Odd, it took me a long while to write this page, but Botvinnik is the player from whose games I may have learned the most. Not just from his own notes: his game against Szilagyi has often been used as a model of dark-square play; the first chapter of Euwe’s Strategy and Tactics is mostly a long annotation to a game with Botvinnik; “Silman’s Thinking Technique” was expounded using a Botvinnik game. He took all aspects of chess to new levels, and wrote extensively about his play and research. Whatever point you want to make about how to play chess, there is a Botvinnik game to illustrate it.
Paul O’Neill has borrowed all my Botvinnik books, so these games have been scrabbled from the dusty corners of my memory…
Opening
[blockquote]
“If you play Botvinnik, it is even alarming to see him write his move down. Slightly short-sighted, he stoops over his scoresheet and devotes his entire attention to recording the move in the most beautifully clear script; one feels that an explosion would not distract him and that examined through a microscope not an irregularity would appear. When he wrote down 1.c2-c4 against me, I felt like resigning.”[br]
— Hugh ALEXANDER
[/blockquote]
At Moscow 1935, the wind from the East blew open the doors of chess. The new generation of Soviet masters could measure themselves against past Champions Lasker and Capablanca, and Flohr and Botvinnik, tying for first place, filled in their applications for a World Championship match. This is how Botvinnik dealt with Spielmann, who came fifth after the quartet of giants, in a game any junior could understand:
My adoption of the English Opening owed a lot to Botvinnik. I don’t know if it did me much good in the long run, but Botvinnik’s treatment was always something to aspire to. I often show this game to 1.e4 players, as you can get to an IQP position from many semi-open defences.
Middlegame
No great discovery, but what a display of power chess.
Silman’s long disquisition about planning based on White’s choice of 27th move is worth seeking out.
Endgame
The same willingness to commit to hard work and deep analysis is shown throughout Botvinnik’s endgames. We learned about how to play some endgames through Botvinnik’s games! His game with Minev is always cited in the chapter on Queen endings. Now the computer has worked it all out and we can pinpoint some errors on both sides, but MMB had to do it all from scratch. The win comes through keeping the two Kings on the same rank or a near ranks, so that harassing checks from the Black Queen can be met by White blocking with the Queen and giving check in return — a cross-check.
And this thriller against Kotov is a marvel of precision. The outstanding manoeuvre is retreating the Bishop from e4 to e6, recognising the importance of b3 and g8. Why is g8 important? Watch and see! It takes some errors from Kotov to lose this one, but very understandable.
And a last game showing his fighting spirit and pragmatism: