Mikhail botvinnik - biography, information, personal life. Mikhail Botvinnik (6th champion) Mikhail Botvinnik biography

Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911 in the village of Kuokkala, Leningrad Region. Father Moisey Girshovich worked as a dental technician, mother Shifra Samoilovna was a dentist. According to the recollections of Mikhail, his father was a physically strong man with a tough character.

When the boy was 9 years old, Moisei Girshovich, carried away by an affair on the side, left his wife and children. The mother of the great chess player was a sickly woman, she often lay in hospitals, so the housekeeping fell on the shoulders of Misha's older brother Isaac. Throughout their lives, the brothers had a close relationship, and after the death of Isaac, Mikhail Moiseevich took upon himself to provide for the family of his older brother.

Becoming a master

At the age of 12, Misha discovered the world of chess, while the boy preferred to study on his own, rather than in a chess club located not far from his home. He sat for hours over books on strategy and tactics of the game, analyzed various positions and tested his theories over the chessboard in many acts. His scrupulous approach to the study of chess bore fruit, after 2 years, at the age of 14, Mikhail won a phenomenal victory at the championship of Leningrad, having received 11.5 points out of 12 possible.

2 years later, in 1927, Mikhail Moiseevich took part in the USSR Championship, where he received the title of Master of Sports, taking 5-6 place. In the same year, he tried to go to college, but was refused, motivated by the fact that Botvinnik is too young for a university education! But the thought of a technical profession did not leave the young man, and a year later Mikhail became a student at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, having brilliantly passed the entrance exams.

For 5 years, the young man had to combine studies and playing chess. Despite the fact that it was quite difficult, Mikhail was only honing his skills. This was evidenced by the victory in the USSR championship of 1931, where Botvinnik passed the tournament without defeat, the match in 1933 with the Czechoslovak grandmaster Salo Flor, which ended in a draw, and the duel with Max Euwe in 1934, from which Mikhail Moiseevich left the winner. And all this against the background of the defense of the dissertation, which he successfully presented to the graduation committee.

Demanding self as the key to success

The secret of Botvinnik's amazing performance is due to the fact that Mikhail Moiseevich, possessing a phenomenal analytical mindset, was able to put his genius into practice. He very seriously approached the issue of preparing chess players for competitions, believed that an athlete must pay attention not only to solving intellectual problems, but also to engage in physical training. Botvinnik, by his own example, proved the effectiveness of this approach: he did exercises every day, did not smoke or drink. His method of preparing for tournaments has become a landmark for many generations of chess players.

Black haired beauty

It would seem that such a rich scientific and professional activity simply leaves no room for personal life. But fate decreed that in the same 1934 year Mikhail Moiseevich was lucky to meet his love - the ballerina Gayana Davidovna Ananova.

They met by chance: Mikhail was late for a meeting with his friend, came when everyone was already at the table, sat down next to a black-haired beauty who immediately fascinated him. That same evening, absolutely happy saw her off in the pouring rain. A year later, Ganochka, as Botvinnik affectionately called her, became his wife.

Throughout her life together, Gayana Davidovna was a support to her husband, accompanied him in tournaments, and encouraged him before the game. And if, due to some circumstances, she could not go to the competition with him, she always gave valuable instructions, advised not to be distracted by anything and always stay calm before the game. In 1942, the couple had a daughter, Olga. The couple have been married for 52 years (in 1987, the chess player was widowed).

War and chess

In the mid-30s, being one of the strongest chess players in the Soviet Union, Mikhail Moiseevich became the main contender for the world championship. Therefore, a logical continuation of Botvinnik's career was the challenge to the match of the reigning world champion Alexander Alekhin. In 1939, Alexander Alexandrovich gave his consent to a match with a young chess player. The upcoming game was also approved by the government of the USSR, despite the fact that Alekhine preferred bourgeois Europe to his native country. But, the Second World War made its own adjustments to the negotiations and Alekhine could not come to the country of the Soviets. The match was postponed indefinitely.

Throughout the Great Patriotic War, Mikhail Moiseevich worked as an electrical engineer in Perm. At the same time, the great chess player did not stop participating in competitions, so in 1943 he became the winner in the tournament of masters that took place in Sverdlovsk, from 1943 to 1944 he took part out of competition in the championships of Moscow. And in the victorious 1945th year, he successfully performed as part of the Soviet team in a radio match with chess players from the United States.

