Mikhail Moissejewitsch Botvinnik

Mikhail Botvinnik (1962)
Surname	Mikhail Moissejewitsch Botvinnik
Association	Soviet Union , Russia
Born	August 17, 1911 Kuokkala , Grand Duchy of Finland , Russian Empire
Died	May 5, 1995 Moscow
title	Grand Master (1950)
World Champion	1948-1957 1958-1960 1961-1963
Best Elo rating	2885 (October 1945) ( historical )

Mikhail Botvinnik ( Russian Михаил Моисеевич Ботвинник ., Scientific transliteration Mikhail Moiseevic Botvinnik ) August (born 4 ^{. Jul} / 17th August  1911 ^greg. In Kuokkala in the municipality Terijoki , now Repino , St. Petersburg ; † 5. May 1995 in Moscow ) was a Soviet and Russian chess - Grand Master and the sixth world chess champion . As the only world champion, he was able to win back his title twice in fights for revenge after defeats. He is also considered one of the most important and influential people who made the Soviet chess school possible and built it up.

Life

youth

Mikhail Botvinnik came from a well-off Jewish family of dentists. The parents owned a house with several rooms in the center of St. Petersburg. After the October Revolution of 1917 and after the breakup of his parents' marriage, Botvinnik lived with his brother and mother in much more modest circumstances. Nonetheless, he received an upbringing that encouraged his intellectual talents. Botvinnik studied literature at an early stage and became a staunch communist (he joined the Komsomol in 1931 and the WKP (B) in 1940 ). He learned to play chess relatively late, at the age of twelve. Botvinnik became famous when he defeated world champion José Raúl Capablanca in a simultaneous game in 1925 . In the following years his talent for chess developed extremely quickly. As early as 1927, he took part in the 5th USSR championship in Moscow , where he was 5-6. has been. At that time he was already considered one of the leading players in Leningrad.

Mikhail Botvinnik 1927

Botvinnik also took part in the 6th USSR Championship in Odessa in 1929 , which was played in an unusual mode: 36 participants first played out the participants in the semi-final groups in four quarter-final groups of nine players (Botvinnik scored 7 out of 8 in his group), then two semi-finals were played, which had to determine a four-way finals. Botwinnik narrowly missed qualification in his semi-final group in third place and was split 5th – 6th in the final accounts, like two years earlier. His breakthrough within the Soviet Union came in 1930 when he won a very strong championship tournament in Leningrad and at the turn of 1930/31 the Leningrad Championship. Superior, with two points ahead, Botvinnik won the 7th USSR Championship in Moscow, then he won two championship tournaments in Leningrad: 1932/33 and 1933, and again at the USSR Championship in 1933.

International fame

Botvinnik's long-time friend Salo Flohr described chess life in the USSR as follows: “ After Moscow 1925 [the international tournament] there was a long standstill; no Russian came to the West, no foreigner came to Moscow. Almost nothing was known about what was going on in chess in the Soviet Union. There was almost no literature in the West, and everything was in Russian, a language that is difficult to read. “Nevertheless, the Western chess masters took notice of Botvinnik's successes and recognized the high quality of his games in Soviet tournaments. Flohr, at that time one of the leading chess players in the world, asked Alexander Ilyin-Schenewski , a chess master and Soviet chess official who was in diplomatic service in Prague , a competition with Botvinnik, which was held in Moscow and Leningrad in 1933. This competition, which ended in a draw 6: 6 after 12 games, showed the level that Botvinnik had already reached. After his victory in Leningrad in 1934, Botvinnik took part in a tournament abroad for the first time: Hastings 1934/35, which, however, ended with a bitter disappointment for him, because he was only shared fifth to sixth. Botvinnik's communist convictions and his hard-earned successes gave him a lot of support from high-ranking politicians. One of his supporters was Nikolai Krylenko , a high-ranking party official, who gave Botvinnik every privilege (including a car) that would help him develop.

