March 16 1933
The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, Thursday, March 16, 1933
Boyette-Blais—Leslie L. Boyette, 21, 1015 Fell street, and Catherine A. Blais, 18, 666 O'Farrell street.
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Mikhail Botvinnik, 1937
January 24 1937
Evening star, Washington, District of Columbia, Sunday, January 24, 1937
SOUTH AFRICAN CHESS MAGAZINE, edited by Huxley St. John Brooks, has entered its third year of existence . . . The Pretoria News of Pretoria, South Africa, sustains an excellent chess column . . . Russia decorates its chess champions. In point is the “badge of honor for outstanding achievements in chess,” bestowed upon the Soviet chess champion, M. M. Botvinnik, by the Central Executive Council of the U.S.S.R.
M. Czerniak won the championship of Palestine conducted by the Palestine Chess Federation and supported by the chess clubs of Jerusalem. He garnered 8½ points out of a possible 10 . . . Round No. 7 of the Metropolitan Chess Association Team Tournament will be played on February 4 . . . On hand a beautiful bronze trophy to be awarded to the chess champion of District of Columbia schools. Has Knox got a chance?
September 13 1937
Evening Chronicle, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, Monday, September 13, 1937
MESHER BOTVINNIK the holder of the Russian championship is about to play a match with Levenfisch.
The challenger is a front rank master and great battles may be expected.
I hear that another grand tournament will be staged this back-end at Moscow and the cream of the chess world will be entertained. There are no half measures with the Russians when they act they expect the world to marvel.
October 1937
Gregory Levenfish and Mikhail Botvinnik during their match for the 1937 Soviet championship, which ended in a draw. October 07, 1937-November 09, 1937.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1944
June 06 1944
Harrisburg Telegraph, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, June 06, 1944
Mikhail Botvinnik successfully defended his title as absolute chess champion of the U.S.S.R. in the recent 13th national tournament held in Moscow, his score being 12½-3½. The famous young Moscow champion, Vassily Smyslov, defeated Botvinnik and finished second with 11½-4½.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1951
1951
1951 world championship in Moscow.
February 03 1951
The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Saturday, February 03, 1951
World Championship Match
Mikhail Botvinnik, world's chess champion, will defend his title in a match starting in March with David Bronstein, the official FIDE challenger. With the death of Dr. Alekhine in 1946 the International Chess Federation (FIDE) took over control of the championship and organized a tournament in 1948 to establish his successor. This was played in Holland and USSR and won by Botvinnik, with Smyslov, Reshevsky, Keres, and Euwe finishing in that order. Reuben Fine, of New York, was also invited but declined. Once a new champion was established the FIDE's next task was to set up a system of tournament play-downs that would encourage every other player in the world to try for the role of challenger to Botvinnik in a match. The system included zonals, interzonal and a final candidates tournament out of which emerged the twenty six-year-old David Bronstein. Canada's D. A. Yanofsky got as far as the interzonal. The cycle, including the match, covers four years of competition and, although there has been strong criticism of some aspects of its organization which appears to favor Russian players' chances, it is expected that these drawbacks will eventually be straightened out to the satisfaction of all and that the chess world will have a better set-up for the world title competition than it has ever had before.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1942
December 12 1942
The Toronto Star, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, December 12, 1942
10000 WATCH CHESS TOURNEY IN RUSSIA
Players Send Greetings to Fellow Enthusiasts in Allied Lands
TOR ONTO C.C. WINS
By J. S. Morrison
News of Russian activities has just reached us. A tournament at Sverdlovsk was won by Ragozin with Petroff second and Sokolski third.
About 10,000 people visited the Sverdlovsk tournaments as spectators including men from all walks of life: Doctors, soldiers, workmen, etc., during the tournament in the premises of the chess club.
In hospitals and various “collectives” there were many mass chess meetings between March 22 to April 20. Thirty-six simultaneous displays, 10 lectures and other talks took place in which all the masters, the competitors and members of the tournament committee assisted. The success of the gathering was much enhanced by the arrival of Botvinnik (from Molotov) who assisted in the running of the tournament and gave a lecture on “International Tournaments in England,” which was particularly appreciated by the audience (according to the official bulletin) and will for long time live in the memory of Sverdlovsk men. The bulletin contained a long appreciation of Capablanca by Rokhlin, and greetings to English and USA players as translated below:
“The competitors of the Sverdlovsk tournament to the chess players of England and U.S.A.!
