6th World Champion
1948 - 1957, 1958 - 1960, 1961 - 1963
Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik was born in St Petersburg, Russia
in 1911. He learned to play chess at the age of 12. He was a Soviet
and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess
Champion. He is often considered as one of the greatest chess
players of all time. Working as an electrical engineer at the same
time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved
distinction in another career while playing top-class competitive
chess. He also developed a chess-playing algorithm that tried to
"think" like a top human player, but this approach has been
superseded by a brute-force search strategy that exploits the rapid
increase in the calculation speed of modern computers.
Botvinnik was the first world-class player to develop within the
Soviet Union, putting him under political pressure but also giving
him considerable influence within Soviet chess. From time to time
he was accused of using that influence to his own advantage, but
the evidence is unclear and some suggest he resisted attempts by
Soviet officials to intimidate some of his rivals.
Botvinnik also played a major role in the organization of chess,
making a significant contribution to the design of the World Chess
Championship system after World War II and becoming a leading
member of the coaching system that enabled the Soviet Union to
dominate top-class chess during that time. His famous pupils
include World Champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir
Kramnik.
The puzzle:
Answer the following questions (use algebraic chess notation for
the first 4):
- How is queen side castling notated?
- What symbol is used to notate a move that captures a
piece?
- What symbol is used to notate check?
- What notation indicates that white won the game?
- How many dark squares are on a standard chessboard?
- What shorthand notation indicates an excellent move?
- In what country did the precursor to chess most likely
originate?