Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik (Russian: ??????? ?????????????????? span>, pronounced [m ?? x? 'il m ??' s? ej? v? t? b? 'tv? in August 17 [OS 4 August] 1911 - May 5, 1995) is a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and World Chess Champion for most of 1948 to 1963. Works as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he is one of the few professional chess players who achieve differences in other careers while playing top-class competitive chess. He is also a computer chess pioneer.
Botvinnik was the first world-class player to develop in the Soviet Union, placing it under political pressure but also giving him great influence in Soviet chess. From time to time he was accused of using that influence for his own benefit, but the evidence was vague and some suggested he rejected attempts by Soviet officials to intimidate some of his competitors.
Botvinnik also played a major role in the chess organization, making a significant contribution to the design of the World Chess Championship system after World War II and became a major member of the coaching system that allowed the Soviet Union to dominate the upper class chess during that time. His famous disciples included World Champion Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik.
Video Mikhail Botvinnik
Initial years
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911, at that time Kuokkala, Vyborg Governorate, Grand Duchy of Finland, but now the Repino district in Saint Petersburg. His parents were Russian Jews, his father was a dental technician and his mother a dentist, allowing families to live outside the Pace of Settlement which was largely Jewish in the Russian Empire was limited at the time. As a result, Mikhail Botvinnik grew up in Saint Petersburg's Nevsky Prospekt. His father forbade talking about Yiddish at home, and Mikhail and his older brother, Issy, attended Soviet schools. Mikhail Botvinnik then said, "They ask me sometime: What do you think of yourself by citizenship? I replied: Yes, my situation is complex, I am a Jew by blood, Russian by culture, Soviet with education." In his religious view, Botvinnik calls himself an atheist.
In 1920, his mother fell ill and his father left the family, but kept in touch with the children, even after his second marriage, with a Russian woman. At about the same time, Mikhail began reading newspapers, and became a committed Communist.
In the fall of 1923, at the age of twelve, Mikhail Botvinnik was taught chess by his sister's schoolmate, using a homemade device, and instantly fell in love with the game. He finished in the middle of the standings at the school championship, sought advice from his other brother's friends, and concluded that it was better for him to think of "concrete concepts" and then get the general principles from this - and continue to beat his brother's friends with ease. In the winter of 1924, Botvinnik won his school championship, and exaggerated his three years to become a member of the Chess Petrograd Council - which the President of the Assembly turned a blind eye to. Botvinnik won his first two tournaments hosted by the Assembly. Shortly afterwards, Nikolai Krylenko, a loyal chess player and a prominent member of the Soviet legal system who later organized the Joseph Stalin show trial, began to build a large national chess organization, and the Assembly was replaced by a club in the city's Palace of Labor.
To test the strength of the Soviet chess master, Krylenko organized a 1925 Moscow chess tournament. On the day of rest during the event, world champion JosÃÆ'Â Ã… © RaÃÆ'ºl Capablanca gave a simultaneous exhibition at Leningrad. Botvinnik was selected as one of his opponents, and won their match. In 1926, he reached the final stage of the Leningrad championship. Later that year, he was selected for the Leningrad team in a match against Stockholm, held in Sweden, and scored 1 = 1 against the future grandmaster of GÃÆ'¶sta Stoltz. Upon his return, he entertained his schoolmates with a clear story of a rough sea journey back to Russia. Botvinnik was assigned to annotate two matches of the match, and the fact that his analysis would be published made him aware of the need for objectivity. In December 1926, he became a candidate member of the school's Komsomol branch. Around this time her mother became concerned with her poor physical, and as a result she started a daily exercise program, which she maintained for most of her life.
When Botvinnik completes the school curriculum, he is below the minimum age for entrance exams for higher education. While waiting, he qualified for his first USSR Championship final stage in 1927 as the youngest player ever at the time, tied for fifth place and won the National Masters title. He wanted to study Electrical Technology at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute and pass the entrance exams; however, there are continuous application advantages to this course and Proletstud , which controls acceptance, has a policy to recognize only the children of engineers and industrial workers. After appeals by local chess officials, he was accepted in 1928 to the Leningrad University Mathematics Department. In January 1929, Botvinnik played for Leningrad in a student team chess championship against Moscow. Leningrad won and the team manager, who is also Vice Chairman of Proletstud, secured Botvinnik transfers to the Polytechnic Electromechanical Department, where he was one of only four students who entered directly from school. As a result, he had to do work all year within five months, and failed in one of his exams. At the beginning of the same year he put all three together in the semi-finals stage of the Soviet Union Championship, and thus failed to reach the final stages.