“The competitors of the chess tournament in the Urals, masters of U.S.S.R., send their fighting greetings to our Allies and friends—the chess players in England and U.S.A.
“Chess friendship between our three countries has become a tradition of many years standing. Talented players of England and America have always been welcome competitors and guests in the international tournaments held in the Soviet Union. The creative genius of Staunton, Morphy, Thomas, Marshall, Fine, Reshevsky and the world champion, Capablanca, has been inscribed in the history of chess art and filled its bright pages.
“The war against the most evil enemy of all cultured mankind—Hitler Germany—has still further strengthened and tightened the friendship of the fighting peoples of England, U.S.A. and the Soviet Union.
“We are convinced that the hour is near when by the joint efforts of the Allies Hitlerism will be destroyed and annihilated and the people of our friendly countries will do their utmost for the cause of development and reconstruction in the field of world culture.”
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1936
1936
Moscow tournament bulletin, 64, June 13, 1936 and June 16, 1936.
Photo by Regina Lembert.
Sitting (from left to right): Nikolai Krylenko, Nikolai Riumin, Emanuel Lasker, Jose Capablanca, Grigory Levenfish. Standing: Mikhail Botvinnik, Erich Eliskases, Andre Lilienthal, I. Kahn, Salomon Flohr, and Viacheslav Ragozin.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1941
February 02 1941
The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Sunday, February 02, 1941
The championship of Russia, leading chess nation, produced shocks. Botvinnik several times champion was only fifth, and Levenfisch, a former champion but now 52, was 18th. Keres (Estonia) was fourth.
First place was shared by young Bondarevsky and the ex-Hungarian Lilienthal. In 1934 Lilienthal was beaten in a match by L. Steiner, now champion of New South Wales by 3 to 1, with 2 draws.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1939
June 19 1939
Evening Chronicle, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, Mon, Jun 19, 1939
RUSSIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Our Moscow Correspondent sends us details of the eleventh Russian National Championship, which terminated a few days ago in a narrow victory for Michael Botvinnik.
There were 18 competitors—15 of them recognized masters. The Russian list would have been stronger had Dr. Alekhine and Bogoljubov entered.
People wonder why Russia has such a galaxy of chess talent. It should be remembered that Russia has a population of one hundred and seventy millions.
Botvinnik—well known to English players by his magnificent performance at Nottingham in 1936, where he divided the 1st and 2nd prizes with Capablanca—did not lose a game in the recent Moscow tourney, but he only finished one point above A. A. Kotov.
Our correspondent sends the vital game between the two magnets on which the Russian championship hinged in the final round.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1935
January 01 1935
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, Tuesday, January 01, 1935
THREE COME THROUGH
In Fourth Round Of International Chess Tournament.
Hastings, England, December 31—(AP)—Dr. Max Euwe, of The Netherlands; Salo Flohr, of Czechoslovakia, and M. Botvinnik, of Russia, were winners in the fourth round of the international chess masters, tournament today. Two games, including that of J. R. Capablanca, former world champion, were adjourned. The summaries:
First Board—J. R. Capablanca, Cuba, adjourned with P. S. Milner-Barry, England.
Second Board—G. M. Norman, England, adjourned with A. Lilienthal, Hungary.
Third Board—M. Botvinnik, Russia, defeated Miss Menchik, Czechoslovakia, in 25 moves.
Fourth Board—Dr. Max Euwe, Netherlands, defeated Sir George Thomas, England, in 26 moves.
Fifth Board—R. P. Michell, England, lost to Salo Flohr, Czechoslovakia, in 24 moves.
The leading scores: Euwe and Thomas, 3-1; Flohr, 2½-1½; Lilienthal, 2-1; Milner-Barry and Capablanca, 1½-1½.
January 04 1935
The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Friday, January 04, 1935
FLOHR AND EUWE LEAD
Tie at End of Games in 7th Round of Chess Match
Hastings, England, January 3.—The seventh round of the International tournament at the Christmas chess congress was begun here today and three of the five games were decided during the first session. Wins were scored by Jose R. Capablanca of Cuba and Salo Flohr of Czechoslovakia. Dr. Max Euwe of Holland, who drew, was tied by Flohr.
The summaries:
Seventh Round.
First Board—P. S. Milner Barry, England, adjourned with Sir George Thomas.
