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Before Geller we did not understand the King's Indian Defence.

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
Understand
Defence
Indian
Chess
Opening
King
Kings

More quotes by Mikhail Botvinnik

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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.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929.
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.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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The triumph of the analytical movement, which formed in the '30's and '40's, was precisely what earned the Soviet masters the acclaim of chessplayers the world over. Unfortunately, it must also be noted that, for today's chessmasters, the watchword is practicality.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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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.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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A knight ending is really a pawn ending.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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I only think well when my mind is calm.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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You have to accustom yourself to practical study at home, you have to devote time to studies, to the history of chess, the development of chess theory, of chess culture.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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Along with my retirement from chess analytical work seems to have gone too.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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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.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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Don't worry kids, you'll find work. After all, my machine will need strong chess player-programmers. You will be the first.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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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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It is a well known fact that almost all the outstanding chess-players have been first-class analysts.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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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.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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It is peculiar but a fact nevertheless, that the gamblers in chess have enthusiastic followers.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing Chess positions accurately
Mikhail Botvinnik
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When my opponent's clock is going I discuss general considerations in an internal dialogue with myself. When my own clock is going I analyse conctrete variations.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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Chess is the art of analysis.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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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