Progress was initially quite rapid, mostly under the training of Soviet Masters and coach of Abram Model, at Leningrad; The model teaches Botvinnik the Winawer French Defense Variation, which was later considered to be inferior to Black, but Models and Botvinnik were analyzed deeper and then played with great success.
Botvinnik won the Leningrad Masters' tournament in 1930 with 6½/8, after this the following year by winning the Leningrad Championship by 2½ points above former Soviet champion Peter Romanovsky.
Botvinnik married an Armenian woman named Gayane (Ganna) Davidovna, who was the daughter of his algebra teacher and geometry. He was a student at the Vaganova Academy of the Russian Ballet in Leningrad and, later, a ballerina at the Bolshoi Theater. They had a daughter, named Olya, who was born in 1942.
Maps Mikhail Botvinnik
champion of the Soviet
In 1931, at the age of 20, Botvinnik won his first Soviet Championship in Moscow, scoring 13½ of 17. He commented that the field was not very strong, as some pre-Revolutionary masters did not exist. In late summer 1931, he graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering, having completed a practical assignment on a transmission line while at the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station. She lives in the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute to study for a Science Candidate degree.
In 1933, he repeated his victory in the Soviet Championship, in his hometown of Leningrad, with 14/19, describing the result as evidence that Krylenko's plan to develop a new generation of Soviet masters has paid off. He and other young masters managed to enlist the support of senior officials of the Leningrad Communist Party in organizing contests involving Soviet and foreign players, having not existed since the 1925 Moscow chess tournament. Soon after, Botvinnik was informed that Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky, one of the older Soviet masters and members of the Soviet embassy in Prague, had arranged a match between Botvinnik and Salo Flohr, a Czech grandmaster who was later regarded as one of the most important. a credible competitor to Alexander Alekhine's World Chess Championship championship. The highest level chess official in the Soviet Union opposed this with the excuse that Botvinnik had little chance against such a strong international opponent. Despite this effort to prevent it, Krylenko insisted on staging the match, saying that "We must know our true strength."
Botvinnik used what he regarded as the first version of his method of preparing for a contest, but fell two games behind at the end of the first six games, played in Moscow. However, helped by his old friend, Ragozin and Abram Model coach, he equalized the score in Leningrad and the game was drawn. When describing the post-match party, Botvinnik wrote that at that time he danced the fox and Charleston with professional standards.
In his first tournament outside the USSR, Hastings 1934-35, Botvinnik won only a tie for 6th place - 6th, with 5/9. He wrote that, in London after the tournament, Emanuel Lasker said his arrival just two hours before the first half started was a serious mistake and that he had to allow ten days to acclimatize. Botvinnik wrote that he did not make this mistake again.
Botvinnik placed first with Flohr, ½ points ahead of Lasker and one point ahead of JosÃÆ'Â Ã… © RaÃÆ'ºl Capablanca, in Moscow's second International Tournament, held in 1935. After consulting with Capablanca and Lasker, Krylenko proposed to give Botvinnik a Grandmaster title, but Botvinnik objected. that "the title is not the point." However, he received a free car and a 67% increase in graduate study grants, both provided by the Heavy Industry Commissioner of the Industry.
He later reported to Krylenko that the 1935 tournament made it difficult to assess the power of top Soviet players, as it included a mix of top-class players and weaker players. Botvinnik advocated a double round-robin event featuring the top five Soviet players and five of the strongest non-Soviet players available. Despite politicking over Soviet choice, both Krylenko and Komsomol Central Committee quickly endorsed the tournament. It was played in Moscow in June 1936, and Botvinnik came second, one point behind Capablanca and 2 ½ in front of Flohr. However, he received consolation from the fact that the best Soviet Union had defeated top-class competition.