Second Board—A. Lilienthal, Hungary, drew with Dr. Max Euwe, Holland, in 28 moves.
Third Board—R. P. Michell, England, adjourned with M. Botvinnik, Russia.
Fourth Board—G. M. Norman, England, lost to J. R. Capablanca, Cuba, in 35 moves.
Fifth board—Miss Vera Menchik, Czechoslovakia, lost to S. Flohr, Czechoslovakia, in 35 moves.
The leading scores: Euwe and Flohr, 5-2; Thomas, 4½-l½; Capablanca and Lilienthal, 4½-2½; Botvinnik, 3-3.
December 1935
Jose Raul Capablanca estimated 1935, (second from the left) Mikhail Botvinnik (seated, far right). Standing on the far right is Grigory Goldberg (Botvinnik's second in 1950s world championship tournament), at his right is Jakov Rochlin. Botvinnik’s wife Gayane and chess writer, Samuel Weinstein. Original b/w photo source, unknown. Source.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1952
February 28 1952
The Southwest Wave, Los Angeles, California, Thursday, February 28, 1952
CHESSBOARD ACES
Mikhail Botvinnik of Russia has held the world chess championship since 1948. The last American to win the title was Paul Morphy of New Orleans, Louisiana, who held the title from 1858 to 1862.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1946
August 1946
Unspecified details from original source, Mikhail Botvinnik, 1946.
Unspecified details from original source, Mikhail Botvinnik, 1946.
Unspecified details from original source, Mikhail Botvinnik, 1946.
August 13 1946
August 22 1946
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1958
May 10 1958
The Guardian, London, Greater London, England, Saturday, May 10, 1958
BOTVINNIK REGAINS WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
Smyslov seldom in the picture
By our Chess Correspondent
By drawing the twenty-third game of his match against Smyslov in Moscow yesterday Botvinnik regained the world chess championship with a score of 12½ points against 10½. Neither player made a single move yesterday. Smyslov telephoned the Chess Club to offer a draw and when Botvinnik telephoned to find out whether they would be playing on schedule he was told he was champion.
The course of the final game was typical of many once Botvinnik had established his formidable lead of three wins: Smyslov chose an unorthodox form of the Reti Opening and attempted to confuse his opponent by tactical play on both wings. Botvinnik kept his pieces combining harmoniously and systematically deprived Smyslov of his initiative by pressure on a weak pawn.
In retrospect one could almost say that Botvinnik was winning the match from the very first move of the first game. His use of the Caro-Kann Defence and his unorthodox but effective strategy against the King's Indian Defence clearly took Smyslov completely by surprise, and the title-holder never properly recovered from the psychological shock. Botvinnik's considerable lead had a further important effect. In order to try to catch up, Smyslov had to desert his normal sound positional style, which relies on avoiding defeat and exploiting slight advantages, and to try his luck in combinative attack. In consequence he was liable to over-reach himself as in Game 12 and to a lesser extent in Game 9. Even in the endgame, Smyslov's special preserve, he tried for too much in Games 14 and 18, with fatal consequences in each case.
Future prospects
What of the future? Smyslov has the right to take part in next year's tournament to find a challenger to Botvinnik in 1960. Also in this tournament will be Keres and the top six players in the interzonal event to be held this year in Yugoslavia. To challenge Botvinnik, Smyslov will have to overcome the rising generation of younger masters such as his countrymen Tal and Petrosian, the Yugoslav Gligoric, Larsen, of Denmark, or even, maybe, the 15-year-old American prodigy Bobby Fischer. In addition, Bronstein and Keres can be expected to make determined efforts to obtain the title which has eluded them for so long.
The impression given by the present match is that, judged by world standards, Smyslov relies too much on technique and has too limited an opening repertoire to overcome Botvinnik when the latter is at their height of his powers. For Botvinnik no praise can be too high. After his unconvincing play in last year's match, when he lost the title, the chess world wrote him off as “too old at 46” (35 to 45 is the period at which most masters are at their best). Somehow, in the year between his loss of the title and that first Caro-Kann which evoked a gasp from the Moscow audience, he regained his self-confidence, his zest for the game, and his creative powers.
Botvinnik has already revealed to the chess world his extraordinarily systematic way of preparing for tournaments. It will be interesting to see if he will tell how he found his lost chess youth. But perhaps we need not look so far afield. After all, in England we have a national champion whose age exceeds the combined ages of the champions of the United States, Russia, and Hungary.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1956
August 05 1956
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, Sunday, August 05, 1956
Botvinnik Slips?
