Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born in Kuokkala, near Vyborg, in 1911. He was the son of a dental technician. He first came to the attention of the chess world when, at the age of 14, he defeated the world champion, Jos Ra l Capablanca, in a simultaneous exhibition. His progress was fairly rapid and by the age of 20, having already been a Soviet Master for a few years, he won his first Soviet Championship in 1931. He won the championship again in 1933, 1939, 1941, 1945, and 1952.
When he was 24 years old, Botvinnik was competing on equal terms with the world's elite. He won international tournaments in some of the strongest tournaments of the day. He tied for 1st with Salo Flohr at Moscow in 1935, ahead of Emanuel Lasker and Capablanca. He tied for 1st with Capablanca at Nottingham in 1936. He came in third behind Reuben Fine and Paul Keres at the prestigious AVRO tournament of 1938. In 1941, he won the title of "Absolute Champion of the U.S.S.R" by winning a tournament in which he defeated Paul Keres and future World Champion Vassily Smyslov, amongst other strong Soviet grandmasters such as Isaac Boleslavsky and Andor Lilienthal.
Botvinnik continued to build on these successes and went on to hold the title of World Champion on three separate occasions (1948-57, 1958-60, 1961-63). His longevity at the top level of chess is attributed to his extreme dedication to study. His real strength was pre-match preparation and post-match analysis, technique over tactics, endgame mastery over opening traps. His adoption and development of solid opening lines in the Nimzo-Indian Defence, Slav Defence and Winawer French Defence stood up to the severest scrutiny and he was able to focus on a narrow repertoire of openings during his most important matches, frequently guiding the game into well chosen areas of preparation.
Botvinnik rarely played in post-World War II tournaments while he was World Champion. He also had a mediocre record in world title defense matches. Out of five title defenses, he lost three matches (to Smyslov in 1957, Tal in 1960, and Petrosian in 1963) and struggled to draw the other two (against David Bronstein in 1951 and Smyslov in 1954). However, he did win two world title matches as the challenger, beating Smyslov in 1958 and Tal in 1961.
Three factors contributed to his patchy record. Firstly, World War II broke out just as Botvinnik was entering his prime. Had the war not interrupted international chess competition, he would almost certainly have challenged Alexander Alekhine to a World Championship match in the early 1940s, and might therefore have won the title as many as eight years before he eventually won it in 1948. Secondly, he was one of the only world-class chess players who at the same time had a long and distinguished career in another field. The Soviet government decorated him for his achievements in engineering, and Reuben Fine has recounted stories which strongly imply that Botvinnik was as committed to engineering as he was to chess. Finally, previous world champions had been free to avoid their strongest competitors. Emanuel Lasker became notorious for holding on to his title for as long as possible, repeatedly ducking title matches from the likes of Jos Ra l Capablanca. When FIDE took control of the world championship in 1948, Botvinnik became the first world champion who was forced to play his strongest opponent every three years.
After losing the world title for the final time to Tigrand Petrosian in Moscow of 1963, Botvinnik remained involved in competitive chess, appearing in several highly-rated tournaments and continuing to produce memorable games. At the age of 59, he retired from competitive play in 1970. Instead he preferred to occupy himself with the development of computer chess programs and to assist with the training of younger Soviet players, earning him the nickname of 'Patriarch of the Soviet Chess School'. Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Vladimir Kramnik were just three of the many future grandmasters to have studied under him. A staunch Communist, Botvinik was noticeably shaken by the collapse of the Soviet Union and lost some of his standing in Russian chess during the Boris Yeltsin era. He died of cancer in 1995.
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