In the early winter, 1936, Botvinnik was invited to play in the tournament in Nottingham, England. Krylenko allowed his participation and, to help Botvinnik play his best, allowed Botvinnik's wife to accompany him - a privilege rarely given to any chess player in Soviet history. Taking Lasker's advice, Botvinnik arrives ten days before starting to play. Although his Soviet rival predicted a disaster for him, he scored an unbeaten first place (6 = 8) with Capablanca, ½ points above current World Champion Max Euwe and rising American stars Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky, and 1 point in front of ex-camp Alexander Alekhine. This is the first tournament victory by a Soviet master outside his own country. When the results reached Russia, Krylenko composed a letter to be sent in the name of Botvinnik to Stalin. When he returned to Russia, Botvinnik discovered that he had been awarded "Mark of Honor".
Three weeks later, he began working on his dissertation for Candidate degree, earning it in June 1937, after his mentor described his dissertation as "short and good", and the first work in his field. As a result of his efforts, he missed the 1937 Soviet championship, won by Grigory Levenfish, which was then almost fifty. Then in 1937, Botvinnik pulled a thirteen game match against Levenfish. Different accounts of how matches are organized: Levenfish later writes that Botvinnik challenges him; while Botvinnik wrote that Krylenko, outraged at Botvinnik's absence from the tournament, ordered the match.
Botvinnik won the Soviet Championship title further in 1939, 1944, 1945, and 1952, bringing the total to six. In 1945 he dominated the tournament, scoring 15/17; However, in 1952 he tied Mark Taimanov and won the play-off match.
World title challenger
In 1938, eight of the world's top players met in the Netherlands to compete in the AVRO tournament, whose winners should have won the title with World Champion Alexander Alekhine. Botvinnik is placed third, behind Paul Keres and Reuben Fine. According to Botvinnik, Alekhine is most interested in playing opponents who can raise funds. After consultation with the closest available Soviet officials, Botvinnik quietly challenged Alekhine, who was immediately accepted, depending on the conditions that would allow him to adjust in Russia and gain some high-quality competitive exercise a few months before the game. In Botvinnik's opinion, Alekhine was partially motivated by a desire for reconciliation with Soviet rulers, so he could return to his homeland. The match, including funding, was passed at the highest Soviet political level in January 1939; However, the confirmation letter was only sent two months later - in Botvinnik's opinion, because of opposition by his Soviet rivals, especially those who had become prominent before the Russian Revolution - and the outbreak of World War II prevented the World Championship match.
In the spring of 1939, Botvinnik won the Soviet Union Championship, and his book on tournaments illustrates the preparatory approach he had developed since 1933. One striking feature of this is the emphasis on opening preparations to gain permanent positional advantage in the middlegame, rather than seeking a direct tactical surprise which can only be used once.
Botvinnik took the lead in the 1940 USSR Championship, but faded badly in the next stage, eventually sharing fifth place. She connects this with the unusual difficulty of concentrating in an atmosphere like a party filled with noise and cigarette smoke. Botvinnik wrote to a friendly official, commenting that the champion was to be the winner of the match between Igor Bondarevsky and Andor Lilienthal, who had been tied for first place, but had no achievements in international competition. These official attempts led to the tournament for the title of "The Absolute Champion of the Soviet Union", whose official objective was to identify the Soviet challengers for the title of Alekhine. The contestants are the top six in the Soviet Championship - Bondarevsky, Lilienthal, Paul Keres (recently Soviet citizen), Vasily Smyslov World Champion candidate Isaac Boleslavsky and Botvinnik - who play round-robin fourfold. The second Botvinnik preparation, Viacheslav Ragozin, included a training match in the noisy and smoky rooms and he slept in the playroom, without opening the windows. He won the tournament, 2½ points ahead of Keres and three ahead of Smyslov; moreover, with a plus score in "mini matches" against all its rivals.
In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Botvinnik's wife, Gayane, a ballerina, told him that his colleagues at Kirov Opera and the Ballet Theater were being evacuated to the city of Perm, later known as Molotov in honor of Vyacheslav Molotov. The family found an apartment there, and Botvinnik got a job with a local power supply organization - with the lowest wages and on condition that he did not do research, because he only had a Candidate degree. The only child of Botvinnik, a girl named Olya, was born in Perm in April 1942.
