

White to play and win.

The opening ceremony of the famous 1953 Candidates' tournament took place 72 years ago today in Neuhausen am Rheinfall. Here the Soviet participants in the event are seen in Zürich, en route to the 30-round event, which lasted until mid-October. (📷via Zürich Chess Club archive.)

16-year-old Vasily Smyslov, pictured at the 'Third All-Union Children's Tournament' at the Pioneers' Palace in Leningrad in January of 1938. The future World Champion took 1st place in the Under-18 section. (📷via gpntb.ru.) #chess

David Bronstein, pictured in play v. Paul Keres in the opening round of the 1956 Candidates' tournament in Amsterdam. In the background, the young Boris Spassky is seen in play v. Miroslav Filip. (📷: H. Behrens / ANEFO, via nationaalarchief.nl.) #chess

Lev Alburt (b. Orenburg, USSR, 1945), who turned 80 earlier this month. A 3-time Ukrainian champion, after defecting to the United States during a European Cup tie in 1979, he became a 3-time U.S. Champion. Seen here at Wijk aan Zee, 1980. (📷: noord-hollandsarchief.nl.) #chess

BLOG UPDATE: As well as the game v. Golombek referred to yesterday, I have added Bronstein's game v. Kotov from the 1950 Candidates' tournament (with a translation of Bronstein's contemporary annotations) to the page below: dgriffinchess.wordpress.com/2021/02/20/the…

The cover of the 1st edition of Levenfish's work for beginners, 'Pervaya kniga shakhmatista' - 'The Chessplayer's First Book'. Published in Leningrad in 1925, it was the first such manual to be released in the USSR. (📷via chess.gpntb.ru.) #chess

The tournament book of the 8th USSR Championship (Leningrad, 1933). Published in Leningrad in 1935, it had a print run of 5200 copies. #chess

Just played a game of blitz, online, for the first time in ages. Wasn't a complete disaster, especially after a couple of glasses of wine. (I was White.)

On this day in 1978 the 2nd edition of the 'Interpolis' super-tournament in Tilburg got under way. Among the participants in this 11-round all-play-all: #1 Robert Hübner #2 Bent Larsen #3 Boris Spassky #4 Jan Timman. (📷: K. Suyk / ANEFO, via nationaalarchief.nl.) #chess

40 years ago today the 2nd match between World Champion Anatoly Karpov & Challenger Garry Kasparov got under way on the stage of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. It lasted the full 24 games & ended in Kasparov's victory 9½ weeks later. (📷: B. Kaufman, Novosti Press.) #chess