Mikhail Botvinnik is the 6th world chess champion. He was one of the few players who achieved distinction for both chess and other career. He was a pioneer in computer chess. He was also the coach of the other world chess champions, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik.
He was born on August 17, 1911 at St. Petersburg, Russia. At 12, he learned chess through his brother’s friend and instantly love it. He won the chess championship in his school in 1924. In 1925, he won against Jose Raul Capablanca in his simultaneous exhibition.
In 1926, he became a candidate member of his school, at that time his physical was poor, so he started a program for physical exercise which he maintained throughout his life. The next year, he was qualified for the 1927 USSR Chess Championship, the youngest player and he tied for 5th place and received the title of National Master.
He won the Leningrad Masters’ Tournament in 1930. The next year, he won the 1931 USSR Championship in Moscow, the same year, he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. He played in Hasting 1934-35, his first tournament outside the USSR, he tied for 5th-6th place with 5/9. In 1936, he was invited and accepted to play in Nottingham, Krylenko allowed him to play together with his wife, a privilege rarely extended to any chess player at that time, at the end, he tied for 1st with Capablanca, a great result for him.
After he won the 1944 and 1945 USSR Chess Championship, most of the top Soviet players wanted to have world championship match between Alekhine and Botvinnik. But the allegations that Alkehine had written anti-semitic articles made it difficult to host a match in USSR. He opened negotiations with the British Chess Federation to host a match at England but they stopped due to Alekhine’s death in 1946. The 1948 World Chess Championship was under round-robin among 5 players which he won with a score of 14/20, 3 points ahead and becoming the 6th World Chess Champion. After he became a world champion, he designed a system for world chess championship which benefited him for 2 matches.
In 1957, he was set for Vasily Smyslov where he lost his title but he regained it in the 1958 rematch. The same thing happened in the next world match with Mikhail Tal in 1960 where he lost the title and regained in 1961. In 1963, the next title match, he totally lost the title to Tigran Petrosian without his rematch rule.
In May 5, 1995, he died and buried at Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia.
There are 1336 games listed in the chessbase
Let’s look one of his best games which feature in our GMG page.
https://www.chess.com/blog/GMG29/the-psychological-battle
https://youtu.be/iOTv5aDgmuA