Bronstein David Ionovich - Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, contender for the title of world champion in 1951, two-time champion of the USSR. Bronstein was considered one of the strongest players in the world from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s. Colleagues called him a creative genius, as well as a master of tactics. In addition, he was still a famous chess writer, his book “International Grandmaster Tournament” became a real encyclopedia for beginners and more experienced players.
Childhood and youth
Bronstein David Ionovich was born on February 19, 1924 in the White Church (Ukraine), on the territory of the former USSR, was brought up in a poor Jewish family. Father - Iona Borisovich - was a simple worker at the flour mill, and mother - Maria Davydovna - headed the department for work among women (the department of workers and peasant women) in the district committee. In 1926, the Bronstein family moved to the city of Berdyansk, which is near the Azov coast, and soon, after four years, moved to Kiev. Here, Bronstein David Ionovich first goes to school. The boy studied well enough, but he was most attracted to various sections and circles - he was fond of mathematics, chess and aircraft modeling.
Kiev chess school
At the age of six, his grandfather taught him to play chess, and soon the game became for him almost the most important meaning of life. The guy constantly spent time at the chessboard, he could even play against himself. At the age of twelve, David wins his first chess tournament (the competition was held as part of the school). This achievement has become a motivating factor to enroll in the chess section. His coach was the famous international chess master Alexander of Constantinople.
The chess school influenced the development of the young chess player’s skills, and soon the fifteen-year-old David Bronstein takes part in the Kiev chess championship, where he takes second place. The following year, sixteen-year-old David won the title of master of sports (1940), taking second place in the Ukrainian chess championship.
Black times
In 1937, the Bronstein family suffered a serious tragedy - their father was repressed as an enemy of the people and awarded him a 7-year prison sentence. In the future, this fact was reflected in the fate of David. After graduating from high school in 1941, the young chess player had plans to study mathematics at Kiev University, but his family's “tarnished” reputation blocked the road to the university.
World War II: the life of a chess player
During World War II, a young chess player was forced to go to the city of Ordzhonikidze (currently Vladikavkaz), in the Caucasus, because he was sent to work in one of the hospitals (according to the laws of the war). The young chess player did not get into the ranks of the Soviet army due to poor vision. Bronstein David Ionovich repeatedly asked to voluntarily go to the front, but he was not taken. In 1943, when the battle of Stalingrad was over, Bronstein, along with the youth brigade, was sent for urban restoration work. During working hours, he worked at a construction site, and at night studied and improved variations of chess openings, writing down combinations on scraps of paper.
After the victory of the Red Army over Nazi Germany, the young Bronstein is invited to Moscow to take part in the thirteenth USSR chess championship, in which David performs with a rather bad result: sports anger encourages the chess player to develop further. However, in 1945, Bronstein David Ionovich entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where he studied for only a year.
Achievements and titles
Bronstein’s incredible natural talent was even more revealed after the end of World War II. In 1946, he confidently beat all opponents in the chess tournament of the Moscow championship, and in 1948 and 1949. won the USSR chess championships. The first major international triumph of Bronstein was at a tournament in the city of Saltsjöbaden (Sweden) in 1948, here he was awarded the title of Grandmaster.
In 1950, Budapest hosted the chess challengers tournament in which Bronstein confidently got even with such strong players as Isaac Boleslavsky, Gideon Stahlberg and Paul Keres. As a result, the Soviet grandmaster became the winner of the contenders' tournament in 1950, and now only the world champion, Mikhail Botvinnik, stood in the way of David.
