AAugust 05 1956
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, Sunday, August 05, 1956
Botvinnik Slips?
By Merrill Dowden
Is the reigning chess champion of the world, Mikhail Botvinnik of the U.S.S.R., overrated? Or is he really invincible, as many suppose?
Former World Champion Dr. Max Euwe of Holland, in a provocative article written for Chess Review, thinks that Botvinnik's long absence from tournament play may work against him when he lays his title on the line against his fellow countryman, Vassily Smyslov, winner of the Challengers.
The main question, Euwe says, will be whether Botvinnik has kept abreast of the steady advances in chess.
“In the third period of his championship tenure,” Euwe writes, “Botvinnik has engaged in no more play than in the first or second. So he shall have to surmount this deficiency by study. That he is capable of doing so we have learned from his two previous matches. Consequently, one does well not to underrate Botvinnik now.”