Botvinnik versus Lasker in 1936

Botwinnik's result in Hastings was made up for by excellent success at the international tournaments in Moscow in 1935 and 1936. Botwinnik won in 1935 together with Salo Flohr in front of ex-world champions Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca and in 1936 came second behind Capablanca. In the same year Botvinnik won first prize at his second tournament abroad together with Capablanca in Nottingham , where he also met Alexander Alekhine . These significant successes established Botvinnik at the top of the world and he was considered one of the possible World Cup candidates. After the Nottingham tournament, Botvinnik began his thesis for the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute , which he successfully defended in July 1937 before the college of the Electromechanical Faculty. This year he was therefore unable to take part in the USSR championship in Tbilisi , but in the fall of that year he played a competition in Leningrad against the winner of the championship Grigory Lionfish , which ended in a draw (6.5: 6.5).

During the competition, Botvinnik's childhood friend Sergei Mikhailovich Kaminer unexpectedly turned up and gave Botvinnik a booklet with his chess studies . Botvinnik kept it, even after Kaminer was murdered in the Great Terror a year later, on November 2, 1938 . In the 1950s, Botvinnik made the possession of the notebook known, which was finally used for a chess book in 1982.

In 1938 he participated in the AVRO - tournament in the Netherlands in part, which was a test of strength of world champion with his challengers. Botwinnik was third behind Paul Keres and Reuben Fine , ahead of Alekhine, Max Euwe and Capablanca, whom he defeated in a brilliant match. Then Alekhine and Botvinnik entered into negotiations about a world championship fight, but the outbreak of World War II prevented further planning for the time being.

Second world war and world championship title

Until the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, chess life was undisturbed. Botvinnik won the 11th USSR championship in Leningrad in 1939, but in 1940 he shared only 5th to 6th place in the 12th USSR championship. The winner of this 12th championship was supposed to be the official Soviet challenger Alekhine. It is widely believed that Botvinnik's closeness to those in power made it possible to hold a competitive tournament for the USSR Absolute Championship in 1941 . The six winners of the 12th championship took part in this tournament in Leningrad and Moscow: Boleslavski, Bondarewski, Botvinnik, Keres, Lilienthal and Smyslow. Botvinnik won with 13.5 out of 20 possible points (four games were played against each other). In 1941 Botvinnik fled with his family to Molotov , where he worked for the energy authority. Botvinnik's contacts with Vyacheslav Molotov gave him from 1943 the privilege to restrict his official work and to devote himself increasingly to chess again. In the same year Botvinnik won undefeated at a strong Soviet championship tournament in Sverdlovsk , in 1943/44 he won the Moscow championship, in 1944 the 13th USSR championship, in 1945 the 14th USSR championship. After the war, Botvinnik took part in the first major international post-war tournament in Groningen in 1946, which he won ahead of Max Euwe. World champion Alekhine, who sympathized with Nazi Germany during the war and had written anti-Semitic propaganda, was not invited to this tournament. Alekhin's shattered reputation did not prevent the Soviet Chess Federation from resuming negotiations over a world championship match with Botvinnik. A competition was planned in London for 1946 , but Alekhine's unexpected death in March 1946 created a new situation. The Soviet Chess Federation became a member of the world federation FIDE , which took over the organization of the world championship. Botvinnik won the 1947 Moscow Mikhail Chigorin memorial tournament before the FIDE World Cup tournament in 1948 in The Hague and Moscow , in which Botvinnik Vasily Smyslow , Paul Keres , Samuel Reshevsky and Max Euwe took part. Following the example of the Absolute Master's Tournament in 1941, the five participants each played five games against each other. Botvinnik won with a three point lead (14 out of 20) and became the sixth world chess champion .

Promotion and title defense

After winning in 1948, Botvinnik retired from chess for three years, engaged in scientific work and received a doctorate in electrical engineering . Until his first title defense in 1951 against David Bronstein , he only played training, but no tournament games. Botvinnik could only achieve one draw (12:12) in the competition, which was enough to defend his title. Botvinnik fell in many parts in time trouble , the lack of match practice led to unexpected difficulties. Rumors that Bronstein had been urged to lose by the highest authority were not confirmed.

