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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
Kings
Understand
Defence
Indian
Chess
Opening
King

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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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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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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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There is no better place for learning to work independently and to extend your horizon than in higher school.
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It is peculiar but a fact nevertheless, that the gamblers in chess have enthusiastic followers.
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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.
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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.
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Chess is no whit inferior to the violin, and we have a large number of professional violinists
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With opposite coloured bishops the attacking side has in effect an extra piece in the shape of his bishop.
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Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic.
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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I only think well when my mind is calm.
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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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.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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Chess is the art of analysis.
Mikhail Botvinnik
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A knight ending is really a pawn ending.
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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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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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