Two days left before the start of the Candidates Chess Tournament 2022. While Ding Liren is on his way to Spain, Teimour Radjabov has arrived in the middle of the heat wave in Madrid, and Duda-Jan Krzysztof completes the final preparations for the most anticipated tournament in 2022.
While waiting for the first round encounters between Duda – Rapport , Ding Liren – Nepomniachtchi , Caruana – Nakamura and Radjabov – Firouzja, take a look at how the Candidates Chess looked in 1953 – 69 years ago. The event took place in Zurich, with Vassily Smyslov winning the event and qualifying for the 1954 World Chess Championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik. (scroll down for final rankings)
Candidates Chess 1953 – Final rankings:
| # | Player | Total |
| 1 | Vasily Smyslov (USSR) | 18 |
| 2 | David Bronstein (USSR) | 16 |
| 3 | Paul Keres (USSR) | 16 |
| 4 | Samuel Reshevsky (USA) | 16 |
| 5 | Tigran Petrosian (USSR) | 15 |
| 6 | Efim Geller (USSR) | 14½ |
| 7 | Miguel Najdorf (Argentina) | 14½ |
| 8 | Alexander Kotov (USSR) | 14 |
| 9 | Mark Taimanov (USSR) | 14 |
| 10 | Yuri Averbakh (USSR) | 13½ |
| 11 | Isaac Boleslavsky (USSR) | 13½ |
| 12 | László Szabó (Hungary) | 13 |
| 13 | Svetozar Gligorić (Yugoslavia) | 12½ |
| 14 | Max Euwe (Netherlands) | 11½ |
| 15 | Gideon Ståhlberg (Sweden) | 8 |