The intensive chess promotion in the Soviet Union, co-founded and supported by Botvinnik in the 1930s and 1940s, bore its first fruits in the 1950s: a large number of chess masters at the highest level, superior to Western players, were ready to climb to the top. Botvinnik won the tournament for the 20th USSR Championship in 1952 together with the 24-year-old Mark Taimanow and defeated this in 1953 in a playoff with 3.5: 2.5. Botvinnik's next challenger for the world championship throne, the Russian Vasily Smyslow, won a draw (12:12) in the 1954 World Cup fight. Botvinnik later shared first place with Smyslov at the Alekhine memorial tournament in Moscow in 1956.

Loss of title and regaining

László Szabó - Michail Botwinnik, European team championship Oberhausen 1961

Michail Botvinnik, 1961 Detail of the above photos

Smyslow was also Botvinnik's challenger in 1957. This time Botvinnik lost with 9.5: 12.5 and lost his title to the Muscovite who was ten years younger than him. However, the world champion received the privilege of a fight for revenge from FIDE in 1956, and so it came to the third world championship fight of the two rivals in 1958, this time with a much better prepared Botvinnik, who took back the title with 12.5: 10.5. This privilege also came into play with Botvinnik's next challenger, the young Michail Tal : In 1960, the defending champion was defeated by the combination-strong Tal with 8.5: 12.5, but Botvinnik, now 50, scored 13: 8 in the rematch one year later -Success against the sick compatriot.

Final loss of title and withdrawal from chess

The world chess federation FIDE abolished the regulation on the rematch fight despite the criticism of Botvinnik. In 1963 Botvinnik finally lost his title to Tigran Petrosyan . The competition ended 9.5: 12.5. Botvinnik made no more attempts to qualify for a world championship fight, but played some strong international tournaments until 1970. He won in Noordwijk in 1965 , in Amsterdam in 1966 , in Hastings in 1966/67 and in Beverwijk in 1969 . He finished second in Palma in 1967 (together with Vasily Smyslow, behind Bent Larsen ) and in Monte Carlo in 1968. His last tournament was Leiden in 1970, when he was tied for third behind Boris Spasski and Bent Larsen. Dutch sponsors proposed to Botwinnik a competition with the American Bobby Fischer in Beverwijk in 1969 . Botvinnik was happy to do this, but this match, for which Botvinnik had been preparing by September 1969, failed on Fischer's condition that he play six winning games. Botvinnik wanted to see the competition limited to 18 games due to his advanced age. Botvinnik summed up: " He could have learned a lot from me ".

Botvinnik's chess school and computer development

After 1970, Botvinnik devoted himself to scientific research and the promotion of young chess talents. A chess program he had planned called Pioneer got to the stage at which it supposedly could already solve some studies, but it was never completed. Compared to the brute force approach and a sophisticated evaluation of different positions by today's chess programs, Botwinnik took the approach of only considering pieces and moves that are important for chess-immanent reasons in the respective position, i.e. he was striving for real artificial intelligence . For this work, Botvinnik was awarded the title Doctor honoris causa by the Mathematical Faculty of the University of Ferrara in 1991 . Botvinnik's most important students in his talent factory, the Botvinnik Chess School , include the three world champions Anatoli Karpow , Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, as well as a large number of today's top players. During perestroika , however, there was an alienation between Botvinnik and his best student Kasparov, due to different political views . Mikhail Botvinnik died in Moscow in 1995.

Play style

Botvinnik's particular strengths lay in his willpower and, above all, in his thorough preparation for the respective opponents. For example, at the tournament in Moscow in 1935 he defeated the Austrian grandmaster Rudolf Spielmann with a prepared opening variant in just 12 moves. In many other games, too, he managed to reach positions that he had previously analyzed in depth and therefore understood better than his opponents. Botvinnik is considered to be the first chess player who did his preparation at this very high level. His methodology in preparing for the opening was trend-setting for generations, nowadays chess databases are used for this purpose . He created dossiers about his opponents in which he documented their chess strengths and weaknesses. The notebooks for his competitions against Bronstein 1951, Smyslow 1954–1958, Tal 1961 and Petrosjan 1963 have been published from his estate.