Long-awaited title of champion

In 1945, Alexander Alekhin published an article in a specialized magazine where he confirmed his consent to the match with Botvinnik. For Mikhail Moiseevich, this meant that he would finally be able to compete for the title of world champion. But, unexpectedly for everyone, Alekhine died under mysterious circumstances in March of the following year.

Botvinnik took this news hard, because he would have to go all the way again to reach the world championship, since Alexander Alexandrovich died as the reigning world champion. But the chess federation decided that the fight with Max Euwe, which took place in 1948 and brought victory to Botvinnik, makes him the world champion! Mikhail Moiseevich became the first Soviet grandmaster. Thanks to him, the world community started talking about the fact that the Soviet chess school is one of the best in the world!

Nine years later, Botvinnik lost his champion title to Vasily Smyslov, but a year later, after the defeat, he restored the title of world champion in a rematch. A similar situation was in the chess match with Mikhail Tal in 1960, when Botvinnik was defeated, but a year later he regained his position by defeating his opponent in a rematch. The victory in repeated meetings with rivals was natural for Mikhail Moiseevich. He always studied his opponent during the match, his style of play, weaknesses and strengths, and then engaged in in-depth analysis of his mistakes and the advantages of his opponent. Based on the results obtained, he could build the correct strategy for the game, which would certainly bring victory.

Stopping the fight?

In 1963, after Botvinnik was defeated in a duel with Tigran Petrosyan, Mikhail Moiseevich officially announced that he would no longer fight for the title of world champion. But he did not leave the path of a chess player, for many years Botvinnik was the permanent leader of the youth chess school, where Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov began their career at different times. By the way, Mikhail Moiseevich did not pin any particular hopes on the latter, believing that Anatoly Evgenievich would not make a good chess player. Perhaps this is the only time Botvinnik made a mistake in his calculations.

In parallel with his chess career, Botvinnik did not abandon his scientific career. 14 years after he received his Ph.D., Mikhail Moiseevich defended his doctoral dissertation in electronics. He became the author of several inventions, among which is the "adaptation to the tank for the implementation of the jump."

And at the end of the 50s, the chess genius was carried away by a new idea - the creation of an artificial intelligence "Pioneer", which could perform on a par with a chess master. The scientist devoted almost 30 years of his life to the development of this project.

Mikhail Moiseevich was devoted to his homeland. Soviet ideology always found the most sincere response in his soul. All his activities, be it chess or science, were aimed primarily at benefiting his country, which he loved dearly.

For a long time Botvinnik supported Stalin's policy, considering it correct in the current post-war situation. But in 1952, when the “doctors' case” began, Mikhail Moiseevich stopped believing in the infallibility of the leader of the peoples. Then he refused to sign a letter on the deportation of Jews to Siberia and the public execution of doctors.

Nevertheless, the chess master enjoyed the special favor of the government. So, for example, he was able to "knock out" for himself a plot for a dacha on Nikolinskaya Gora in Moscow, only by writing a letter to Georgy Malenkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Botvinnik even tried to influence the economic situation in the country and the world by his actions, proposing to the government of the USSR in 1954 a program that included a symbiosis of the socialist and capitalist approaches to the conduct of the national economy. Mikhail Moiseevich noted in his address that the use of computer technology will effectively manage all processes of the economy. But the Central Committee of the CPSU considered such an innovative approach bourgeois, and even raised the question of expelling Botvinnik from the party, but the colossal authority of the patriarch played into his hands - the case was quickly "hushed up".

Endgame

Mikhail Moiseevich died of pancreatic cancer on May 5, 1995 in his Moscow apartment. Until his very last breath, Botvinnik maintained a pure mind, and despite the wild pains, he had great calmness and courage in the face of the inevitable. A few days before his death, he ordered his funeral. He bequeathed to cremate his body and bury the urn at the Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife.

Chess Quotes

"The world is forever divided into two irreconcilable camps - chess players and non-chess players."

"Often the winner is the one who has more endurance, who does not get lost in difficult situations, who maintains composure until the end of the game, who has a stronger will."

"Chess is not only a struggle of minds, but also a struggle of nerves."

"One who does not have higher education can never become a world champion."

Video about the life of an outstanding grandmaster

Mikhail Botvinnik

During his long life (1911-1995) he conquered more than one peak of success. He became the first Soviet world chess champion and was almost permanent from 1948 to 1963. Grandmaster of the USSR, international grandmaster and referee in chess composition; absolute champion of the USSR, patriarch of the Soviet chess school, honored worker of culture of the RSFSR, honored worker of science and technology of the RSFSR, doctor of technical sciences, professor.

