David Bronstein

David Bronstein was born in Bila Tserkva, in present-day Ukraine, in 1924. His grandfather taught him chess at six, and he later trained in Kyiv with Alexander Konstantinopolsky. He finished second in the Ukrainian championship in 1940, earning the Soviet master title at sixteen. The Second World War interrupted his plans to study mathematics. After the war he moved to Moscow and entered the leading group of Soviet players.

Bronstein shared the Soviet championship in 1948 and 1949 and won the 1948 Saltsjöbaden Interzonal. He received the Grandmaster title in 1950. That year he tied with Isaac Boleslavsky in the Candidates Tournament and won their playoff match. His 1951 world championship match with Mikhail Botvinnik ended twelve points apiece, so Botvinnik retained the title. Bronstein had led with two games remaining, but lost the penultimate game and drew the last. He later won the 1955 Gothenburg Interzonal without losing a game.

Bronstein contributed to the development of the King’s Indian Defence and advocated faster forms of competitive chess. His book Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 explains the strategic ideas behind the games of that Candidates Tournament. His later writing included The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, co-authored with Tom Fürstenberg. He continued playing internationally into old age. He died in Minsk in 2006.