prize13-8, Exercise 1: Why Soviet chess was strong

Model answer (check the details):

1. State support. Clubs, youth schools, trainers, books and salaries for leading players made chess a career with status.
2. Method. Systematic study of openings and endgames, team analysis and trainers who passed on a body of knowledge, with Botvinnik often credited as a founder.
3. A large pool. A big population with a mass chess culture produced many strong players, so the best came through a long competition.

Best supported: probably the first two, since the Soviet structure of schools, trainers and organised study is well documented, though the size of the pool is hard to separate from them. A careful answer says that the three probably worked together and the weight of each cannot be proved.

Care: the points are from general knowledge and should be checked against a history of Soviet chess.