A more complete biography of Mikhail Botvinnik is in Wikipedia, and we are more interested in the principles of life that set him apart from the rest and allowed him to become such an extraordinary and successful person.

You need to work both with your head and with your hands

Botvinnik believed that the ability to work with hands is absolutely necessary for a harmoniously developed personality. Words did not disagree with deeds: he himself always serviced all the equipment that he had at home. And there was a lot of it because of Mikhail's love for technical innovations that he brought from foreign trips.

A chess player must have another profession.

As a chess player, Mikhail Botvinnik did not live in poverty. Already at the age of 25, he had a black GAZ-A (this is 1935) and a paper for a free gas station in Moscow, which was signed by Joseph Stalin.

Nevertheless, Mikhail graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, worked for more than 50 years at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, became a Doctor of Science, developed, among other things, asynchronized turbine generators that worked at power plants in the USSR.

Children don't need early education

Today children go to school almost from the age of five. It is increasingly said that such a practice negatively affects the physical and mental development of the child. Mikhail Botvinnik was also opposed to early childhood education.

He himself first sat down at the chessboard at the age of 12. When his daughter Olga was six years old, with the words "It's too early, you will have time yet" forbade her to learn to read. Later training did not prevent Mikhail himself from reaching heights in intellectual activity, nor Olga Mikhailovna from becoming a candidate of technical sciences, an employee of the O. Yu. Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth.

Don't do it if you can't do well

Everything that Botvinnik undertook was at least good at him, but mostly excellent. This was not due to some kind of luck or natural talent. His credo is to do everything well, no matter how difficult it is. And if there is no such possibility, then do not get down to business at all.

That is why Mikhail ended his career as an acting chess player at the age of 58 with the words: “At my age you cannot play a beautiful game, but I don’t want to just slap pieces on the board”. He remained true to his words until his death, which happened 25 years later.

Such an amazing person was the great chess player, engineer and scientist Mikhail Botvinnik. Of course, these are not all the principles that contributed to such a rich and vibrant life. But don't they make him stand out from other famous people?

MIKHAIL BOTVINNIK

6 -TH WORLD CHAMPION 1948-1957, 1958-1960, 1961-1963

The sixth world champion, grandmaster of the USSR (1935), international grandmaster (1950), honored master of sports (1945). Six-time champion of the USSR (1931, 1933, 1939, 1944, 1945, 1952).

Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor.

Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911 in the village of Repino near St. Petersburg (until 1948 Kuokkala, Vyborg province, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire), in the family of a dental technician.

I got acquainted with chess relatively late, at the age of twelve.

For four years (1923-1927) Mikhail Botvinnik receives the necessary knowledge, improves the technique of the game. During this period, he learns to analyze and comment on games, studies the history of chess, studies, and the development of theory. After graduating from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, he is editorial in the Shakhmatny Listok magazine, takes part in the publication of books: "Match Alekhine - Capablanca", "Match Alekhine - Bogolyubov", a collection of games of the seventh national championship.

In 1927 in the 5th championship of the USSRthe debut of 16-year-old Botvinnik took place.

In 1931 at the age of 20 he won the USSR championship in Moscow, two years later - a new victory in the national championship in Leningrad. The victories of the young master in the national championships, the championships of Leningrad, the tournaments of the Leningrad masters nominated Botvinnik to the ranksthe strongest chess players in the country.

With his success in international competitions, he fully proved this by winning the Leningrad tournament with the participation of Max Euwe and Hans Kmoh (1934) by dividing first-second places at the 2nd Moscow International Tournament (1935) ahead of Emanuel Lasker and Jose Raul Capablanca. For this success he was awarded the title of Grandmaster of the USSR.

In 1936 a tournament was held in Nottingham with the participation of the world's strongest grandmasters - Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe. Botvinnik shared the first prize with Capablanca. In this tournament, Botvinnik shared the first and second places with Capablanca - above Alekhine, Lasker, Euwe, Fain, Reshevsky, Flora. Botvinnik knew that his compatriots were rooting for him, and he played calmly, confidently, going through the entire tournament without defeat.
After Nottingham, Botvinnik became the most likely candidate for the match with the world champion. After Nottingham, Botvinnik spoke relatively rarely for some time - the intense work at the institute took up a lot of time. Botvinnik successfully defended his dissertation on the topic "Influence of excitation vibrations on the rotor vibrations of a synchronous machine" and received the title of candidate of technical sciences.

