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Mikhail Botvinnik

Mikhail Botvinnik Books

Chess Player

Mikhail Botvinnik was a Russian chess player widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players of the 20th century. He won the World Chess Championship five times consecutively from 1948 to 1960, making him the only player in chess history to achieve this feat. Botvinnik was known for his exquisite tactical and strategic skills, which had a profound impact on the development of chess.

Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

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“I only think well when my mind is calm.”

Thinking Mind Wells Calm

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Capablanca's play produced and still produces an irresistable artistic effect. In his games a tendency towards simplicity predominated, and in this simplicity there was a unique beauty of genuine depth.”

Stills Play Games Effects Produce Unique Depth Simplicity Chess Genuine Tendencies Artistic Capablanca Unique Beauty

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic.”

Art Logic Chess

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Chess is the art of analysis.”

Art Chess Analysis

Book:Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

Source: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

“Chess is no whit inferior to the violin, and we have a large number of professional violinists”

Numbers Chess Inferiors Violin Large Numbers Violinist

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“The boy (then a 12 year old boy named Anatoly Karpov)doesn't have a clue about Chess, and there's no future at all for him in this profession”

Years Boys Profession Chess Clue Karpov

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing Chess positions accurately”

Position Chess Analysis Mastery Analyzing

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Chess is a part of culture and if a culture is declining then Chess too will decline”

Ifs Culture Chess Decline

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Chess, like any creative activity, can exist only through the combined efforts of those who have creative talent, and those who have the ability to organize their creative work”

Success Ability Effort Creative Talent Activity Chess Organize Creative Work Combined Effort

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Everything is in a state of flux, and this includes the world of Chess”

World States Chess Flux

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“If you are going to make your mark among masters, you have to work far harder and more intensively, or, to put it more exactly, the work is far more complex than that needed to gain the title of Master.”

Ifs Success Masters Needed Gains Harder Mark Complexes Chess Titles

Book:Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

Source: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

“Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929.”

Games Train Chess Blitz

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“If Tal sacrifices a piece, take it. If Petrosian sacrifices a piece, don't take it.”

Ifs Pieces Sacrifice

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Suddenly it was obvious to me in my analysis I had missed what Fischer had found with the greatest of ease at the board”

Found Obvious Chess Ease Analysis Boards Fischer

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“In short, we can see Karpov as an exploiter of other people’s ideas. His ability to use these ideas is not at issue, but he himself is about as fertile as a woman who has been sterilized is.”

People Has Beens Ideas Use Ability Issues Fertile Karpov

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“It is a well known fact that almost all the outstanding chess-players have been first-class analysts.”

Firsts Wells Has Beens Facts Known Class Player Chess Analysis Well Known Outstanding Analysts First Class Chess Players

Book:Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

Source: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

“If Tal would learn to program himself properly, then it would become quite impossible to play against him.”

Ifs Play Impossible Program

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Above all else, before playing in competitions a player must have regard to his health, for if he is suffering from ill-health he cannot hope for success. In this connection the best of all tonics is 15 to 20 days in the fresh air, in the country.”

Ifs Country Suffering Player Air Training Connections Regard Competition Ill Chess Fresh Air Ill Health

Book:Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

Source: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

“Along with my retirement from chess analytical work seems to have gone too.”

Seems Gone Chess Analysis Retirement

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“I claim that nothing else is so effective in encouraging the growth of chess strength as such independent analysis, both of the games of the great players and your own.”

Games Growth Player Claims Independent Chess Analysis Chess Game Chess Players

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“The triumph of the analytical movement, which formed in the '30's and '40's, was precisely what earned the Soviet masters the acclaim of chessplayers the world over. Unfortunately, it must also be noted that, for today's chessmasters, the watchword is practicality.”

World Today Movement Masters Chess Triumph Analysis Soviet Practicality Acclaim

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“With opposite coloured bishops the attacking side has in effect an extra piece in the shape of his bishop.”

Sides Pieces Effects Shapes Opposites Chess Extras Attacking Bishops

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Don't worry kids, you'll find work. After all, my machine will need strong chess player-programmers. You will be the first.”

Needs Firsts Kids Strong Worry Player Computer Machines Chess Programmers Chess Players

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“If you are weak in the endgame, you must spend more time analysing studies; in your training games you must aim at transposing to endgames, which will help you to acquire the requisite experience.”

Ifs Helping Games Study Training Weak Aim Chess Acquire More Time Endgame Analysing

Book:Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

Source: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

“A knight ending is really a pawn ending.”

Chess Knights Pawns Chess Pawns

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Capablanca's phenomenal move-searching algorithm in those early years, when he possessed a wonderful ability for calculating variations very rapidly, made him invincible.”

Years Made Moving Ability Wonderful Chess Possessed Variation Invincible Phenomenal Algorithms Calculating Capablanca

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Every great master will find it useful to have his own theory on the openings, which only he himself knows, a theory which is closely linked with plans for the middle game.”

Knows Games Plans Middle Masters Theory Chess Opening Linked

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Memorization of variations could be even worse than playing in a tournament without looking in the books at all.”

Book Theory Chess Variation Tournaments Memorization

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“When my opponent's clock is going I discuss general considerations in an internal dialogue with myself. When my own clock is going I analyse conctrete variations.”

Time My Own Chess Dialogue Clock Opponents Consideration Internals Variation

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“Before Geller we did not understand the King's Indian Defence.”

Kings Chess Opening Indian Defence

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“There is no better place for learning to work independently and to extend your horizon than in higher school.”

School Higher Chess Horizon Better Place Schooling

Book:Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

Source: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

“It is peculiar but a fact nevertheless, that the gamblers in chess have enthusiastic followers.”

Facts Style Chess Followers Peculiar Nevertheless Enthusiastic

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“I ... have two vocations: chess and engineering. If I played chess only, I believe that my success would not have been significantly greater. I can play chess well only when I have fully convalesced from chess and when the 'hunger for chess' once more awakens within me.”

Ifs Believe Wells Has Beens I Can Two Play Success I Believe Greater Hunger Chess Engineering Vocation

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“You have to accustom yourself to practical study at home, you have to devote time to studies, to the history of chess, the development of chess theory, of chess culture.”

Home Success Culture Study Development Chess Practicals

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

“It must be clearly understood that Soviet players do not seek simple systems in the opening, but try to formulate opening systems in which everything is complicated, distinctive, or new.”

Trying Simple Player Theory Understood Complicated Chess Opening Soviet Distinctive

Book:Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

Source: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

“Chess cannot be taught. Chess can only be learned.”

Author:Mikhail Botvinnik

About the Author

Born: August 17, 1911
Died: May 5, 1995
Known for: Chess Player
Quotes: 36

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Chess Analysis Ifs Games Player Success Ability Chess Players Has Beens Masters

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