By Merrill Dowden
Is the reigning chess champion of the world, Mikhail Botvinnik of the U.S.S.R., overrated? Or is he really invincible, as many suppose?
Former World Champion Dr. Max Euwe of Holland, in a provocative article written for Chess Review, thinks that Botvinnik's long absence from tournament play may work against him when he lays his title on the line against his fellow countryman, Vassily Smyslov, winner of the Challengers.
The main question, Euwe says, will be whether Botvinnik has kept abreast of the steady advances in chess.
“In the third period of his championship tenure,” Euwe writes, “Botvinnik has engaged in no more play than in the first or second. So he shall have to surmount this deficiency by study. That he is capable of doing so we have learned from his two previous matches. Consequently, one does well not to underrate Botvinnik now.”
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1960
March 1960
April 30 1960
The Sun Times, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, April 30, 1960
Titans Of Chess Battle Nightly As World Watches
By John Miller
MOSCOW (Reuters)-On the stage
On the stage of Moscow's Pushkin Theatre before 1200 Soviet citizens two men are fighting a duel which lasts five hours a night three times a week for the coveted honor of becoming world chess champion of 1960.
One is Mikhail Botvinnik who at 48 is one of the greatest masters in the game's history. The other is Mikhail Tal, 23-year-old challenger who has had a meteoric rise to fame.
The 24-game duel is expected to last until May 8.
It is a battle between the scientist and the demon, the strategist and the tactician, the classic player and the innovator.
But both men have one thing at least in common. They belong to the great heritage of Russian chess. And their talent has put them in the “new rich” class of the Soviet Union with its accompanying privileges and fame.
Now, in one of the most interesting world chess championships for many years, they are fighting for the greatest honor of all—the one to keep it for another two years, the other to wrest it from his opponent.
THE CHAMPION
For nearly 20 years, Botvinnik, a scholarly-looking, seemingly-humorless electrical engineer, has been at the top of the list of the world's chess players. Seven times Soviet champion, he now is defending his world title for the fifth time in 11 years.
Since he was 14-year-old schoolboy playing one of 30 boards against the Cuban ace, Capablanca, Botvinnik has been winning chess honors.
When he was 16, he shared fifth and sixth place in the Soviet championships, thus winning his title of master.
Even in those early days, his play was marked by the characteristics which he still retains, meticulous attention to position, a quick grasp of complicated variations and thorough preparatory work.
In 1931, he won the Soviet championship. He won it twice more before the outbreak of the second World War, winning also his title of grand master and a number of international tournaments.
Rejected for military service because of poor eyesight, Botvinnik worked as an electrical engineer in the Ural Mountains. But he played enough chess to keep in practice.
EASY WINNER
Then, at the 1948 world championship, Botvinnik was an easy winner, scoring 14½ points out of a possible 20. Apart from being beaten by the Soviet player Smyslov three years ago, he has held the championship ever since.
Botvinnik is first and foremost a strategist. His play is coldly scientific, methodical and logical.
His training methods are pre-tournament homework are renowned. Once, he arranged for a friend to blow cigarette smoke at him during a training match before taking on several players who were heavy smokers.
During a match, he sits hunched over the board, hands on his head or resting on the table and a grim look on his face.
He seldom leaves the board, preferring to sit and stare at it when his opponent is in play. He is not known to have any particular quirks, although during his games with Smyslov, he produced a bottle of fruit juice, placed it on the table and sipped it when he had his opponent trapped.
One reason for his lack of popularity with enthusiastic young chess players is his approach to crowds. He appears to dislike them and excessive noise obviously upsets him.
THE CHALLENGER
Tal, black-haired and sallow-faced, is the hero of young Soviet chess enthusiasts. He has enjoyed a rapid rise to fame and privilege in only nine years.
His father introduced him to chess when he was seven and it quickly became a passion with him. But he learned his first lesson early when he was badly beaten time after time by his brother.
These defeats led Tal to join a chess section in his home town of Riga, capital of Latvia. Within three years, he was playing, and being beaten by, chess masters. One of those to whom he “offered a chance to beat him” was Botvinnik. Tal, then 11 years old, called, clasping a chess board, on the grand master when he was on vacation in Riga. Botvinnik was busy and declined to play.