In 1938negotiations began about the match with Alekhine. The world champion agreed, but the second world war began. During the war, Botvinnik worked as an engineer.

In the years 1944-1945Botvinnik takes part in two national championships and achieves victory. At the first post-war tournament in Groningen, he wins first prize. Next year he won the Chigorin memory tournament. When the Great Patriotic War began, he was visually exempted from military service and, together with the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater, where his wife, ballerina Gayane Ananova, worked, was evacuated to Perm, two days before the Nazis completely surrounded Leningrad. In Perm he worked in his main specialty as an electrical engineer.

January 1943Botvinnik wrote a letter to Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov stating that he did not have time to study chess and as a result was given the opportunity to devote two days completely to chess.

In the first post-war years, he won a major international tournament in Groningen in 1946(ahead of Max Euwe, Vasily Smyslov, Isaac Boleslavsky, etc.), as well as in the international tournament of Slavic countries in memory of Mikhail Chigorin(1947).

In 1946Alexander Alekhin passed away, the chess world was left without a champion. The Congress of the International Chess Federation decided to determine the champion in the match-tournament of the five strongest grandmasters in the world - Botvinnik, Keres, Smyslov, Reshevsky and Euwe. Competitions were held (1948) in The Hague and Moscow. The match-tournament ended with the victory of Botvinnik, who took first place.
According to the decision of the International Chess Federation, the world champion is obliged to defend his title once every three years.

The first such match took place in 1951 with David Bronstein.

In 1952the world champion defended his doctoral dissertation and became a doctor of technical sciences.

The match took place in a very stubborn struggle and ended in a draw, which allowed the champion to retain the title. One more match (1954) ended in a draw, this time Botvinnik's opponent was Vasily Smyslov.

In three years (1957) Smyslov makes a second attempt and wins. A rematch 1958 year Botvinnik wins by two points and regains the title.
Botvinnik's next opponent was grandmaster Mikhail Tal.

World champion loses to Tal (1960) and for the second time loses the highest title. In a rematch (1962) Botvinnik wins with a big advantage.

In 1963Mikhail Botvinnik lost his last match to Tigran Petrosyan and decided not to participate in the World Championship in the future.

The first Soviet world champion approved the priority of the Soviet chess school.
Botvinnik was the first to develop a program for the individual preparation of a chess player for a competition. As a chess researcher, he made a great contribution to the development of many opening principles, to the theory of endgames.

For many years, Mikhail Botvinnik was in charge of a chess school.

Students of the Mikhail Botvinnik - Garry Kasparov School

Children's school M.M. Botvinnik opened in 1963 and operated until mid-1965. The first students were A. Karpov, Yu. Balashov, Yu. Razuvaev, G. Timoshchenko, N. Rashkovsky. In 1969, classes resumed. Three times for 10 days pupils gathered for sessions from different cities of the country. In 1973, at the school of M.M. Botvinnik began to study 10-year-old G. Kasparov.

Botvinnik is one of the few top-class chess players who managed to combine chess lessons with another profession. He managed to reach the top in the chess world and become a famous scientist in the field of electrical engineering. For outstanding chess achievements, he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor. Mikhail Botvinnik received the second Order of the Badge of Honor for his fruitful industrial activity in the field of electrical engineering.

BOTWINNIK - PORTISH
Amsterdam, 1968

PRACTICAL ADVICE M.M. BOTVINNIKA

Mikhail Botvinnik

HOW TO FIGHT ZEITNOTE

I have long been advising our masters, who are systematically in time trouble, one way of dealing with this shortcoming. Unfortunately, they do not seem to use my advice, and yet it is very simple. It is necessary to play training games and, at the same time, pay attention first of all to the clock, and not to the quality of the game or its result, and continue these exercises until the skill of appropriately managing the time is developed, having time to calculate all the necessary options. I think that by this method 90 percent of those suffering from "time trouble" would have been completely cured, with the exception, of course, of the "hopelessly sick".

To his students-chess players, suffering from constant time trouble,Botvinnik advised:

Play for three minutes per move;

Play training games and at the same time pay attention first of all to the clock ... and continue these exercises until you develop the skill to manage time expediently;

Play anti-time trouble matches, learn to understand your opening systems more deeply, and make a better game plan.