He was also a leader in the analysis of endgames for many years. One of the most famous hanging games in chess history came about at the 1962 Chess Olympiad in Varna , when he saved a worse rook ending to a draw against Bobby Fischer . After Botvinnik had played abroad for the first time (in Hastings 1934) and got to know the playing conditions prevailing in the West, he deliberately switched on the radio in individual training games and let cigarette smoke blow in his face. In this way he trained himself to be insensitive to sources of interference. In order not to give any clues to his possible opponents, Botvinnik's training competitions were kept secret for many years. Svetozar Gligorić wrote in 1972 that even his best friends were not let in on his preparations. It is now known that Vyacheslav Ragosin , Ilja Kan , Juri Averbach and Semjon Furman were among his preferred training partners.

His long-standing rival Vasily Smyslow characterized Botvinnik as follows: “ You could see a clear strategic idea in his game. He was an explorer by character and the basis of his style was the search for truth. In the years when there were no computers, Botvinnik's in-depth analysis anticipated the direction of modern chess, which uses computer technology on a large scale to accumulate and generalize knowledge. "

His training methods and his logical-scientific style of play influenced a whole generation of chess, which is why he was also called the Patriarch of the Soviet Chess School .

A line of the Slavic Defense is named after Botvinnik . He also wrote some studies .

Chess composition

M. Botvinnik, Schachmatny Listok 1925

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

White to move wins

Botvinnik composed several studies in the course of his chess career . His first work was published in June 1925 in the journal Schachmatny Listok . The solution is: 1. g4 + Kh4 second Bh6 Dxh6 3. Dh2 + kg5 4. Qd2 + Nf4 5. Qd8 matt .

Private

Botvinnik was married and had a daughter.

Awards

• 1936: Decoration of Honor of the Soviet Union
• 1945: Honored Master of Sports
• 1957: Order of Lenin
• 1961: Order of the Red Banner of Labor
• 1981: Order of the October Revolution

In 2017 the Russian airline Aeroflot named a Boeing 737-800 after him.

successes

• World champion 1948–1957, 1958–1960, 1961–1963
• USSR champions 1931, 1933, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1945 and 1952
• Gold medal at Chess Olympiads (with the USSR): 1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964
• highest historical rating : 2885 (in October 1945); according to this back calculation, it was first from May 1936 to February 1937, the longest from August 1944 to May 1950, and most recently in May 1958 the No. 1 in the world rankings

Lots

• Botvinnik - Capablanca, Rotterdam 1938
• Botvinnik - Alekhine, AVRO tournament Amsterdam 1938
• Rauser-Botvinnik, USSR Championship Leningrad 1933

List of tournament and competition results

year	competition	place	Result / score	rank
1923	School championship	Petrograd	unknown	10th place
1924	School championship	Leningrad	5/6 (+5 = 0 −1)	1st place
	Tournament without a category	Leningrad	11.5 / 13 (+11 = 1 −1)	1st place
	Category 3 and 2b tournament	Leningrad	8.5 / 11 (+7 = 3 −1)	1st place
	Category 2a tournament	Leningrad	2/3 (+12 = 0 −1)	not finished
1925	Competition with N. Liutow	Leningrad	3.5 / 5 (+3 = 1 −1)	Botvinnik won with 3.5-1.5
	Team fights of the electrical industry union	Leningrad	2/2 (+2 = 0 −0)
	Category 2a and 1b tournament	Leningrad	9/10 (+9 = 0 −1)	1st place
	Youth tournament	Leningrad	9.5 / 10 (+9 = 1 −0)	1st place
	1st category tournament	Leningrad	7.5 / 11 (+7 = 1 −3)	3rd to 4th space
	1st category tournament	Leningrad	7/8 (+7 = 0 −1)	Tournament not finished
1925/26	Team championship of the trade unions	Leningrad	1.5 / 3 (+1 = 1 −1)	Botvinnik played for the electrical industry union
1926	Semi-finals of the 5th championship of Leningrad	Leningrad	11.5 / 12 (+11 = 1 −0)	1st place
	Moscow-Leningrad competition	Moscow	0.5 / 2 (+0 = 1 −1)	Botvinnik played for Leningrad
	5th Championship of Leningrad	Leningrad	7/9 (+6 = 2 −1)	2-3 space
	Semi-finals for the championship of the north-west region	Leningrad	9/11 (+8 = 2 −1)	2-3 space
	Championship of the north-west region	Leningrad	6.5 / 10 (+4 = 5 −1)	3rd place
	Stockholm-Leningrad competition	Stockholm	1.5 / 2 (+1 = 1 −0)	Botvinnik played against Gosta Stoltz
1927	Metal team fight: Moscow-Leningrad	Moscow	1.5 / 2 (+1 = 1 −0)	Botvinnik played for Leningrad
	Leningrad-Moscow competition	Leningrad	1.5 / 2 (+1 = 1 −0)	Botvinnik played for Leningrad
	Comparison competition of the unions	Leningrad	1/1 (+1 = 0 −0)
	6 champions tournament	Leningrad	7.5 / 10 (+6 = 3 −1)	2nd place
	5th USSR Championship	Moscow	12.5 / 20 (+9 = 7 −4)	5th-6th space
1927/28	Metal championship	Leningrad	8.5 / 11 (+7 = 3 −1)	1st place
1928	University competition Leningrad- Rostov	Leningrad	1.5 / 2 (+1 = 1 −0)	Botvinnik played for Leningrad
1928/29	Union championship	Leningrad	10.5 / 13 (+8 = 5 −0)	1st place
1929	4-city tournament of the university teams	Moscow	2/3 (+1 = 2 −0)	for Leningrad
	Quarter-finals for the 6th USSR Championship	Odessa	7/8 (+6 = 2 −0)	1st place
	Semi-final of the 6th USSR championship	Odessa	2.5 / 5 (+2 = 1 −2)	3rd to 4th space
1930	Championship tournament	Leningrad	6.5 / 8 (+6 = 1 −1)	1st place
	Leningrad-Moscow competition	Leningrad	2/2 (+2 = 0 −0)	for Leningrad
1930/31	8th Leningrad Championship	Leningrad	14/17 (+12 = 4 −1)	1st place
1931	Team tournament of the electrical industry union	Leningrad	4/4 (+4 = 0 −0)
	Semi-finals for the 7th USSR Championship	Moscow	6.5 / 9 (+6 = 1 −2)	2nd place
	7th USSR Championship	Moscow	13.5 / 17 (+12 = 3 −2)	1st place
1932	9th Leningrad Championship	Leningrad	10/11 (+9 = 2 −0)	1st place
1932/33	Master tournament in the 'House of Scientists'	Leningrad	7/10 (+6 = 2 −2)	1st place
1933	Championship tournament	Leningrad	10/13 (+7 = 6 −0)	1st place
	8th USSR Championship	Leningrad	14/19 (+11 = 6 −2)	1st place
	Competition with Salo Flohr	Moscow / Leningrad	6/12 (+2 = 8 −2)	Tie 6: 6
1934	Comparative team fight of the trade unions of the electrical industry: Leningrad-Moscow	Leningrad	2/2 (+2 = 0 −0)	Botvinnik played for Leningrad
	Master tournament with the participation of Max Euwe	Leningrad	7.5 / 11 (+5 = 5 −1)	1st place
1934/35	International tournament	Hastings	5/9 (+3 = 4 −2)	5th-6th space
1935	International tournament	Moscow	13/19 (+9 = 8 −2)	1st – 2nd space
1936	International tournament	Moscow	12/18 (+7 = 10 −1)	2nd place
	International tournament	Nottingham	10/14 (+6 = 8 −0)	1st – 2nd space
1937	Competition with Grigori lionfish	Moscow / Leningrad	6.5 / 13 (+5 = 3 −5)	Tie 6.5: 6.5
1938	Semi-final of the 11th USSR championship	Leningrad	14/17 (+12 = 4 −1)	1st place
	AVRO tournament	Amsterdam , The Hague , Rotterdam , Groningen , Zwolle , Haarlem , Utrecht , Arnhem , Breda and Leiden	7.5 / 14 (+3 = 9 −2)	3rd place
1939	11th USSR Championship	Leningrad	12.5 / 17 (+8 = 9 −0)	1st place
1940	Competition with Vyacheslav Ragosin	Moscow / Leningrad	8.5 / 12 (+5 = 7 −0)	Botvinnik won with 8.5-3.5
	12th USSR Championship	Moscow	11.5 / 19 (+8 = 7 −4)	5th-6th space
1941	Tournament for the Absolute Championship of the USSR	Leningrad / Moscow	13.5 / 20 (+9 = 9 −2)	1st place
1943	Grand Masters Tournament	Sverdlovsk	13.5 / 14 (+7 = 7 −0)	1st place
1943/44	23rd championship of Moscow	Moscow	12.5 / 15 (+11 = 3 −1)	1st place
1944	13th USSR Championship	Moscow	12.5 / 16 (+11 = 3 −2)	1st place
1945	14th USSR Championship	Moscow	16/18 (+14 = 4 −0)	1st place
	USSR-USA radio competition	radio	2/2 (+2 = 0 −0)	on the 1st board against Arnold Denker
	USSR-Great Britain radio competition	radio	1/2 (+1 = 0 −1)	on the 1st board against Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander
1946	International tournament	Groningen	14.5 / 19 (+13 = 3 −3)	1st place
	USSR-USA competition	Moscow	1.5 / 2 (+1 = 1 −0)	on the 1st board against Samuel Reshevsky
1947	International Chigorin Memorial Tournament	Moscow	11/15 (+8 = 6 −1)	1st place
1948	World championship tournament	The Hague / Moscow	14/20 (+10 = 8 −2)	1st place, Botvinnik became world champion
1951	Competition for the world championship against David Bronstein	Moscow	12/24 (+5 = 14 −5)	Tie 12:12; Botvinnik remained world champion
	19th USSR Championship	Moscow	10/17 (+6 = 8 −3)	5th place
1952	International Maróczy Memorial Tournament	Budapest	11/17 (+7 = 8 −2)	3rd to 5th space
	20th USSR Championship	Moscow	13.5 / 19 (+9 = 9 −1)	1st – 2nd space
1953	Play-off fight for the 20th USSR championship against Mark Taimanow	Moscow	3.5 / 6 (+2 = 3 −1)	Botvinnik won by 3.5-2.5
1954	Competition for the world championship against Vasily Smyslow	Moscow	12/24 (+7 = 14 −7)	Tie 12:12; Botvinnik remained world champion
	Chess Olympiad	Amsterdam	8.5 / 11 (+6 = 5 −0)	on the 1st board for the USSR
1955	22nd USSR Championship	Moscow	11.5 / 19 (+7 = 9 −3)	3rd to 5th space
	USSR-USA competition	Moscow	1.5 / 4 (+0 = 3 −1)	on the 1st board against Samuel Reshevsky
1956	Chess Olympiad	Moscow	9.5 / 13 (+6 = 7 −0)	on the 1st board for the USSR
	International Alekhine -Gedenkturnier	Moscow	11/15 (+8 = 6 −1)	1st – 2nd space
1957	Competition for the world championship against Vasily Smyslow	Moscow	9.5 / 22 (+3 = 13 −6)	Botvinnik lost 9.5-12.5; Smyslow becomes world champion