In the evenings, Botvinnik wrote a book in which he annotated all the games of the "Absolute Championship of the Soviet Union", to retain his analytic skills in readiness for a match with Alekhine. His work included cutting wood for fuel, which made him not have enough energy for chess analysis. Botvinnik obtained from Molotov an order that he should be given three days of normal work to study chess.
In 1943, after two years of being dismissed from the chess competition, Botvinnik won the tournament at Sverdlovsk, scoring 1½ of 2 of each of his seven rivals - which included Smyslov, Vladimir Makogonov, Boleslavsky, and Ragozin. Chessbase regarded this as one of the fifty strongest tournaments between 1851 and 1986.
Shortly after, Botvinnik was urged to return to Moscow by Komisar Rakyat for Power Generation, admirers and good friends next. Upon his return, Botvinnik suggested a match with Samuel Reshevsky to strengthen his claim for a title match with Alekhine, but this did not receive political support. In December 1943, he won the Moscow Championship, in front of Smyslov. At the same time, the opposition to his plans for a match with Alekhine reappears, arguing that Alekhine is a political enemy and the only proper way is to demand that he be stripped of the title. The dispute ended with the help of Botvinnik, and in the dismissal of a senior chess official, one of them opposed Botvinnik's plan, which was also a KGB colonel.
After Botvinnik won the 1944 and 1945 Soviets, most of the top Soviet players supported his desire for a World Championship game with Alekhine. However, allegations that Alekhine had written anti-Semitic articles while in Nazi-occupied France made it difficult to host matches in the Soviet Union. Botvinnik opened negotiations with the British Chess Federation to host matches in England, but this was cut short by Alekhine's death in 1946.
When the Second World War ended, Botvinnik won the first post-war high-level tournament, in Groningen in 1946, with 14ý½ points from nineteen games, ½ points ahead of former World Champion Max Euwe and two ahead of Smyslov. He and Euwe fought in the last few rounds, and Botvinnik has a narrow escape against Euwe, whom he admits has always been a difficult opponent for him. This was Botvinnik's first direct victory in a tournament outside the Soviet Union.
Botvinnik also won the powerful Mikhail Chigorin Memorial tournament held in Moscow 1947.
World Champion
Botvinnik greatly influenced the design of the system to be used for the World Championship competition from 1948 to 1963. Viktor Baturinsky writes, "Now it is Botvinnik's turn to defend his title according to the new qualification system which he himself has described in 1946" (this Statement refers to defense title 1951. Botvinnik).
On the basis of strong results during and after World War II, Botvinnik was one of five players for the 1948 World Chess Championship contest, held in The Hague and Moscow. He won the 1948 tournament convincingly, with a score of 14/20, three points, becoming the sixth World Champion. When he was on holiday to Riga after the tournament, an eleven-year-old boy named Mikhail Tal made a visit, hoping to play against the new champions. Tal is greeted by Botvinnik's wife, who says the champion is asleep, and that he has made him rest from chess.
Botvinnik then held the title, with two short interruptions, over the next fifteen years, in which he played seven world championship matches. In 1951, he drew with David Bronstein for 24 games in Moscow, 5-5 = 14, defending his world title but the struggle for Botvinnik, who won the last two games and drew the last to tie the match. In 1954, he drew with Vasily Smyslov for 24 matches in Moscow, 7-7 = 10, again defending the title. In 1957, he lost to Smyslov with 9½-12 million in Moscow, but the prevailing rule allowed him to rematch without having to go through the Prospective Tournament, and in 1958 he won a rematch in Moscow; Smyslov said his health was poor during the return match. In 1960, Botvinnik was convincingly beaten 8½ - 12½ in Moscow by Tal, now 23, but once again exercised his right to a rematch in 1961, and was won by 13-8 in Moscow. The commentators agreed that Tal's game was weaker in a rematch, probably because of his health, but also Botvinnik's game was better than in the 1960 match, largely due to a well-prepared preparation. Botvinnik changed his style in a rematch, avoiding the tactical complications in which Tal excels and aims for closed positions and endgames, where Tal technique does not stand out. Finally, in 1963, he lost the title to Tigran Petrosian, with 9½ - 12½ in Moscow. FIDE then changed the rules, and he was not allowed a rematch. The rematch rule has been dubbed the "Botvinnik rule" because he twice gets a profit from him.
Despite being ranked as an official World Champion, Botvinnik had a relatively poor play record in the early 1950s: he did not play an official competitive match after winning the 1948 tournament until he defended his title, then struggled to draw a 1951 championship game with the Bronstein, placed only fifth in The 1951 Soviet Championship, and tied for third in the 1952 GÃÆ' © za MarÃÆ'³czy Memorial in Budapest; and he also performed poorly in a Soviet training contest. However, he lost just five of over thirty games in two tournaments; three of the four who finished ahead of him in the 1951 championship were future world champions Smyslov and Petrosian and leading world championship contenders (and winners in both tournaments) Paul Keres; and he finished in front of Petrosian and even with Smyslov in 1952. Botvinnik did not play in the Soviet team that won the 1952 Chess Olympics in Helsinki: the players chose the line-up and placed Botvinnik on the second board, with Keres at the top; Botvinnik protested and refused to play. Record Keres from 1950 to early 1952 is remarkable.
Botvinnik won the 1952 Soviet Championship (joint first with Mark Taimanov in the tournament, winning the play-off match). He included several victories from the tournament over a Soviet team member in 1952 in his book Best Games Botvinnik 1947-1970 , wrote "this game has a definite meaning for me". In 1956, he was tied for first place with Smyslov at the 1956 Alexander Alekhine Memorial in Moscow, despite losing his final loss to Keres.
Team tournament
Botvinnik was selected for the Soviet Olympic team from 1954 to 1964 inclusively, and helped his team win their respective gold medals of six times. In Amsterdam 1954 he was on board one and winning a gold medal with 8½/11. Then at home for Moscow 1956, he came back up one, and scored 9½/13 for the bronze medal. For Munich 1958, he scored 9/12 for a silver medal on board one. In Leipzig 1960, he played on board two behind Mikhail Tal, having lost his title to Tal early that year; However he won two gold medals on board with 10 ½/13. He returned on board one for Varna 1962, scoring 8/12, but failed to win a medal for his only time at the Olympics. His last Olympics were Tel Aviv 1964, where he won bronze with 9/12, playing board 2 as he lost his title to Petrosian. Overall, in six Olympics, he scored 54 ½/73 for a remarkable 74.6 percent.
Botvinnik also played twice for the USSR at the European Team Championships. In Oberhausen 1961, he scored 6/9 for a gold medal on board one. However in Hamburg 1965, he fought on board two with only 3 ½/8. Both times the Soviet Union won the team's gold medal. Botvinnik played one of the last events of his career in Russia (USSR) vs. Rest of the World game in Belgrade 1970, scoring 2 ½/4 against Milan Matulovi ?, as the Soviet Union narrowly won.
Late career
After losing his world title for the last time, to Tigran Petrosian in Moscow in 1963, Botvinnik withdrew from the World Championship cycle after FIDE refused, at his annual congress in 1965, to give the champions an automatic losing right to a rematch. He remains engaged with competitive chess, appearing in several high-ranked tournaments and continues to produce impressive gameplay.
He retired from a competitive game in 1970, aged 59, preferring to occupy himself with the development of a computer chess program and to assist the training of young Soviet players, earning him the nickname of "Patriarch of the Soviet Chess School" (see below)).
Botvinnik's autobiography, K Dostizheniyu Tseli , was published in Russian in 1978, and in English translation as Achieve Purpose (ISBNÃ, 0-08-024120-4) in the year 1981. A persistent Communist, he was visibly shaken by the collapse of the Soviet Union and lost part of his position in Russian chess during the Boris Yeltsin era.
In the 1980s Botvinnik proposed a computer program to manage the Soviet economy. However, his proposal received no significant attention from the Soviet government.
During the last few years of his life he personally financed the economic computer projects he hoped would be used to manage the Russian economy. He continued to actively work on the program until his death and financed the work of the money he earned for the lectures and seminars he attended, despite prominent health problems.
Botvinnik died of pancreatic cancer in May 1995. According to his daughter, Botvinnik remained active until the last few months of his life, and continued to work until March 1995 despite blindness in one of his eyes (and a very bad vision in another).