“... Considering my impulsiveness, with which it was necessary to fight, Mikhail Moiseevich advised me, in addition to the usual chess clock, to put a sand clock next to it, so that not a single move should be made until the clock had worked and the time limit had passed. This is not enough. In order to avoid disrupting the intended task, I had to sit ... putting my palms under me, holding them, which is called all my weight ", - Mark Taimanov .

Other disadvantages should be treated with this method. During special training games, the main attention should be paid to a certain drawback - until it disappears ...

HOW TO STUDY THE ENDWEEL

In the event that the master is weak in the endgame, he can only follow the example of Chekhover, who has recently worked a lot in the field of endgames and especially studies and has achieved success. At the same time, in training games one should strive for the endgame, which will help to gain the appropriate experience. The same method can be used to compensate for the problems of the middlegame, although here the question is more complicated.

If there is no accuracy in the game, study the endgame, the most accurate part of a chess game. Here you can move in two directions:

Know technical positions;

Study the endings in the games of great chess players.

HOW TO PLAY IN DEBUT

In the opening, you can avoid what everyone knows, you need to know what everyone does not know.

HOW TO DO YOURSELF

... Home analysis has its own specific features: the master is not limited in time and can move the pieces. Despite these differences, there are also many similarities between analysis and practical play. It is known that almost all outstanding chess players were also excellent analysts.

Output hence it suggests itself: whoever wants to become an outstanding chess player must improve in the field of chess analysis ...
Of course, notes to games written "on the fly" in 1-2 hours cannot be considered an analysis in any way. Such "analysis" plays only a negative role, because it can turn into a bad habit.

About the tasks of M.M. Botvinnik on analytical work at home says Mark Taimanov:

“Botvinnik did not lecture us or give us ready-made recipes. He assigned each of them personal two-week analytical work (on the opening, middlegame, endgame) and conducted a kind of seminar. We were the speakers, he was a demanding opponent. How much literature we re-read, preparing for a public speech, how much we analyzed, writing up whole notebooks for the report! I think it was a great tempering.

Botvinnik also introduced control sessions for us with clocks on five to seven boards. The analysis of the games played with him was also an interesting topic of the classes. "

HOW TO DEVELOP COMBINATION VISION

In this case, training in solving sketches and practical positions with unusual and beautiful content is useful.

TOURNAMENT MODE

When the competition takes place daily and in the afternoon.
Breakfast
Walk - 1 hour.
Preparing for the party (25-30 minutes).
Recreation.

Dinner
Rest - approximately 1 hour. Lying in front of the party is very useful, after that you feel cheerful, and most importantly - not to be distracted by thoughts of extraneous matters
Walking distance to the tournament hall (if possible) - 20-25 minutes.

Dinner
Sleep (in no case should you analyze before going to bed!).

Five days before the tournament, all chess lessons must be stopped. You need to give yourself some rest, and most importantly, in order not to lose your taste for wrestling.

About M.M. Botvinnik tells Mikhail Beilin "My meetings in the chess kingdom":

- Mikhail Botvinnik has created a complex system of preparation for chess competitions, including theoretical, practical, physical, psychological preparation, and also worked out a regime that ensures the reflection of this system.

TOHow does Botvinnik's regime look like?
At first glance, the mode is simple. Everything is done in the allotted time, but strictly, without deviations. For an ordinary person, such severity soon begins to seem cruel ...
For any work, task, he undertakes without swinging ..., retains an enviable ability to work and, as a rule, a great mood.
The regime includes obligatory physical exercises, not so intense, but certainly, sufficient sleep (deep, by the way), normal rational nutrition (with appetite, but no frills), communication with friends and work, work and more work ...

What is the secret of this regime?
There is no secret. The point is the regularity over the course of decades and the complete absence of indulgences to oneself (... he sees no reason for concessions to others, if they have obligations). Hence the high degree of reliability of M.M. Botvinnik.

Kasparov reports : "Rapid chess," said Botvinnik, "brings death to our game!" I say to him: "They still play like that ... even Vasily Vasilievich ..." He answered: "And I don't give a damn about the opinion of the majority! I'm used to living mine

mind! "

Chess players about Mikhail Botvinnik

Vladimir Kramnik: "Botvinnik is not only my, Kasparov, Karpov's teacher, he is the teacher of all chess players."

