Botvinnik Part 3:
Reigning World Champion

1951  |  WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VS BRONSTEIN
After winning the 1948 World Championship, Botvinnik did not play seriously before his next world championship match against David Bronstein in 1951, playing only a few training games.

This match was to be a real test of Botvinnik’s powers. It was held under the classical best of 24 games. In the event of a tie the champion retained the title, and this turned out to be a very important clause. In the 23rd game Botvinnik was down by a point and was taking a seat as white for the last time in the match. That being said, it was a more or less must-win game.

Botvinnik managed it, but it took tremendous effort. And, in fact, there are arguments that the final position is drawn. But, Bronstein resigned, Botvinnik held as black, and the title of world champion stayed in his hands. Below I will analyze the critical last game and another game which I think clearly illustrates Botvinnik’s specialty at this point in his career: the adjourned game.

(Here I would normally give the final standings but with only two players it doesn’t seem necessary.)

1951 USSR CHAMPIONSHIP
Soon after the World Championship Tournament, Botvinnik played in the 1951 USSR championship. Botvinnik had an unusually poor result, but it shows how strong the field in these tournaments must have been that Botvinnik (now the world champion, mind you) finished in 5th place. Here are the full standings:

1952 MAROCZY MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT
Moving on, Botvinnik’s next tournament was the Maroczy Memorial in Budapest. Once again he had a relatively poor result, finishing equal third. Still, I found the game below to be quite strong:

And again, here are the final standings:

1952-1953  |   USSR CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT
At his next tournament, the 1952-3 USSR Championship, Botvinnik was back on top. But it was not a win gained easily. At one point Mark Taimanov was leading by two points, and even in the last round Botvinnik just managed to catch up. Botvinnik later won a playoff match to take  first.

Of special note is his crushing defeat of David Bronstein, against whom Botvinnik had only drawn the last world championship match:

Here are the standings:

1954   |   WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VS. SMYSLOV
Up next for Botvinnik was the 1954 World Championship match, this time against Smyslov. As before, the match was played under the best of 24 games format and in the case of a tie Botvinnik would retain his title.

At first it looked as though the match might be a blowout: after 4 games the score was 3.5-0.5 in favor of Botvinnik. But Smyslov quickly struck back, and after game 11 (at the end of a three game winning streak) Smyslov was in the lead. 

This match was full of decisive games, but in general Smyslov was behind. Still, by winning games 20 and 23, Smyslov managed to even the score. Yet in the last game Botvinnik was white, and a quick draw allowed him to retain his title. But by this point it was quite clear that he was “first among equals.” I do not believe Smyslov was worse in strength than Botvinnik at this point, but with the clause in the world champion’s favor the challenger had to wait three long years for another shot.

1954 – 1955   |   AMSTERDAM OLYMPIAD, USSR CHAMPIONSHIP 
Botvinnik’s next tournament was the 1954 Olympiad in Amsterdam. The Soviet squad won by a wide margin of 7 game points, with Botvinnik scoring a spectacular 8.5/11: good enough for the individual gold medal on board 1. 

Next in line was the 1955 USSR Championship. Again Botvinnik had a subpar performance, tying for third with 11.5/19. More was definitely expected from him after the Olympiad, but this field would be enough to give anybody a few rough games.

Here are the final standings for the USSR Championship:

1956   |   MOSCOW CHESS OLYMPIAD
Next Botvinnik played a short match against Reshevsky in a USA vs USSR match in Moscow, losing 2.5-1.5, with 3 draws and one loss. Not Botvinnik’s best performance, but he had a chance to bounce back at the 1956 Chess Olympiad in Moscow. While the Soviet team won again by a comfortable 4.5 margin in game points, Botvinnik had another brilliant performance, with 9.5/13, good enough for individual silver on the top board (behind a surging Bent Larsen with 14/18). It seems that he played better when playing for his country!

I have to show this interesting game against Gligoric:

1956   |   ALEKHINE MEMORIAL
Botvinnik’s next tournament was the 1956 Alekhine Memorial in Moscow. Here again Botvinnik had a good performance. He tied for first with his soon-to-be challenger Smyslov with an amazing 11/15 wins. This was undoubtedly an excellent result for both of the first place finishers, and while Botvinnik had more than one strong game I’m going to jump straight into the next World Championship match.

Here are the final standings:

1957   |   WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VS SMYSLOV
Once again Smyslov fought his way through the Candidates tournament to get a shot at Botvinnik’s crown at the 1957 World Championship. Things got off on the wrong foot when Smyslov won the first game. Botvinnik struck back with two straight wins, but Smyslov followed suit. The match was still close until Smyslov won the 17th and 20th games, gaining a decisive three point edge.

While there were far fewer decisive games in the match, it was still an interesting struggle. Botvinnik’s best effort is below.

And with that Botvinnik let the world championship title slip through his fingers. To me this represents the moment when he started declining. While he did regain his title later in a 1958 rematch, he was never quite as strong … and his challengers knew he wasn’t invincible.