In 1953, while still at a local secondary school, Tal became champion of Latvia. He improved rapidly but the going was more difficult. He had a marked talent and feeling for the game, but he got over-excited in attack. Tal began to analyze his game, checking and rechecking games he had played in the past.
These efforts brought their reward and he soon gained the honored title of master. Then came his severest test up to that time—the 1955 championship of the Soviet Union. Tal did well. He shared third and fourth place.
Two years later, he had won the Soviet championship, and his title of grand master, and set foot on the grueling road of zonal, inter-zonal and candidate tournaments which led to his first meeting with Botvinnik.
ROMANTIC STYLE
Tal, chess journalist and lecturer, is considered one of the fastest as well as one of the best tacticians to come to the game for some years. His speed of calculation has been compared with that of the Cuban maestro, Capablanca.
His game has all the hallmarks of youth and is based on his main characteristics—temperament, keenness of mind and boldness.
During play, he sits loosely at the table, only occasionally showing obvious signs of the tension and concentration needed to trap and beat an opponent. He usually hypnotizes them jump up and begin walking around the stage or room, hands clasped in front of him and a set expression on his face.
Away from the board, he lives up to his nickname, “the flame,” with a flamboyant character and quick repartee.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1961
1961
May 13 1961
The Guardian, London, Greater London, England Saturday, May 13, 1961
Tal's shortcomings exposed ruthlessly
What Botvinnik's success has shown
By Leonard Barden, our Chess Correspondent
Now that the world championship match has ended so unexpectedly and so decisively, the inquests will be more heated than usual.
During the last few years, Tal has built up a powerful mystique as a player whose demon glare and phenomenal powers of calculation were predestined to sweep aside all opposition.
When Smyslov violently criticized Tal's style in a newspaper article, announced that he would show Tal how a real grandmaster played, and was then defeated by one of the unsoundest sacrifices Tal has ever made, it seemed to the chess public like a judgment of the gods. When the press bureau at the first Botvinnik match called one of Tal's traps “gunshot at sparrows,” Botvinnik promptly fell into it. As Tal routed grandmaster after grandmaster, the swell of criticism of his style was dulled and stilled.
Hole in the hat
After the latest match, however, Botvinnik has become the man who has calmly pointed out the hole in the hat from which the conjurer was pulling rabbits. The match has seen not only the loss of Tal's world title but his transformation from the attacking genius with phenomenal imaginative reflexes to a player who more than once dithered around in the middle game without a constructive idea.
Part of the genesis of this remarkable change is certainly nothing to do with chess. Tal had a painful form of kidney trouble just before the match; he was advised by doctors to postpone it, but retorted that he and not the doctors was playing Botvinnik. The defending champion also went down with influenza after the eighth game, and it was then that he lost three games running, playing moves so clearly contrary to basic principles that one master at Bognor shook his head and said they were only possible if Tal had thought them up during a fever.
There is a reverse side to this coin: it is probable that a greater freedom from private worries also helped to account for Botvinnik's vastly improved form. During last year's match his wife was seriously ill, a fact which he generously did not put forward as an excuse and which has only recently become known to the chess world.
Decisive factor
It would be entirely wrong, however, to regard this just as the victory of a healthy man over a sick one. Given positions which suited him, as in the eighth and twelfth games of the match, Tal was as tactically sure and devastating in attack as ever. The real key to Botvinnik's success was the way he exposed, more clearly and persistently than ever before, how much Tal is vulnerable in both closed and simplified positions.
By the end of the match Botvinnik was setting up fixed pawn formations and offering the exchange of queens at almost every opportunity. He saved two endings, in the sixteenth and twentieth games, when every master spectator had given him up for lost.
Another decisive factor in the match was Botvinnik's superior theoretical preparation. This was again partly a reflection of his better psychological approach to the match. With Black, Tal seemed to be trying to show that he could play positional chess by adopting defences like the Nimzo-Indian and Slav which were foreign to his style but admirably suited to Botvinnik's; as these openings developed, Botvinnik always had a useful innovation ready to spring on his opponent. It was only when Tal switched to the King's Indian that he obtained satisfactory opening positions with Black; but by then he was under the fresh handicap of needing to play for a win in every game, so that Botvinnik could choose simplifying variations and sit back and wait for Tal to overreach himself.
What of the future? Keres and Petrosian, the other leading Russian contenders for the world title, will now be mentally measuring themselves against Botvinnik in 1963 and fancying their chances. One can also imagine Bobby Fischer's Brooklyn voice disturbing the older members of the Manhattan Chess Club from their over-the-board slumbers as he comments on the result:
The future
What will happen to Tal? As the recent careers of Bronstein and Smyslov have shown, it is only too easy to lose your ambition and slip back once you have reached the world title pinnacle and have been repulsed by Botvinnik. Tal will have the additional disadvantage hence forward that his weaknesses have been so ruthlessly and precisely exposed in this match. From now on, Tal will surely receive such a rash of Caro-Kanns and queen swaps in every tournament in which he competes that his mind will dwell sadly a la recherche du temps perdu when his opponents were wont to become ready victims to the slashing attacks against the Sicilian and French in which he specializes. Botvinnik has not only won the match, he has shown the chess world how to play against Tal.
Although it would not be surprising if Tal's career enters a trough for a few years, he is still exceptionally young for a world master and his talents are so great that he will surely make a new bid for the title. He may never eliminate his weaknesses in blocked and simplified positions, but there will be few of his opponents with the strategic depth of a Botvinnik.
The lessons of this match, if Tal cares to learn them, are that not every opening leads to the kind of middle game he likes, and that there are other, subtler weapons besides the dazzling pyrotechnics of an open position.
Yesterday Botvinnik again opened with the Samisch Attack against the King's Indian, but the game developed on more orthodox lines than in the previous games with this opening.
Botvinnik conducted the middle game in a fine enterprising style, sacrificing two pawns for a fierce attack against the king. Even the exchange of queens failed to stem the onslaught, and Tal resigned when faced with decisive material loss. This was one of Botvinnik's best wins of the entire match, and particularly commendable when he only needed a draw.
Mikhail Botvinnik vs Mikhail Tal
"King Crimson" (game of the day Aug-04-2024)
Tal - Botvinnik World Championship Rematch (1961), Moscow URS, rd 21, May-12
King's Indian Defense: Saemisch Variation (E80) 1-0
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1934
January 14 1934
El Paso Times, El Paso, Texas, Sunday, January 14, 1934
Russians Like Chess As Pastime
International Match Draws Interest Throughout Soviet Union.
By Joseph H. Baird
United Press Staff Correspondent
Moscow, Jan. 13 (UP).—Although the average Communist considers bridge a silly game for bourgeois idlers, he admires chess, long the favorite pastime of philosophers and sages.
That is why, perhaps, the recent international match between Samuel Flohr, Czechoslovakian master, and Michael Botvinnik, young Soviet player, was followed keenly here by all sections of the people, even including Nicholas Krylenko, commissar of justice.
Indeed, no Harvard-Yale football game in America, no Oxford-Cambridge boat race in England has aroused more popular enthusiasm than did Flohr and Botvinnik, facing each other over their checkered board and moving kings, queens, castles and pawns with consummate skill.
In First Row.
During the matches in Moscow, Krylenko was always found in the first row. When the second half of the match was moved to Leningrad, he followed it there. The commissar's devotions before the god of chess were interrupted by the convening here of a Soviet congress. He returned to Moscow, but on learning one night of Botvinnik's victory in a game, he caught a late train and rushed back to Leningrad.
And his enthusiasm was merely symbolic of how Muscovites felt generally. Each day the newspapers devoted columns to the match.
Even a political element entered into public feeling about the competition. For Botvinnik, a young scientist employed by the Physics Institute at Leningrad, is an ardent member of the Communist party and his skill at chess was regarded as a demonstration of the rigorous mental training which the Soviet Union is imparting to its youth.
Ends In Draw.
Unfortunately, in view of the keen public interest, the match ended in a draw, each player winning six games. But the Moscow public regarded the result as a moral victory for the young Communist, for he had held his own against an older and more experienced rival.
The match was arranged by the chess section of the All-Union Council for Physical Education. Because of the great interest it stimulated, plans are being made for a large international chess tournament here to which the world's masters will be invited.
February 18 1934
The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah, Sunday, February 18, 1934
Soviet Children Experts At Chess
MOSCOW.—(UP)—Although chess usually is considered a game for sage oldsters this is not true in the Soviet union.
One 14-year-old boy won a game from Michael Botvinnik, Soviet professional, while a 16-year-old lad played the master to a draw. It should be explained, however, that Botvinnik was playing on 25 boards simultaneously.