Alexander Roshal tried to reassure everyone: "Botvinnik's character," he said, "really was not sugar, but if you eat sugar alone, you will have diabetes."

APHORISMS M.M. BOTVINNIKA

Mikhail Botvinnik

“A young man can show the maximum of his abilities in chess if he first of all studies the content of chess, and then only their peculiarities associated with the game, with wrestling. Only this path can ensure long-term and lasting success "

“Any style is good if it leads to victory. But the more versatile a chess player is, the more chances he has to win "

“Chess art is one of the artistic forms of displaying the logical side of human thinking. Therefore, the art of chess occupies a special position among other sciences. In other words, chess in its field has about the same relation to logic as music to acoustics "

“Money is lost - nothing is lost. Health is lost - much is lost. Courage is lost - all is lost "

Founder of the Soviet chess school. A strategist for whom chess was a war. The sixth world champion, the flag of the USSR. System man. Each era has its own heroes: Botvinnik, like no other, became the personification of the Soviet era - a stern, ascetic, strong-willed fighter who clearly knew his goal and did not stop at anything to achieve it.
Frankly, I never liked studying Botvinnik's games, although for historical reasons I know his work better than others. A good third of the books in my closet were dedicated to the first Soviet champion, and they could be easily obtained during shortages and sales from under the counter. He was the main character of Russian chess literature. Banner! And so for my heart I studied the games of other players. In the same way as in literature I preferred the books of Jack London and Alexander Belyaev to the works of Sholokhov and Brezhnev.
Interesting: Botvinnik did not have a chance to become a world champion when he was worthy of it, but became one when others deserved it more! From the end of the 30s and all the 40s, Mikhail Moiseevich was objectively the strongest player in the world, and in the 50s he was the third at best. Keres played more often and more stable, and Smyslov just stronger!
The main advantages of Botvinnik as a chess player were fundamental opening preparation and good positional understanding. In his youth, he counted well, so he was very strong as a practitioner, and after gaining the title, blunders and miscalculations began to occur in his games.
The art of preparation for the competition was raised to unprecedented heights by the efforts of the sixth world champion. In the ability to work according to a plan, to subordinate all circumstances to a higher goal, he had no equal. Colossal determination, tough, almost military discipline, of course, the regime, sports, plus a reasonable combination of stress and rest! Having worked out his own training system, Botvinnik then strictly followed it.
He tuned in to the game as if it were the last battle. In the opponent I saw an enemy, the victory over which is a matter of life and death. This extreme, military approach to chess became quite popular after him. For it brought success.
Mikhail Moiseevich enjoyed great support from the Soviet authorities. All conditions for a successful career were created for him. At the same time, Botvinnik surprisingly managed to preserve the independence of his views and actions. He did not sign collective letters, avoided social burden, kept himself quite apart. Having got used to the image of the patriarch of Soviet chess, he became a very categorical person. It was a guru speaking the ultimate truth. No objections were accepted! For example, until the end of his life, he believed that blitz was harmful to the development of a chess player as well as frequent performances. Who knows, maybe he was right, but chess life is developing in a strictly opposite direction!
I would especially like to note Botvinnik's phenomenal ability to play matches. In the confrontation of characters, the struggle of psychologies, in the conditions of targeted opening preparation, the sixth champion felt like a fish in water. Victories in rematch matches over the younger and stronger Smyslov and Tal, in my opinion, are his main feat. He knew how to conquer even time!
In terms of working on the opening theory, Botvinnik favorably distinguished himself from his contemporaries. This man dug very deeply: he did not just find new moves in well-known positions, but developed whole development schemes. Not limited to variations and evaluations, I tried to continue my opening research in the middlegame, analyzed typical positions and studied possible plans of the sides. Following Mikhail Moiseevich, many Soviet grandmasters began to work in the same fundamental way. This is one of the reasons why representatives of the Soviet chess school have been dominating the international arena for half a century. Take a look who is now, at the turn of the century, at the top of the chess pyramid? His disciples ...
Thanks to Botvinnik's efforts, a great variety of opening systems have become popular. One can recall the "stone wall" in the Dutch Defense, Botvinnik's variation in the Slav, his system in Grunfeld (5.Qb3), positions with an isolator arising from different openings. Of course, the Vinaver variation (3… Bb4) in the French defense and much, much more.
The last 30 years of his life, Mikhail Moiseevich devoted himself to chess programming. Alas, his project of modeling the thinking process of a chess master was never brought to a successful conclusion. The bet on the speed of the computer hardware in combination with the adjustment of the evaluation function turned out to be more productive. The great state that Botvinnik personified also collapsed. One can imagine how it was hard and bitter for him - a convinced communist, a person of a national scale - in the early 90s ...
It was then that I saw him at the Central House of Artists. Although he was over 80, he was a man with a tenacious, clear gaze. The ex-champion spoke little, but confidently, and when asked who will beat Kasparov, he answered shortly: "Kramnik!" There were still seven years left before the London match.

