Vasily Osipovich Smyslov (1881–1943) was a

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

master, and the father of Vasily Vasilievich Smyslov, World Chess Champion from 1957–58. Born in Astrakhan, in the

Volga Delta The Volga Delta is the largest river delta in Europe, and occurs where Europe's largest river system, the Volga River, drains into the Caspian Sea in Russia's Astrakhan Oblast, north-east of the republic of Kalmykia. The delta is located in the ...

, he studied at the

Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology (Technical University) (russian: Санкт-Петербургский Технологический Институт (Технический Университет)) was founded in 1828. It is o ...

, and became an economic engineer. He was a strong chess player, and once defeated Alexander Alekhine, at St. Petersburg 1912 (Winter tournament).https://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/relative.htm&date=2009-10-25+09:50:51 He finished 5th at St. Petersburg 1903 (N.A. Panchenko won) and tied for 4–6th at Moscow 1929.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smyslov, Vasily Osipovich 1881 births 1943 deaths Chess players from the Russian Empire Date of birth missing Date of death missing Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology alumni Soviet chess players