Botvinnik told the young chess enthusiasts:
“My generation produced ten first rate chess players. Yours should produce at least 50.”
Leningrad children took first place in the tournament, those of Rostov second, and those of Moscow third.
August 1934
Participants in the Leningrad Tournament: Mikhail Botvinnik, standing, last on top right. Original b/w from Source.
November 12 1934
The Guardian, London, Greater London, England, Monday, November 12, 1934
YOUNG SOVIET CHESS CHAMPION
May Come to Hastings
(From our Correspondent.)
Moscow, November 11. It is announced that the Soviet chess champion, Mikhail Botvinnik, who is 25 years old, a student of the Leningrad Engineering Institute, and a member of the Young Communists, is hoping to represent the Soviet Union at the international tournament at Hastings after Christmas. This would be the first time a Soviet chess expert has appeared in a tournament abroad. Botvinnik attracted the attention of Capablanca nine years ago when he defeated him in a simultaneous match.
November 25 1934
Buffalo Courier Express, Buffalo, New York, Sunday, November 25, 1934
The strength of the Russian players was demonstrated in a tournament concluded in Leningrad last month, Soviet experts finished in the first five positions with Dr. Euwe, Alekhine's main contender in sixth place. M. Kmoch finished in eighth place. M. M. Botvinnik champion of Russia was first, followed by Romanovsky and Rumin.
November 27 1934
Evening Standard, London, Greater London, England, Tuesday, November 27, 1934
SOVIET CHESS CHAMPION'S VISIT
The chess champion of the Soviet Union, M. Botvinnik intends to visit England to play in the international tournament at Hastings next month, says the British United Press.
Botvinnik, a 23-year-old electrical engineer, has been playing in tournaments for nearly ten years. He won the chess championship of the Soviet Union in 1931, and since then has won every Russian tournament in which he has played.
December 11 1934
The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah, Tuesday, December 11, 1934
Chess Champion To Seek World Honors
MOSCOW.—(UP)—The chess champion of the Soviet Union M. Botvinnik plans to take part in the International Chess tournament beginning Dec. 27 at the Hastings Chess club in Britain.
Botvinnik, a 23-year-old electrical engineer has been playing in tournaments for nearly a decade having started his career as a mere boy. Since 1931, when he won the chess championship of the U.S.S.R. he has been the victor of every domestic tournament in which he has played.
In recent years chess has become an extremely popular game in the Soviet Union. It is estimated there are 500,000 players here.
December 29 1934
Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, Saturday, December 29, 1934
Chess Masters Play.
HASTINGS, England, Dec. 28.—(AP)—The second round of the international chess masters' tournament was completed after two session today with Sir George Thomas leading with two consecutive victories to his credit. His second victim was Jose R. Capablanca of Havana, who resigned a queen's pawn game after fifty-three moves. The Cuban had the white pieces.
Dr. Max Euwe of the Netherlands defeated the Russian, M. Botvinnik, in fifty-six moves. R. P. Mitchell of England also won today and is tied with Dr. Euwe for second place.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1938
January 23 1938
The Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Sunday, January 23, 1938
The reports in the English Press announcing Botvinnik's victory over Levenfish were premature. They were caused by the misunderstanding of the conditions of the match which were: the best of 10 games draws not counting. After 10 games the score was 5½-4½, but as three of the 10 games were drawn the actual score was 4-3, in Botvinnik's favor. The 11th game was won by Levenfish, but Botvinnik won the 12th making certain of at least drawing the match. In order to win however Botvinnik, who was the challenger had to win six games while five were sufficient for Levenfish who retained his title if the match was drawn. Levenfish won the 13th game in fine style retaining the title of chess champion of the USSR. For this achievement Levenfish was awarded the title of grand-master. The only other player to hold this title in the Soviet Russia is Botvinnik. The remarkable feature of the match was the small number of drawn games, which is probably a record in a match of a corresponding importance.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1954
January 04 1954
The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, Monday, January 04, 1954
Botvinnik To Defend Chess Championship
London, Jan. 3 (AP)—World chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik will defend his title against Vasily Smyslov in a 24-game match starting March 16. Moscow radio announced tonight.
Both players are Russians. Smyslov earned the right to challenge Botvinnik by winning a challengers' competition in Switzerland last year.
