Mikhail Botvinnik (1911 - 1995) - a modest but firm man, very purposeful, had the nature of a champion, who improved throughout his life. The chess school of Russia, which he created, is his main victory. In this article we will try to tell what a versatile person Mikhail Botvinnik was. His biography is not limited to chess.
Childhood
While in Israel in 1964, M. Botvinnik himself spoke about his childhood as follows. My father was from a village near Minsk and was engaged in agriculture. He was a man of immeasurable physical strength. Freely grabbed the bull by the horns and knocked him to the ground. Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseevich himself assumed that he inherited everything from his father - both character and physical becoming. My father went to St. Petersburg to study as a dental technician. There he met Serafima Samoilovna Rabinovich, a dentist. They got married, as they were not only professionally close, but spiritually - both participated in the 1905 revolution. The father of the future champion was an excellent 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 bonna, a maid. And then came the 17th year, when it was necessary to hide from unexpected guests. The father, in the 20th year, left the family and married a second time. In that marriage, he had two daughters, and his mother raised the children herself. But their father helped them financially.
Introduction to chess
A brother's friend who lived in a neighboring yard showed Misha how to play chess at the age of 12. By this time, Mikhail Botvinnik was already at school and had 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 of M. Zoshchenko and fell in love with them. He later recognized the author, who believed in him not only as a chess player, but also as a person who would achieve a lot in life. But that was already in 1933. In the meantime, Misha learned everything about chess on his own. He wrote down Lasker's games in notebooks and commented on them. This is the sport chosen by Mikhail Botvinnik - chess.
Parental attitude
Misha went to the 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 gambling game like cards. And the mother did not approve of her son's hobbies at all. When in 1926 an invitation came to her son from Stockholm, she got nervous and ran to school with a request not to let the teenager go abroad. But at school, her worries were treated with irony and Misha was released to Sweden.
Only one thing reconciled mom and dad with chess:that this is not a profession, but a hobby. But Mikhail Botvinnik simply could not play. And he didn't have a coach. I did everything myself. 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 finished school early, when he was not yet 16 years old, and right off the bat gets into 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 pushed back a little. 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 wins. In the same year, in a match with S. Flor, an honorable draw. But the whole West believed in this champion of Czechoslovakia. For this victory, Botvinnik was awarded a car and the title of Grand Master of the USSR.
Marriage
In the year 34, an acquaintance took place at a friend's house with a neighbor on the table. It was a young graceful black-haired beauty ballerina. He walked her home in the pouring rain. 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 Galina Ulanova as an example, who came to the performance twohours before it started and did not talk to anyone, getting ready.
International wins
In 1936, the leading chess players of the world - Euwe, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine - gathered for a match in England. Botvinnik and Capablanca shared 1st and 2nd place. In 1938, the game Botvinnik - Capablanca received the prize "For Beauty", and in the same place Mikhail Moiseevich beat Alekhine.
He won 3rd place. These victories gave the chess player the opportunity to believe in himself. At the World Championships, Mikhail agreed to measure his strength with Alekhine, but the war began. Throughout the war, the grandmaster worked as an electrical engineer in Perm and invariably won first place at all 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 in it. The world champion was for the first time a Soviet man. Since 1948, having won the title of world champion, Botvinnik stopped performing, and the break lasted three years. He was serious about science. In 1951 he defended his doctoral dissertation in electrical engineering. This could not but affect the quality of his game 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
- In 1954, there was also a draw with V. Smyslov at the tournament.
- In 1957, he was not ahead of Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov, but in 1958, the victory went to the rematchBotvinnik.
- In 1960 he lost to Mikhail Tal, but in 1961 he won again, and very convincingly.
- And only in 1963 was Tigran Petrosyan ahead of him.
That is, for 15 years it was the undisputed world champion. Mikhail Botvinnik continued to win other international competitions after that.
Championship Relations
The first with whom all relations were terminated was D. Bronstein, because he behaved unethically. In the hall opposite the stage, his fans sat in a box, and if he won a pawn, then applause was immediately heard. And Bronstein, having made a move, quickly ran offstage, and then returned. This flickering prevented Botvinnik from concentrating. In addition, Bronstein, a KGB officer, was against the Alekhine-Botvinnik game. 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 a meaningless clause in the match regulations, then he agreed, then again refused. This meant only one thing - he wanted to get on 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? Like a disgrace. He suggested that if holy earth from Jerusalem were poured in front of him, he would suggest that these "initiators" simply sweep the floor.
Distinctivecharacter traits
Perseverance and perseverance, the ability to set a goal and, without being distracted, follow it. The mood at the matches was usually combative. The grandmaster worked hard on this, as well as on physical training. Indeed, in intense tournament fights, a lot of strength was expended. The chess player himself believed that if he put on weight during the tournament, it means that he did not give his best in the game. And in order to better maintain physical fitness, during responsible games, he always reinforced himself with chocolate.
In everyday life
The family lived in an ordinary two-room apartment. It consisted of five people, including a nanny for her daughter.
There was only one table in the house. On it, the child did his homework, and Mikhail Moiseevich laid out the chessboard. And in 1951, during a match with Bronstein at night, in order not to disturb his family, he sat and thought over the games in the bathroom, and the board stood on the laundry basket.
Being a great specialist in technology (Doctor of Science, Professor), he took over all the men's homework. With his own hands, for example, he repaired plumbing. Once in the country, all dirty, he was doing something in the well. A neighbor, an assistant to Brezhnev, passed by, and, seeing a dirty mess, casually threw: "And then come to me." The misunderstanding was resolved when they got to know each other.
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 could well be contentonly buckwheat porridge.
In the science lab
He didn't have a table in the lab. It was no accident. Mikhail Moiseevich believed that the seat dampens and interferes with thinking. For about thirty years he was enthusiastically engaged in the creation of the Pioneer chess program. And she won a victory in Canada over a similar foreign one.
The scientist 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.
Creation of the Soviet chess school
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 the interception of the initiative. With a new look, the grandmaster looked 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.
Details about the hero of our article can be found in the book written by Linder - "Mikhail Botvinnik: life and play", the reader who opens it will learn not only about his personal and sports life, but will also be able to watch analyzes chess games.