Mikhail Botvinnik (1911 - 1995) was a modest, but firm person, very purposeful, had by nature the character of a champion, which he perfected throughout his life. The Russian chess school, which he created, is his main victory. In this article we will try to tell you what Mikhail Botvinnik was like. His biography is not limited to chess.

Childhood

While in Israel in 1964, M. Botvinnik himself spoke about his childhood years approximately as follows. My father was from a village near Minsk and was engaged in agriculture. He was a man of immeasurable physical strength. He freely grabbed the bull by the horns and threw him to the ground. Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik himself assumed that he inherited everything from his father - both character and physical strength. My father went to Petersburg to study at There he met Serafima Samoilovna Rabinovich, a dentist. They got married because they were not only professionally close, but spiritually - both participated in the 1905 revolution. The father of the future champion was a great technician. And soon the young family, in which the first son Isaac was already born, moved to a huge sunny seven-room apartment on Nevsky. The family had a cook, a bonne, a maid. And then came the 17th year, when it was necessary to hide from unexpected guests. His father, in the 20th year, left his family and remarried. In that marriage, he had two daughters, and his mother raised the children herself. But their father helped them financially.

Introduction to chess

A friend of his brother, who lived in a neighboring yard, at the age of 12 showed Misha, By this time, Mikhail Botvinnik was already in school and re-read all the classical literature: Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev. He especially fell in love with War and Peace and Pushkin. Later he got acquainted with the works and fell in love with them. He later recognized the author, who believed in him not only as a chess player, but also in a man who would achieve a lot in life. But that was already in 1933. In the meantime, Misha studied everything in chess on his own. I wrote down Lasker's games in notebooks and commented on them. This is the sport that Mikhail Botvinnik chose - chess.

Parents' attitude

Misha went to a chess club. But when he told his father about this, he reacted sharply negatively to his son's hobby. He just thought it was a gamble like cards. And the mother did not approve of her son's hobbies at all. When in 1926 her son received an invitation from Stockholm, she got nervous and ran to school with a request not to let the teenager go abroad. But at school, her concerns were treated with irony and Misha was released to Sweden.

Only one thing reconciled my mother and father with chess: that it was not a profession, but a hobby. And Mikhail Botvinnik simply could not not play. And he didn't have a coach. I did everything myself. I read books on chess, analyzed. Until the end of his days, he believed that a chess player should do everything himself: analyze, and analyze again. This is the main thing, and information is not difficult to obtain these days.

Study, work and chess

Mikhail Botvinnik graduated from high school early, when he was not yet 16 years old, and immediately entered the national championship. The results are great: nine wins, seven draws and four losses. He was the youngest member. And only a year later he could apply and enter the Polytechnic Institute. Chess has been somewhat pushed back. But while studying at the institute, and later in graduate school, Mikhail participates in sports tournaments. In 1933, at the national championship, having gathered all his strength, he won the victory. In the same year, at the match with S. Flor, there was an honorable draw. But the whole West believed in this champion of Czechoslovakia. For this victory, Botvinnik was awarded a passenger car and the title of Grandmaster of the USSR.

Marriage

In 34, an acquaintance took place at a friend's house with a neighbor at the table. It was a young graceful black-haired beauty ballerina. He accompanied her home in the pouring rain. And a year later the wedding took place. The happy marriage lasted fifty-two years. Wise Gayane Davidovna, if she could not go to the tournament with her husband, she always recommended not to pay attention to anything. She advised her husband to take care of the nervous system. And she cited as an example Galina Ulanova, who came to the play two hours before it began and did not talk to anyone, was preparing.

International victories

In 1936, the world's leading chess players - Euwe, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine - gathered for a match in England. Botvinnik and Capablanca shared 1st and 2nd places. In 1938, the Botvinnik - Capablanca game won the prize "For Beauty", and there Mikhail Moiseevich beat Alekhine.