Mikhail Botvinnik, 1932
January 10 1932
The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, Sunday, January 10, 1932
After a month of strenuous playing the championship of Russia has been won by Michael Botvinnik, 20-year-old student of the Electro-Technical College of Leningrad. His style is decidedly hypermodern, cool composure, taking no risks, a rational study of the position from move to move while waiting for his opponent to open up a weakness.
February 28 1932
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sunday, February 28, 1932
A national masters' chess tournament was held last November in Moscow. We hope later to give a fuller report of this tournament. There were eighteen entries and not a single name do we recall having seen in any tournament outside of Russia. The tournament was won by Michael Moiseyevitch Botvinnik, who was born in St. Petersburg in 1911 and is a student in the Electro Technical College.
March 13 1932
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sunday, March 13, 1932
The great Russian National masters' Championship Tournament held at the Palace of Trade Unions at Moscow last November is an interesting study. There were eighteen contestants and a glance at the score will show that the players were fairly well matched, even the eighteenth player scored 5 points as against the winner's 13½. Outside of Russia and a few Russian players who have now taken up their citizenship in other countries, the general public have very little knowledge of the present standard of Russian chess. Not a single player is known to the general chess public. The Russian players have always ranked high in the chess world. Among the past masters might be mentioned Petroff, Winawer, Tschigorin, Schiffers and Alapin and among the more modern noted Russians we have Alekhine and Bogoljubow, and now we must add Botvinnik and Rumin, without mentioning probably four or five others who took part in the present tournament who are almost unknown to the general chess public.
In order that our readers may become familiar with the names of the noted Russian players, we give the full score of the championship tournament:
M. Botvinnik, won 13½;
N. Rumin, 11½;
V. Alatorzeff, 10;
F. Bogatyrchuk, 10;
B. Verlinsky, 10;
M. Yudovitch, 10;
I. Kahn, 9½;
I. Mazel, 9;
V. Rayzer, 9;
A. Ilyin-Zhenevsky, 8½;
V. Kiriloff, 8½;
G. Lisitzin, 8½;
N. Sorokin, 7;
A. Samykhovsky, 6½
V. Goglidze, 6;
V. Sosin, 5½;
A. Budo, 5;
R. Kasparyan, 5.
The winner of this tournament was born in Leningrad in 1911 and is a student of the Electro-Technical College in that city. The style of play, according to the Moscow News (a five-day weekly published in English), is marked by cool composure. The champion takes no risks. In this respect he differs from the players of the Tschigorin class, who were invariably aggressive from the very start.
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'til the world understands why Robert J. Fischer criticised the U.S./British and Russian military industry imperial alliance and their own Israeli Apartheid. Sarah Wilkinson explains: Tweets by swilkinsonbc |
 “What a sad story Fischer was,” typed a racist, pro-imperialist colonial troll who supports mega-corporation entities over human rights, police state policies & white supremacy. |
To which I replied: “Really? I think he [Bob Fischer] stood up to the broken system of corruption and raised awareness! Whether on the Palestinian/Israel-British-U.S. Imperial Apartheid scam, the Bush wars of ‘7 countries in 5 years,’ illegally, unconstitutionally which constituted mass xenocide or his run in with police brutality in Pasadena, California-- right here in the U.S., police run rampant over the Constitution of the U.S., on oath they swore to uphold, but when Americans don't know the law, and the cops either don't know or worse, “don't care” -- then I think that's pretty darn “sad”. I think Mr. Fischer held out and fought the good fight, steadfast til the day he died, and may he Rest In Peace. Educate yourself about U.S./State Laws -- https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit/videos After which the troll posted a string of profanities, confirming there was never any genuine sentiment of “compassion” for Mr. Fischer, rather an intent to inflict further defamatory remarks. |
This ongoing work is a tribute to the life and accomplishments of Robert “Bobby” Fischer who passionately loved and studied chess history. May his life continue to inspire many other future generations of chess enthusiasts and kibitzers, alike.
March 9, 1943 - January 17, 2008The photograph of Bobby Fischer (above) from the March 02, 1956 The Tampa Times was discovered by Sharon Mooney (Bobby Fischer Newspaper Archive editor) on February 01, 2018 while gathering research materials for this ongoing newspaper archive project. Along with lost games now being translated into Algebraic notation and extractions from over two centuries of newspapers, it is but one of the many lost treasures to be found in the pages of old newspapers since our social media presence was first established November 11, 2017.
