Botvinnik Part 2:
Going for the Crown

1938-1939  |  1939 USSR CHAMPIONSHIP
After the A.V.R.O. 1938 tournament, as mentioned in the last article, the winner earned the right to a match against Alekhine for the world championship title. While Botvinnik only finished third, he sent a challenge to Alekhine anyway … and it was accepted! Unfortunately this match never happened, again due to the beginning of World War II.

In his next tournament in April-May 1939, Botvinnik had a tremendous victory in the 1939 USSR Championship. Finishing not only a full point ahead of his competitors but undefeated, Botvinnik showed beyond any doubt why he deserved a match against Alekhine. While Botvinnik’s win in the last round against Alexander Kotov (who was tied with Botvinnik at that point) was both strong and influential for the final standings, I chose a particularly complicated and engaging game against Alexander Tolush to analyze:

And here are the final standings for the tournament:

1940 USSR CHAMPIONSHIP
The next major tournament on Botvinnik’s schedule was the 1940 USSR Championship. Botvinnik had a poor performance in this tournament (only tied for fifth), but in 1941 a “USSR absolute championship tournament” was organized. This tournament included the top six finishers from the aforementioned tournament (including Botvinnik). It was here that Botvinnik showed his class, finishing with an amazing 13.5/20. In other words, 2.5 points ahead of second placed Keres (a very strong player in his own right).

I find it interesting that the top two finishers in the 1940 USSR Championship (Lilienthal and Bondarevsky) were the bottom two finishers here. They couldn’t keep their level up against in-form top players like Botvinnik and Keres. Anyway, while Botvinnik played many good games this tournament, I think his best effort was the game below:

As usual, here are the final standings:

1943 SVERDLOVSK TOURNAMENT
Moving on, after a two year break from tournament play, Botvinnik had a strong comeback at the 1943 Sverdlovsk tournament. Interestingly, the city of Sverdlovsk is now known as Yekaterinburg – the host of the 2020 Candidates tournament. In the double round robin format Botvinnik followed his recipe for success: he had one win and one draw against each opponent. One of his better games was against second place finisher Vladimir Makogonov, detailed here:

And here are the final standings:

Above: Botvinnik in Moscow, 1944

1944-1945  |   USSR CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENTS
Botvinnik did not have too many tournaments on his schedule throughout this period in general, but he did succeed in winning the USSR championship tournaments in both 1944 and 1945. If you count his win in the 1941 USSR Absolute championship then he won the Soviet title an unparalleled 3 times in a row. And these are not close wins, either. In 1944 he won by a two point margin, and in 1945 he won with a full three point gap! With that kind of dominance how did Botvinnik not get a match with Alekhine?

For space considerations I will pick one game to represent both of these tournaments:

Here are the standings for the 1944 tournament:

And now, standings from the 1945 tournament:

1946   |   GRONINGEN TOURNAMENT
Any final negotiations for a match with Alekhine were completely shut down by his untimely death in 1946. He passed with the title, so the system had to change. A FIDE World championship tournament was later organized. 

Botvinnik was already guaranteed a spot in the tournament, but just for good measure he won the qualifying tournament Groningen 1946. It was a close finish, for a change. Botvinnik only had a half point lead over former World Champ Max Euwe heading in to the last round when the unthinkable happened. Botvinnik lost a very poor game against Najdorf.

While this was almost unbelievable, there was more to come. Euwe needed only to hold his game against Kotov to tie for first. But Kotov played a great game to see both of the leaders fall to defeat! Thus the standings at the top remained unchanged and Botvinnik won by a slim margin. Below is his strong win against Boleslavsky.

And here are the final standings:

1947   |   CHIGORIN MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT
Botvinnik had one more tournament on his schedule before the world championship: the 1947 Chigorin Memorial in Moscow.  Another tournament, another victory for Botvinnik! Yet this time he was not a runaway train. Botvinnik finished only half a point ahead of Viacheslav Ragozin, though in more restrained fashion than in Groningen. A full point ahead, Botvinnik quickly drew to secure the tournament win. This must have been a definite confidence booster before the world championship tournament.

Before moving on here are the final standings:

1948   |   FIDE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Botvinnik’s next tournament was to be one of the most important and spectacular of his long and storied career. The 1948 FIDE World Championship tournament was a 5 leg round robin tournament between five of the absolute giants of chess. Reuben Fine had earned a spot by tying for first in the incredibly strong A.V.R.O. 1938 tournament but withdrew due to other commitments.

Undoubtedly Botvinnik dominated this tournament. It is true that Keres started 2-0, but by the end of the first cycle he fell behind. Meanwhile, Euwe started on the opposite end of the spectrum, with 0-2, and he never competed seriously for the title. By the end of the second cycle, Botvinnik was already leading by 1.5 points over Reshevsky. This was not insurmountable, as the tournament had three cycles to go, but Botvinnik was on top form. He increased his lead and eventually won the title with three rounds to spare.

Two of his best games from this tournament are below:

And finally, here are the tournament standings: