Mikhail Botvinnik Quotes

Quotes about:

• Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Art, Chess, Logic

  62 Copy quote

• Chess cannot be taught. Chess can only be learned.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Chess, Taught

  49 Copy quote

• Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing Chess positions accurately

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Mastery, Analysis, Chess

  47 Copy quote

• If Tal sacrifices a piece, take it. If Petrosian sacrifices a piece, don't take it.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Sacrifice, Pieces, Ifs

  51 Copy quote

• 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

  Games, Training, Chess

  Mikhail Botvinnik (2012). “Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games”, p.11, Courier Corporation

  63 Copy quote

• Chess is the art of analysis.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Art, Analysis, Chess

  Mikhail Botvinnik (2012). “Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games”, p.11, Courier Corporation

  39 Copy quote

• 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

  Time, Variation, Opponents

  46 Copy quote

• I claim that nothing else is so effective in encouraging the growth of chess strength as such independent analysis, both of the games of the great players and your own.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Independent, Player, Games

  31 Copy quote

• 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

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Success, Effort, Creative

  20 Copy quote

• 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.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Success, Chess, Gains

  Mikhail Botvinnik (2012). “Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games”, p.9, Courier Corporation

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  Issues, Ideas, People

  43 Copy quote

• 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

  Success, Believe, Engineering

  45 Copy quote

• It is peculiar but a fact nevertheless, that the gamblers in chess have enthusiastic followers.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Style, Peculiar, Followers

  8 Copy quote

• I only think well when my mind is calm.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Thinking, Mind, Calm

  17 Copy quote

• Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Games, Chess, Blitz

  32 Copy quote

• With opposite coloured bishops the attacking side has in effect an extra piece in the shape of his bishop.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Opposites, Bishops, Pieces

  28 Copy quote

• Capablanca's phenomenal move-searching algorithm in those early years, when he possessed a wonderful ability for calculating variations very rapidly, made him invincible.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Moving, Years, Variation

  13 Copy quote

• It is a well known fact that almost all the outstanding chess-players have been first-class analysts.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Player, Class, Chess

  Mikhail Botvinnik (2012). “Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games”, p.11, Courier Corporation

  31 Copy quote

• 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

  Success, Home, Culture

  "Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games".

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Games, Chess, Middle

  38 Copy quote

• The boy (then a 12 year old boy named Anatoly Karpov)doesn't have a clue about Chess, and there's no future at all for him in this profession

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Boys, Years, Chess

  33 Copy quote

• Chess is a part of culture and if a culture is declining then Chess too will decline

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Culture, Chess, Decline

  36 Copy quote

• If Tal would learn to program himself properly, then it would become quite impossible to play against him.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Play, Impossible, Program

  10 Copy quote

• Above all else, before playing in competitions a player must have regard to his health, for if he is suffering from ill-health he cannot hope for success. In this connection the best of all tonics is 15 to 20 days in the fresh air, in the country.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Country, Player, Air

  Mikhail Botvinnik (2012). “Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games”, p.10, Courier Corporation

  28 Copy quote

• Everything is in a state of flux, and this includes the world of Chess

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  World, Chess, States

  8 Copy quote

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