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Memorization of variations could be even worse than playing in a tournament without looking in the books at all.

Mikhail Botvinnik

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Mikhail Botvinnik
Age: 83 †
Born: 1911
Born: August 17
Died: 1995
Died: May 5
Chess Coach
Chess Composer
Chess Player
Electrical Engineer
Engineer
Writer
Kuokkala
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik
Books
Variations
Looking
Tournament
Book
Tournaments
Without
Variation
Even
Chess
Worse
Theory
Playing
Memorization

More quotes by Mikhail Botvinnik

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Every great master will find it useful to have his own theory on the openings, which only he himself knows, a theory which is closely linked with plans for the middle game.
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Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929.
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It is peculiar but a fact nevertheless, that the gamblers in chess have enthusiastic followers.
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A knight ending is really a pawn ending.
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Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic.
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If you are weak in the endgame, you must spend more time analysing studies in your training games you must aim at transposing to endgames, which will help you to acquire the requisite experience.
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I ... have two vocations: chess and engineering. If I played chess only, I believe that my success would not have been significantly greater. I can play chess well only when I have fully convalesced from chess and when the 'hunger for chess' once more awakens within me.
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Chess is the art of analysis.
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Everything is in a state of flux, and this includes the world of Chess
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Before Geller we did not understand the King's Indian Defence.
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If you are going to make your mark among masters, you have to work far harder and more intensively, or, to put it more exactly, the work is far more complex than that needed to gain the title of Master.
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Along with my retirement from chess analytical work seems to have gone too.
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In short, we can see Karpov as an exploiter of other people’s ideas. His ability to use these ideas is not at issue, but he himself is about as fertile as a woman who has been sterilized is.
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It must be clearly understood that Soviet players do not seek simple systems in the opening, but try to formulate opening systems in which everything is complicated, distinctive, or new.
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Capablanca's play produced and still produces an irresistable artistic effect. In his games a tendency towards simplicity predominated, and in this simplicity there was a unique beauty of genuine depth.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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Chess, like any creative activity, can exist only through the combined efforts of those who have creative talent, and those who have the ability to organize their creative work
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Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing Chess positions accurately
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I only think well when my mind is calm.
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It is a well known fact that almost all the outstanding chess-players have been first-class analysts.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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There is no better place for learning to work independently and to extend your horizon than in higher school.
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