He won 3rd place. These victories gave the chess player an opportunity to believe in himself. At the World Championships, Mikhail agreed to measure strength with Alekhine, but the war began. Throughout the war years, the grandmaster worked as an electrical engineer in Perm and invariably took first place at all the USSR championships. The meeting with Alekhine was postponed to 1946, but the world champion died suddenly. In 1948, Mikhail Botvinnik immediately took the lead in the World Championship and lost only two games there. For the first time the world champion was a Soviet person. Since 1948, having won the title of world champion, Botvinnik stopped performing, and the break lasted three years. He was seriously involved in science. In 1951 he defended his doctoral dissertation in electrical engineering. This could not but affect the quality of his performance this year.

World championships

• In 1951, there was a draw in the match with David Bronstein, but the title of champion remained with Mikhail Moiseevich.

That is, for 15 years he was the undisputed world champion. Mikhail Botvinnik continued to win other international competitions after that.

Relationships in championships

The first, with whom all relations were terminated, was D. Bronstein, since he behaved unethically. In the hall opposite the stage, his fans were sitting in the box, and if he won a pawn, then immediately applause was heard. And Bronstein, having made a move, quickly ran off stage, and then returned. This flickering prevented Botvinnik from concentrating. In addition, Bronstein, an employee of the KGB, was against the game Alekhin - Botvinnik. He recommended that the chess player declare Alekhine a person who collaborates with the Nazis, and deprive him of the title of world champion without fighting.

T. Petrosyan also behaved, to put it mildly, incorrectly. During one of the matches, he was incredibly capricious: he refused to sign an insignificant clause in the match regulations, then he agreed, then again refused. This meant only one thing - I wanted to ruffle Botvinnik's nerves. Well, when the match began, Petrosyan's fans began to pour earth, brought from Armenia, in front of the entrance to the stairs. How did Botvinnik react to this? As a disgrace. He suggested that if the holy ground from Jerusalem were poured in front of him, he would suggest that these "initiators" simply sweep the floor.

Distinctive character traits

Perseverance and perseverance, the ability to set a goal for yourself and, without being distracted, follow it. The mood at the matches was usually fighting. I worked on a lot, as well as on physical training. Indeed, a lot of energy was expended in tense tournament battles. The chess player himself believed that if he gained weight during the tournament, it means that he did not give his best in the game. And in order to better maintain his physical shape, during responsible games, he always reinforced himself with chocolate.

At home

The family lived in an ordinary two-room apartment. It consisted of five people, including a nanny for my daughter.

There was only one table in the house. The child did his homework on it, and Mikhail Moiseevich laid out the chessboard. And in 1951, during a match with Bronstein at night, so as not to interfere with his family, he sat and thought over the games in the bathroom, and the board stood on a basket of laundry.

Being a great specialist in technology, professor), he took over all the male household work. With his own hands, for example, he repaired plumbing. Once at the dacha, all dirty, he was doing something in the well. A neighbor, an assistant to Brezhnev, walked by, and, seeing the filthy grubby, casually threw in: "And then come to me." The misunderstanding was resolved when they met.

The house on the site allocated in 1949, according to his own calculations and drawings, again with his own hands, Mikhail Moiseevich built himself.

In everyday life, he was completely unpretentious. He loved delicious food, but he could well be content with only buckwheat porridge.

In a science laboratory

He did not have a table in the laboratory. This was no coincidence. Mikhail Moiseevich believed that the seat dampens and interferes with thinking. For about thirty years he has been involved in the creation of the Pioneer chess program with enthusiasm. And she won a victory in Canada over a similar foreign one.

The scientist also responded to the tragedy in Chernobyl. He believed that nuclear power plants should be built only where people do not live, in the Far North, for example. But the "top" responded to this proposal with complete silence.

Mikhail Botvinnik created a new methodology for preparing for competitions, developed theoretical questions of the chess game. His opening developments are original, when Black plays with a seizure of the initiative. The grandmaster took a fresh look at a number of typical positions. Mikhail Botvinnik re-analyzed the theory and practice of the endgame.

Mikhail Moiseevich played 1202 games in his life and participated in 59 tournaments. Two of his students became world champions - Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.

You can learn more about the hero of our article from the book that Linder wrote - "Mikhail Botvinnik: Life and the Game", the reader who opens it will learn not only about his personal and sports life, but will also be able to watch the analysis of chess games.