Leonard Barden: world chess championship matches

[John Townsend]

How many world chess championship matches has Leonard Barden covered? Does he hold the world record?

[Leonard Barden]

30 so far, but I wouldn't hype that up by calling it a world record.

[Nick Ivell]

My first memory of Leonard is of the 1972 match. Luckily in 1974 I got to meet him and he even played through my games. It was a revelation.

[John Townsend]

Leonard Barden's reply is much appreciated. I do wonder what competition he may have around the 30 mark.

It may have been a tricky question to answer, owing to the complication of rival matches. In Edward Winter's C.N. 12033, reference is made to "the 1993 bifurcation", which taught me a new word.

According to Winter's feature article, Leonard Barden

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/barden.html

his Evening Standard column began in early June 1956, so was his first championship match Smyslov v. Botvinnik 1957?

Leonard, which was the most exciting match?

[Nick Ivell]

Has anyone ever played through the Smyslov - Botvinnik matches? I have. All three. And I can tell you that most of these games are a hard slog!

I would be interested to hear Leonard's opinion.

[John Townsend]

I played chess at school in the late fifties, but I was not in touch with the world scene. The first matches I recall were Botvinnik v. Tal, 1960-1, when a school friend educated me. They were real matches. In our games, my friend played some of Tal's aggressive moves in the openings, which led to interesting positions. It was a great shame when Tal lost the second match!

[Nick Ivell]

Botvinnik v Tal was a different ball game. As for Botvinnik v Smyslov, well, I can imagine the young Fischer playing through those games and thinking 'I can do better than this wood pushing'.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Slightly unfair, there were some absolutely terrific B v S efforts - number 14 in the 1954 match, for example.

When you have 24 game slugfests, not every encounter is going to be memorable.

[Nick Ivell]

Agreed, there were some great games - but look at the matches in the round. There were some very average games too - dull is not too strong a word.

[Nick Ivell]

I never realised this until I took it upon myself to play through all the games. Let's face it, how many people do this? My guess is, not many. Try it - if you can get through to the end!

I still imagine the young RJF playing through this stuff.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I used to have the Batsford book(s) with all the WC games until the 1980s, so played through the lot at some point.

What can be said beyond reasonable doubt is that the worst efforts in the 19th century matches were very bad indeed

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I used to have the Batsford book(s) with all the WC games until the 1980s, so played through the lot at some point.

What can be said beyond reasonable doubt is that the worst efforts in the 19th century matches were very bad indeed

Go on. Give us an example... (though I think I know what you mean).

[Matt Mackenzie]

I don't have the book anymore, but eg some of those Chigorin v Steinitz games with the Evans Gambit - were they even proper chess?

[Mike Gunn]

I recall playing through all the moves of the 1966 Petrosian vs Spassky match day by day with fellow pupils in the school lunch hour. (One of us would turn up with a Times newspaper that used to print the moves.) I also recall debates about exactly Petrosian was trying to achieve with his moves (none of us had read Nimzowitsch' My System by then).

[John Upham]

How many recent standardplay matches have been decided by games of a faster time control?

How many SP matches have not featured a decisive SP game?