Bøker av Mikhaïl Botvinnik

The 1929 World Chess Championship was played between challenger Efim Bogoljubow and titleholder Alexander Alekhine. The match was held in Wiesbaden, Heidelberg and Berlin in Germany, and The Hague and Amsterdam in the Netherlands from September 6 to November 12. Alekhine retained his title.The match began September 6, 1929 under the following conditions: Alekhine would get $6,000 dollars win or lose, with any surplus going to Bogoljubov. A winner would be declared if he scored 151/2 points with 6 wins from a maximum of 30 games. Unlike the Capablanca-Alekhine 1927 match, which had been played in private, the Alekhine-Bogoljubov match would be played in public. The organizers insisted on this, in order to raise money from ticket sales. Only those cities that contributed to the purse would be allowed to host the match: Wiesbaden (games 1-8; 24-25), Heidelberg (games 9-11), Berlin (games 12-17), The Hague (games 18-19; 23), Rotterdam (game 20), and Amsterdam (games 21-22). Emanuel Lasker served as arbiter in the Berlin games

In 1934, the Soviet Union was still a largely unknown factor in world chess circles. Botvinnik was making some noise, particularly with his repeated wins in the USSR Championship and his drawn match against Flohr (Botvinnik - Flohr Match (1933)). But the strength and depth of the country remained a mystery, until an international tournament was arranged in Leningrad from August 17-September 1, 1934 with outsiders Max Euwe and Hans Kmoch brought in to give the local boys a few tips. The entire group: Vladimir Alatortsev, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vitaly Chekhover, Max Euwe, Ilia Abramovich Kan, Hans Kmoch, Grigory Levenfish, Georgy Lisitsin, Ilya Leontievich Rabinovich, Nikolai Nikolaevich Riumin, Peter Arsenievich Romanovsky, Mikhail M Yudovich Sr.As sometimes happens, the tippers became the tippees. Both Euwe and Kmoch started well, and were tied for first place with Botvinnik and Romanovsky after six rounds. That's when things started to happen. Euwe was unable to win another game for the rest of the tournament, while Kmoch, after one more win, lost his last four in a row.Botvinnik's win should not have been a big surprise; he had shown his capabilities already. But having Euwe, fresh from an excellent showing at Zurich (1934), relegated to sixth place with an even score was an eye-opener. These guys would bear watching in the future.

When Mikhail Botvinnik lost the world championship in 1960 to the dazzling attacking player from Riga, Mikhail Tal, there seemed little chance of him regaining his title. Yet in the Return Match a year later, with a surprising demonstration of aggressive chess, Botvinnik completely outplayed his young opponent and ran out the easy winner. All 21 games of the match are deeply annotated.