Russia's Mikhail Botvinnik Was World Chess Champ

Mikhail Botvinnik won seven consecutive major tournaments from 1941 to 1948, including the tournament held to determine the champion upon Alexander Alekhine's death. There's little doubt that he would have defeated Alekhine, and it seems certain that he was the best player of the 1940s.
Remarkably, Botvinnik was an engineer by profession and didn't dedicate himself to chess the way most of the champions did. He lost his title to Vasily Smyslov in 1957 but won it back in the return match the next year. He then lost to Mikhail Tal in 1960 but again recaptured the title in the return match. The return match clause, stating that the champion has a right to a rematch if defeated, was stricken in 1963 when he lost to Tigran Petrosian, and no one will ever know whether he would have managed to score the hat trick.

Despite a fairly tarnished record in championship match play, Botvinnik was clearly the best player in the world for many years. None of his challengers could make that claim.

In 1945 a famous radio match took place between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Botvinnik, as black, was paired on the top board against Arnold Denker. The position shown here is reached after white's 22nd move. (Check out Understanding Chess Notation if you need help with reading the moves.)

chess-Botvinnik-shatters
Botvinnik shatters white's king protection with a temporary rook sacrifice.
White is hoping to exchange queens and steer the game into an endgame, but Botvinnik has other plans. He plays 22… Rxh2+. (See part b.)

The game concludes with these moves:

23. Kxh2 Rh8+

24. Qh4

The alternatives were also grim. 24. Bh6 would have lost the queen to 24… Qxf4. Notice that the bishop would have been pinned and unable to capture black's queen. Also, the attempted move 24. Nh5 would have failed to 24… . Rxh5+ 25. Kg3 Rxg5+, when it would have been the white queen's turn to be pinned.

24. … Rxh4+

25. Bxh4 Qf4 0-1

The queen is now attacking both of white's bishops. Because white can only save one of them, Denker resigns.

Mikhail Botvinnik, a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, was a towering figure in the world of chess. Born on August 17, 1911, in Kuokkala (now part of Saint Petersburg), he learned chess at the age of 12 and quickly fell in love with the game.
Botvinnik's chess journey was filled with remarkable achievements. In 1925, at just 14 years old, he defeated the then-world champion Jose Raul Capablanca in a simultaneous exhibition, a feat that announced his arrival on the chess scene. He became a national master in 1927 and won his first Soviet championship in 1931 at the age of 20, repeating this success multiple times throughout his career.
In 1948, he emerged victorious in a tournament to become the sixth world chess champion. He held this title for nearly 15 years, with two brief breaks. His playing style was characterized by iron logic, and he was well - rounded in all aspects of the game, focusing on methodical and long - term strategic play. He considered his style "universal" and could adapt it according to his opponent.
Beyond his playing career, Botvinnik was a pioneer in computer chess and also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist. He is often referred to as the "patriarch of the soviet chess school" as he mentored and trained numerous young soviet players, including future world champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Vladimir Kramnik. Despite retiring from competitive play in 1970, he remained actively involved in the chess world, publishing "Half a Century of Chess" in 1984 and developing computer chess programs in his later years. Mikhail Botvinnik passed away on May 5, 1995, leaving behind a rich legacy in the world of chess.

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