Turkmenportal.com: The Botvinnik Cup, a CIS youth chess tournament, will be held in Moscow
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Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who held five world titles in three different reigns. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess, the last of which he was awarded an honorary mathematics degree for.
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culture · Soviet chess grandmaster (1911–1995) · chess player · chess coach · engineer · writer · electrical engineer · chess composer · Grandmaster · also Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Botvinnik
Born 17 August 1911 · Died 5 May 1995 · Q178865
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Turkmenportal.com: The Botvinnik Cup, a CIS youth chess tournament, will be held in Moscow
Diario Judío México: El 17 de agosto de 1911 nació Mijaíl Moiséyevich Botvínnik, campeón mundial de ajedrez
Encyclopaedia Britannica: Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik | World Champion, Grandmaster, Chess Master
The Guardian: Chess: Carlsen heads for Hong Kong while Russia unveils the next Botvinnik
Chessmetrics' creator Jeff Sonas wrote an article which examined various ways of comparing the strength of "world number one" players, some not based on Chessmetrics; and Botvinnik generally emerged as one of the top six
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Died 1995-05-05.
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Botvinnik was awarded an honorary degree in mathematics of the University of Ferrara (Italy) for his work on computer chess
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And in English translation as Achieving the Aim (ISBN 0-08-024120-4) in 1981
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Soviet grandmasters were asked to sign a letter condemning Viktor Korchnoi as a "traitor" after Korchnoi defected
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Observed that Botvinnik was at or near the top of the chess world for thirty years—from 1933, when he drew a match against Flohr, to 1963, when he lost the world championship for the final time, to Petrosian—"a feat equa
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Aged 59, preferring instead to occupy himself with the development of computer chess programs and to assist with the training of younger Soviet players, earning him the nickname of "Patriarch of the Soviet Chess School"
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Botvinnik withdrew from the following World Championship cycle after FIDE declined, at its annual congress in 1965, to grant a losing champion the automatic right to a rematch
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Botvinnik played his last world championship match against Tigran Petrosian, in a 22-game series
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Botvinnik founded his own school within the Soviet coaching system, and its graduates include world champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, and other top-class players such as Alexei Shirov, Vladim
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Lost the title to Tigran Petrosian, by 9½–12½ in Moscow
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Botvinnik wrote a letter to the Soviet Government proposing economic reforms that were contrary to party policy
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Botvinnik was convincingly beaten 8½–12½ at Moscow by Tal, now 23 years old, but again exercised his right to a rematch in 1961, and won by 13–8 in Moscow
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Published a book on Asynchronized Synchronous Machines
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Lost to Smyslov by 9½–12½ in Moscow, but the rules then in force allowed him a rematch without having to go through the Candidates' Tournament, and in 1958 he won the rematch in Moscow; Smyslov said his health was poo
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Tied for first place with Smyslov in the 1956 Alexander Alekhine Memorial in Moscow, despite a last-round loss to Keres
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To limit the number of players from the same country that could compete in the Candidates Tournament, and that this was to Botvinnik's advantage as it reduced the number of Soviet players he might have to meet in the tit
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FIDE changed the world championship rules so that a defeated champion would have the right to a return match
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Joined the Research Institute for Electrical Energy as a senior research scientist
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Wrote an article about inciting socialist revolution in western countries, aiming to spread communism without a third world war
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Drew with Vasily Smyslov over 24 games in Moscow, +7−7=10, again retaining the title
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Drew with David Bronstein over 24 games in Moscow, +5−5=14, keeping the world title, but it was a struggle for Botvinnik, who won the second-last game and drew the last in order to tie the match
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Botvinnik was one of the inaugural recipients of the international grandmaster title from FIDE
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Awarded world chess champion (1948).
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Reigning champions had to play the strongest contender every three years, and successful title defenses became less common than in the pre-World War II years, when the titleholder could select his challenger
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With 14½ points from nineteen games, ½ point ahead of former World Champion Max Euwe and two ahead of Smyslov
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Dominated the tournament, scoring 15/17; however, in 1952 he tied with Mark Taimanov and won the play-off match
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After a two-year lay-off from competitive chess, Botvinnik won a tournament in Sverdlovsk, scoring 1½ out of 2 against each of his seven competitors – who included Smyslov, Vladimir Makogonov, Boleslavsky, and Ragozin
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“Absolute Championship of the USSR”
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1944, 1945, and 1952, bringing his total to six
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The world's top eight players met in the Netherlands to compete in the AVRO tournament, whose winner was supposed to get a title match with the World Champion, Alexander Alekhine
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Botvinnik drew a match of thirteen games against Levenfish
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Where he had his first major tournament win outside the USSR, he said "I wish I could do what he's done in electrical engineering" (referring to Milan Vidmar, another grandmaster)
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Botvinnik married Gayane Davidovna Ananova, of Armenian descent, who was the daughter of his algebra and geometry teacher
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Botvinnik repeated his Soviet Championship win, in his home city of Leningrad, with 14/19, describing the results as evidence that Krylenko's plan to develop a new generation of Soviet masters had borne fruit
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At the age of 20, Botvinnik won his first Soviet Championship in Moscow, scoring 13½ out of 17
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With a score of 6½/8, following this up the next year by winning the championship of Leningrad by 2½ points over former Soviet champion Peter Romanovsky
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To Leningrad University's Mathematics Department
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As the youngest player ever at that time, tied for fifth and sixth places and gained the title of master
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Reached the final stage of the Leningrad championship
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His mother became ill and his father left the family, but maintained contact with the children, even after his second marriage to a Russian woman
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In what was then Kuokkala, Vyborg Governorate, Grand Duchy of Finland, now the district of Repino in Saint Petersburg
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Born 1911-08-17.
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