1958	Revenge competition for the world championship against Vasily Smyslow	Moscow	12.5 / 23 (+7 = 11 −5)	Botvinnik won 12.5-10.5 and became world champion again
	Chess Olympiad	Munich	9/12 (+7 = 4 −1)	on the 1st board for the USSR
	International tournament	Wageningen	4/5 (+3 = 2 −0)	1st place
1959	USSR Spartakiad	Moscow	4/7 (+1 = 6 −0)	on the 1st board for Moscow
1960	Competition for the world championship against Michail Tal	Moscow	8.5 / 21 (+2 = 13 −6)	Botvinnik loses 8.5-12.5; Tal became world champion
	Chess Olympiad	Leipzig	10.5 / 13 (+8 = 5 −0)	on the 2nd board for the USSR
	Moscow-Leningrad competition	Moscow	0.5 / 2 (+0 = 1 −1)	on the 1st board for Moscow against Viktor Korchnoi
1961	Revenge competition for the world championship against Mikhail Tal	Moscow	13/21 (+10 = 6 −5)	Botvinnik won 13-9 and became world champion again
	European team championship	Oberhausen	6/9 (+4 = 4 −1)	on the 1st board for the USSR
1961/62	International tournament	Hastings	8/9 (+7 = 2 −0)	1st place
1962	International tournament	Stockholm	8.5 / 9 (+8 = 1 −0)	1st place
	Chess Olympiad	Varna	8/11 (+5 = 6 −1)	on the 1st board for the USSR
1963	Competition for the world championship against Tigran Petrosyan	Moscow	9.5 / 22 (+2 = 15 −5)	Botvinnik lost 9.5-12.5; Petrosyan became world champion
	USSR Spartakiad	Moscow	8/9 (+7 = 2 −0)	on the 1st board for Moscow
	International tournament	Amsterdam	4/5 (+3 = 2 −0)	1st place
1964	Moscow team championship	Moscow	1.5 / 2 (+1 = 1 −0)
	Team tournament Moscow collectives	Moscow	4.5 / 5 (+4 = 1 −0)
	USSR team championship	Moscow	4.5 / 6 (+3 = 3 −0)	1. Board for Trud
	Chess Olympiad	Tel Aviv	9/12 (+7 = 4 −1)	on the 2nd board for the USSR
1965	International tournament	Noordwijk	6/7 (+5 = 2 −0)	1st place
	Moscow Trade Union Spartakiad	Moscow	2.5 / 4 (+2 = 1 −1)
	Team championship of the Trud club	Moscow	4.5 / 5 (+4 = 1 −0)	1st board for Trud Moscow
	European team championship	Hamburg	3.5 / 8 (+2 = 3 −3)	on the 2nd board for the USSR
	Spartakiad of the trade unions of the USSR	Moscow	2.5 / 4 (+2 = 1 −1)
	Moscow-Leningrad competition	Moscow	2/2 (+2 = 0 −0)	on the 2nd board for Moscow against Alexander Tolusch
1966	Moscow team championship	Moscow	3/5 (+1 = 4 −0)
	Team championship of the Trud club	Moscow	3.5 / 4 (+3 = 1 −0)	1st board for Trud Moscow
	International tournament	Amsterdam	7.5 / 9 (+7 = 1 −1)	1st place
	USSR team championship	Moscow	6/9 (+5 = 2 −2)	1. Board for Trud
1966/67	International tournament	Hastings	6.5 / 9 (+5 = 3 −1)	1st place
1967	Moscow team championship	Moscow	5/7 (+3 = 4 −0)
	USSR Spartakiad	Moscow	6/8 (+5 = 2 −1)	on the 2nd board for Moscow
	International tournament	Palma	12.5 / 17 (+9 = 7 −1)	2-3 space
1968	International tournament	Monte Carlo	9/13 (+5 = 8 −0)	2nd place
1969	International tournament	Beverwijk	10.5 / 15 (+6 = 9 −0)	1st – 2nd space
	Moscow Trade Union Spartakiad	Moscow	2/3 (+1 = 2 −0)
	International tournament	Belgrade	8.5 / 15 (+5 = 7 −3)	7th place
1970	USSR-rest of the world competition	Belgrade	2.5 / 4 (+1 = 3 −0)	on the 8th board for the USSR against Milan Matulović
	International tournament	Suffer	5.5 / 12 (+1 = 9 −2)	3rd to 4th space