Political controversy
The Soviet Union regarded chess as a symbol of Communist superiority, and hence the Soviet chess world was highly politicized. Since Botvinnik was the first world-class player produced by the Soviet Union, everything he said or did (or did not say or do) had a political impact, and there were rumors that the Soviet opponents were being instructed that they should not hit him.
David Bronstein writes that Boris Verlinsky had won the 1929 Soviet Championship and was awarded the first Soviet Grandmaster title for this achievement, but he was subsequently disarmed, when it was considered more politically correct to make the Soviet first official Botvinnik GM (as distinct from the FIDE grandmaster title which then did not exist ).
Botvinnik wrote that before the last round of the 1935 Moscow tournament, Soviet Justice Commissioner Nikolai Krylenko, who was also in charge of the Soviet chess, proposed that Ilya Rabinovich should deliberately lose to Botvinnik, to ensure that Botvinnik took first place. Botvinnik refused, saying "... then I myself will give a piece of gifts and resign". The game has been drawn, and Botvinnik shares first place with Salo Flohr.
Botvinnik sent a thank-you telegram to Joseph Stalin after his victory at the big tournament in Nottingham in 1936.
Botvinnik played relatively poorly in the very tough 1940 Soviet Championships, ending with a tie for fifth/sixth place, with 11½/19, two full points behind Igor Bondarevsky and Andor Lilienthal. With World War II going on at the moment, and the likelihood of little or no chess drills for some time in the future, Botvinnik seems to have prevailed at the head of the Soviet chess to hold another tournament "to clarify the situation". It ended up being the 1941 Absolut Championship of the Soviet Union, which featured the top six players of the 1940 show, playing each other four times. After a personal appeal to the defense minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, Botvinnik was released from war work for three days a week to concentrate on chess preparation. He won this tournament convincingly, and thus regained his position as a top player of the Soviet Union. Bronstein claimed that at the end of the 1946 Groningen tournament, several months after the death of world champion Alexander Alekhine, Botvinnik personally invited Samuel Reshevsky, Reuben Fine, Max Euwe, Vasily Smyslov and Paul Keres to join him in a tournament deciding new world champion, others have indicated that FIDE ("the governing body of chess), has proposed a World Championship tournament before the Groningen tournament begins, and at this stage the Soviet Union is not a member and therefore does not take part in framing the proposal.
Since Keres lost his first four matches against Botvinnik at the 1948 World Championship tournament, winning only in the last round after tournament results have been decided, the suspicion sometimes suggested that Keres was forced to "throw" the game to allow Botvinnik to win the Championship. Chess History Taylor Kingston investigated all the evidence and arguments, and concluded that: Soviet chess officials gave Keres strong clues that he should not hinder Botvinnik's attempt to win the World Championships; Botvinnik only found this about halfway through the tournament and protested so strongly that he angered the Soviet officials; Keres may have accidentally lost the match against Botvinnik or anyone in the tournament.
Bronstein insinuated that Soviet officials pressured him to lose in the 1951 world championship game so Botvinnik would retain the title, but comments by the second Botvinnik, Salo Flohr, and Botvinnik's own annotation at the critical 23rd match showed that Botvinnik knew there were no such plots.
In 1956, FIDE changed the rules of the world championship so that a losing champion would have the right to the match back. Yuri Averbakh alleged that this was done at the urging of two Soviet representatives at FIDE, who were personal friends of Botvinnik. Averbakh also claimed that Botvinnik's friends were behind FIDE's decision in 1956 to limit the number of players from the same country who could compete in the Candidate Tournament, and that this was Botvinnik's advantage because it reduced the number of Soviet players he might have to meet. in the title game.
Botvinnik was asked to be allowed to play in the 1956 Candidate Tournament, as he wanted to use the event as part of his warm-up for next year's title, but his request was denied.
Chronic kidney problems Mikhail Tal contributed to his defeat in the return match of 1961 with Botvinnik, and his doctor in Riga suggested that he postpone the match for health reasons. Averbakh claims that Botvinnik will approve a delay only if Tal is declared unfit by a physician Moscow , and Tal then decides to play. The 1961 world championship lasted 21 games and Botvinnik won ten of them, with a total score of 10-5 = 6, recaptured a title that had been lost the previous year and became the oldest winner of the world championship match in the 50th.
In 1963, Botvinnik played his last world championship game against Tigran Petrosian, in a 22-game series. Petrosian, nearly 20 years younger, spent 52-year-old Botvinnik in a long series of matches, most of which moved 40 times, including six consecutive series. The defending champions played poorly in matches 18 and 19, and the game ended with three short draws. Petrosian claimed the world championship with a score of 5-2 = 15.
In 1954, he wrote an article about inciting socialist revolution in western countries, with the aim of spreading communism without a third world war. And in 1960 Botvinnik wrote a letter to the Soviet Government proposing economic reforms that went against the party policy.
In 1976, Soviet grandmasters were asked to sign a letter condemning Viktor Korchnoi as a "traitor" after Korchnoi defected. Botvinnik avoids this "demand" by saying that he wants to write his own letter denouncing Korchnoi. However, at this time, his interests have diminished and officials will not grant him this "privilege", so the name Botvinnik does not appear in the group letters - a result that Botvinnik might have predicted. Bronstein and Boris Spassky openly refused to sign the letter.
Assessment
Plays force and style
Ruben Fine, writing in 1976, observed that Botvinnik was at or near the top of the chess world for thirty years - from 1933, when he played against Flohr, until 1963, when he lost the world championships for the last time, to Petrosian - "an equivalent achievement historically only by Emanuel Lasker and Wilhelm Steinitz". The statistical rating system used in Raymond Keene and Nathan Divinsky's Warriors of the Mind concludes that Botvinnik is the fourth strongest player of all time: behind Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Bobby Fischer but ahead of JosÃÆ'Â © RaÃÆ'ºl Capablanca, Lasker, Viktor Korchnoi, Boris Spassky, Vasily Smyslov, and Tigran Petrosian. The Chessmetrics system was sensitive to the length of the comparable period but placed the third Botvinnik in comparison to the player's best individual years (1946 for Botvinnik) and sixth in a fifteen year period comparison (1935-1949 in the Botvinnik case). In 2005, Chessmetrics creator Jeff Sonas wrote an article that tests various ways to compare the power of "world number one" players, some not based on Chessmetrics; and Botvinnik generally appears as one of the top six (the biggest exception is on criteria associated with tournament results). FIDE did not adopt the Elo rating system until 1970, when the Botvinnik power has been declining for several years. According to unofficial calculations by ÃÆ' rpÃÆ'¡d Elo, Botvinnik was the highest ranked player from 1937 to 1954, peaking around 2730 in 1946.
This may seem surprising in the light of Botvinnik's results in the 1950s and early 1960s, when he failed to win a direct world championship (as defending champions) and his tournament results were not patchy. But after the FIDE world championship cycle was founded in 1948, the defending champions had to play the strongest players every three years, and successful title defense became less common than in the years before World War II, when title holders could vote for challengers. Nevertheless, Botvinnik holds a world title for a longer period of time than his successors except Garry Kasparov. Botvinnik also became world champion at a relatively late age of 37, as World War II brought international competition to a virtual halt for six years; and he was 52 years old when he finally lost his title (only Wilhelm Steinitz and Emanuel Lasker were older when they were defeated). The best years of Botvinnik were from 1935 to 1946; during that period he dominated the Soviet chess; and the USSR victory of 15½-½½ ½ in a 1945 radio game against USA proved that the top players of the Soviet Union were much better than the US (which had dominated the international team competition in the 1930s).
Botvinnik generally seek tense positions with opportunities for both parties; then the result is often better with Black pieces because he can avoid the lines that tend to produce images. He has a strong understanding of long-term strategy, and is often willing to accept weaknesses his opponent can not exploit in return for some of the benefits he can make use of. He claims that he is relatively weak in tactical calculations, but many of his games feature sacrifices - often long-term positional sacrifices whose goal is not to force immediate victory, but to improve his position and weaken his opponent. Botvinnik is also capable of carrying out an all-out casualty attack when he thinks the position is justified. Botvinnik sees himself as a "universal player" (versatile), in contrast to an all-out attacker like Mikhail Tal or a defender like Tigran Petrosian. Ruben Fine considers the collection of Botvinnik as the best game of one of the three most beautiful until the mid-1950s (the other two being Alexander Alekhine and Akiba Rubinstein).
