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GM David Bronstein has died

GM David Bronstein has died

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RIP

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David Bronstein was one of the giants of chess during the 20th century. I had the privilege of playing against the former World Championship challenger in a simultaneous exhibition in Dallas, Texas, during the 1990s (I lost of course).

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Originally posted by gaychessplayer
GM David Bronstein was a superb and creative player. Ironically, just last week I bought what I believe was the last book that he wrote: "Bronstein on the King's Indian."
I consider him one of the best "out of the box" thinkers and chess analysist ever.

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I vaguely knew who Bronstein was, but I didn't really know anything about him. I knew of a few books that he wrote, but I haven't read any of them. Based on what I've read about him after his passing, his Zurich book and maybe a couple of others are now on my "to read" list.

Also, I really enjoyed the video clip that Chessbase posted showing Yasser Seirawan retelling a story about Bronstein. (It's near the bottom of the article.)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3525

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Originally posted by zebano
An amazing player. Zurich 1953 is a great book which written by him (though some dispute this). This is sad news
Here's an interesting article about Bronstein on Edward Winter's Chess Notes column. Scroll down to entry number 4753.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html

Concerning whether or not Bronstein wrote Zurich 1953, Winter's article mentions that in a 1993 interview, Bronstein stated that the analysis and concepts were his, but much of the words were by Boris Vainstein. Here's Bronstein's direct interview quote as published in Winter's "Kings, Commoners, and Knaves" book (page 206) - "Most of the nice words and elegant expressions in the book overall are the work of Vainstein, who writes very well...Of course, the analysis and technical concepts are mine, as are the views on my rivals, but it may be said that a large part of the text is by Vainstein. Also, it is a book for which I do not have particular affection because it reminds me of a tournament that was very special in a negative sense. Things happened there that I should like to forget...We shall discuss that another time. I do not wish to be more specific for the moment."

I still plan on reading Zurich 1953, even though not every single word came from the pen of Bronstein. :-)