literature

• Mikhail Botvinnik: Chess memories. Rau, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-7919-0196-6 .
• KARL , the cultural chess magazine: Focus: Michail Botvinnik . 2005 (3), ISSN  1438-9673 .
• Garry Kasparov: Moi welikie predschestwenniki. Tom 2: Od Euwe do Talja [My great predecessors. Volume 2: from Euwe to Tal], Moscow 2003, ISBN 5-7905-2239-4 .
• Hans Müller : Botvinnik teaches chess. Verlag Das Schach-Archiv, Hamburg undated
• Andrew Soltis : Mikhail Botvinnik. The Life and Games of a World Champion. McFarland, Jefferson 2014. ISBN 978-0-7864-7337-3 .
• Alexei Suetin : The chess genius Botvinnik. Sportverlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-328-00340-1 .
• Jan Timman : Botvinnik's secret games. Hardinge Simpole, Aylesbeare 2006, ISBN 1-84382-178-8 .

Web links

Commons : Michail Moissejewitsch Botvinnik  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Michail Moissejewitsch Botwinnik in the catalog of the German National Library
• Botwinnik's Secret Matches ( Memento from June 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English, 96 games from Botwinnik's training competitions; with foreword and comments by Jan Timman. PDF, 505 kB)
• Replayable chess games by Michail Moissejewitsch Botvinnik on chessgames.com (English)
• Entry in the encyclopedia "Krugosvet" (Russian)
• Mikhail Botwinnik: The Wayward Patriarch (Overview of Life and Career)
• Compositions by Mikhail Moissejewitsch Botvinnik on the Schwalbe's PDB server

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dagobert Kohlmeyer : Botvinnik 100 In: de.chessbase.com. August 17, 2011, accessed October 27, 2019.
2. ↑ Hans Müller: Botwinnik teaches chess , Hamburg undated, p. 6.
3. ^ Mikhail Botvinnik, One Hundred Selected Games , Dover, New York 1960, p. 143.
4. ↑ According to information from Botvinnik, in: Rafael Moissejewitsch Kofman: Isbrannyje etjudy S. Kaminera i M. Liburkina, Fiskultura i sport, Moscow 1981, pp. 3-4 (Russian).
5. ↑ Alexei Suetin: Das Schachgenie Botwinnik , Berlin 1990, p. 265.
6. ↑ Jan Timman: Botvinnik's secret games , Aylesbeare 2006. All surviving games are also printed there
7. ↑ Garry Kasparov: Moi welikie predschestwenniki [My great predecessors], Moscow 2003, p. 282.
8. ^ Max Euwe , Hans Kmoch : Staunton Tournament Groningen 1946 , Edition Olms Zürich 1990, ISBN 3-283-00065-4 , p. 15.
9. ↑ Anatoli Karpow et al. a .: Chess - encyclopedic dictionary . Sowjetskaja enzyklopedija, Moscow 1990, ISBN 5-85270-005-3 , pp. 43-44. (Russian)
10. ↑ Aeroflot enhances fleet with two new Boeing 737-800s , Aeroflot, December 5, 2017
11. ↑ The chess players in the USSR were classified into different categories: There were categories 1 to 3, whereby the 1st category was a higher rank than the 2nd category, etc. The players could increase their rank in category tournaments. A player who stood out above the 1st category position became a candidate for the championship , or a master at a higher level . Outstanding masters became Grand Masters of the USSR .
12. ↑ As radio competitions, some country battles were played by allied states shortly after the end of the Second World War. The individual moves were broadcast by radio and received by the opposing team, who then broadcast their moves, etc. Played on several boards. Botvinnik, the best player in the Soviet Union, always played on board 1.