Kasparov quotes Tigran Petrosian as saying, "There is a very unpleasant feeling that can not be avoided, once in conversation with Keres, I mention this and even compare Botvinnik with the bulldozer, who sweeps everything in his path." Keres smiles and says: 'But can you imagine what it's like to play it when he's young? '"
Influence on game
Botvinnik's examples and teaching set a modern approach to preparing competitive chess: regular but moderate physical exercise; analyzing very thoroughly relatively small repertoire openings; annotating own games, those of great past players and those of competitors; publishes a person's annotation so that others can point out any errors; studying strong opponents to discover their strengths and weaknesses; the cruel objectivity of its own strengths and weaknesses. Botvinnik also played many short training matches against powerful grandmasters including Salo Flohr, Yuri Averbakh, Viacheslav Ragozin, and Semion Furman - in a noisy or smoky room if he thought he should deal with such conditions in real competition. Vladimir Kramnik said, "The Botvinnik chess career is the path of a genius, though he is not a genius", which means that Botvinnik is brilliant in utilizing his talents as well as he can.
Botvinnik uses almost exclusively the queen's pawnshop openings with the White part, in eight World Championship games, he never starts the game with the opening of e4, and his usual choice as White is British Opening or the Queen's Gambit. While playing Black, he prefers French Defense or Sicilian Defense in response to 1. e4 and the Slav Defense or Nimzo-Indian Defense in response to 1. d4. While Botvinnik does not use a variety of openings, he contributes greatly to the people he uses, for example: Botvinnik Variations of Semi-Slav Defense in Gambit Ratu Denied, Kasparov/Botvinnik System in Variations of Queen's Gambit Exchange Refused, Caro-Kann Defense Panov-Botvinnik Attack for White and various approaches to Black), French Winawer Defense Variation, Botvinnik System in English Opening. In his opening study, Botvinnik did not aim to produce a tactical tactic that would only be effective once but a system in which it aims to understand their distinctive positions and their possibilities better than its competitors. His advice to his students included "My theory of cracks is put into a notebook" and "You do not have to know what everyone knows, but it's important to know what not everyone knows." In fact he uses various notebooks in different periods, and copies some analyzes from one notebook to the next. The "Soviet School of Chess" which dominated the competition from 1945 to about 2000 followed the Botvinnik approach to preparation and openings research; and, although Soviet players have their preferred style of play, they adopt an aggressive approach and their willingness to ignore the "classical" principles when it does offer a credible prospect of lasting benefits.
In 1963, Botvinnik founded his own school in the Soviet training system, and his graduates included world champion Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, and other top players such as Alexei Shirov, Vladimir Akopian and Jaan Ehlvest. Botvinnik is not a perfect chess talent, though he says of the 11-year-old Kasparov, "The future of chess lies in the hands of this young man," he said at first seeing Karpov, "The boy has no clue about chess, and no future "But Karpov recounts his youthful memories of the Botvinnik school and gives credit to Botvinnik's training, especially the homework he is assigned, with a marked improvement in his own game. Kasparov presents Botvinnik almost as a kind of father figure, in a way to balance public perceptions of Botvinnik as stubborn and aloof; and Kasparov inherited Botvinnik's emphasis on preparation, research, and innovation. Botvinnik still played a major teaching role in the late 70s, when Kramnik entered school, and made a good impression on his students.
Other achievements
Electrical Engineering
Technique is a passion for Botvinnik as chess - in Nottingham in 1936, where he won his first major tournament outside the Soviet Union, he said, "I wish I could do what he did in the field of electrical engineering" (referring to Milan Vidmar, other grandmasters). He was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor for his work at the Ural power plant during World War II (while he also established himself as the world's strongest chess player). He earned a doctorate in electrical engineering in 1951. In 1956, he joined the Research Institute for Electrical Energy as a senior research scientist.
Computer chess
The following table provides Botvinnik placement and score in the tournament. The first "Score" column gives the total number of points in total possible. In the second "Score" column, "" indicates the number of games won, "-" the amount of loss, and "=" the number of draws.
Results of the game
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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