Botvinnik Part 1:
The Early Years

1923-1927  |  1927 USSR CHAMPIONSHIP
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik had a relatively late start in chess, beginning in 1923 at the age of twelve. This didn’t prevent him from achieving great things, however, as by 1925 he won a game against current world champion Jose Raul Capablanca in a simultaneous exhibition. By 1926 he was competing in the Leningrad City Championship, and from what I can gather had a decent result (5/6 from the games I found, though there must be more), despite Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky eventually triumphing.

Botvinnik had a regiment of exercise that I admire very much. He started focusing on this in 1927, and continued the practice for the rest of his life. I believe this is one of the reasons for his successes. 1927 was coincidentally the year of his first big achievement at a major tournament. Botvinnik qualified for the USSR Championship that year and as the youngest competitor ever at just 16 (!) placed fifth with a score of 6/11. With that result he obtained the Soviet National Master title. Botvinnik has been described as having a very logical style, which is true. But, as we will see, he could certainly attack if the opportunity arose. I’ve analyzed some of his best games from this tournament below.

Here are the final standings for this historic tournament:

1929-1933  |  FINDING CHESS/WORK BALANCE
Botvinnik had a big change in his life in 1929, when he graduated from school and began working in Electromechanics. He had a greatly increased workload, and this may have led to a decrease in his time devoted to chess. He placed “only” third in the USSR championship semi-finals, and thus failed to qualify for the finals as he had last time around.

Botvinnik’s next big result was winning the 1931 Leningrad City Championship by a wide margin of 2.5 points over the second place finisher. He also won the same tournament the following year by the same margin. Botvinnik’s next strong result was winning his first Soviet championship in 1931. While this was a good result, many of the country’s stronger players were missing, so it was even more impressive when Botvinnik repeated the next year it was held (1933) with a score of 14/19. Many strong players were competing including Ilya Rabinovich, Grigory Levenfish, and more. Botvinnik went on to win a record equaling 6 Soviet championship titles.

I could not find a full selection of games from the 1933 Championship, but some of his better games from the first nine rounds are included below.

And here are the final standings for the 1933 Championship:

1933-1935  |  HASTINGS  |  MOSCOW INTERNATIONAL
Botvinnik had another big result in late 1933 when he drew a 12 game match match against Salomon (or Salo) Flohr. Flohr at the time was considered to be a top contender for the world championship title, so this was a big achievement for the young Botvinnik. Flohr won the first two decisive games but Botvinnik, showing tremendous mental fortitude, struck back twice in a row to level the match score. His best game from that match is given below.

Botvinnik had a disappointing tournament in Hastings 1935, in part due to not allowing enough time for acclimating to the unfamiliar time zone. Needless to say he would not repeat this mistake. Another possible distraction was that he got married in this year. In his next tournament back home Botvinnik had a fabulous result at the Moscow International, tying for first with Flohr and finishing ahead of former world champions Capablanca and the aging (but still fierce) Emanuel Lasker. As usual here are some of Botvinnik’s more noteworthy games:

This game leaflet from the 1935 Moscow International also deserves attention. Such a crushing of the eventual 5th (out of 20) finisher!

MOSCOW 1936
Botvinnik had another strong result at the double round robin tournament Moscow 1936. With 12/18 he was second only to Capablanca. Especially of note is his strong victory against Lasker. Even though Lasker blundered a piece at the end Botvinnik had already built up a good advantage.

And again here are the final standings of the small but strong field from Moscow 1936:

1936  |  NOTTINGHAM INTERNATIONAL MASTERS
In his next tournament Botvinnik had another strong performance, tying for first with Capablanca in the Nottingham 1936 tournament with an undefeated 10/14. This victory is all the more remarkable, as many top players were competing, including current world champion Max Euwe, Alexander Alekhine, Lasker, Sammy Reshevsky, Reuben Fine … the list goes on and on. Anyway, here are some of Botvinnik’s best games:

1937-1938  |  AVRO TOURNAMENT
Later in 1937 Botvinnik drew a 13 game match against the Soviet championship Levenfish (Botvinnik wasn’t able to participate that year due to a project he was working on). But his biggest challenge was yet to come. In 1938 Botvinnik was invited (along with the 7 other top players in the world) to compete in the double round robin AVRO 1938 tournament. The stakes were high as the winner would supposedly earn the right to challenge the world champion Alekhine. Of course we now know that this match never happened due to the outbreak of World War II.

Nevertheless, Botvinnik had a strong tournament, finishing third. This was a big accomplishment, as the AVRO tournament is considered by many to be the strongest tournament of all time to this day. Botvinnik had three wins, and all three were so brilliant that I had to add them below! His most notable victories were against Capablanca and Alekhine.

And as usual, here are the final standings: