"tomic" wrote in message news:
...

Orwell or Botvinnik?

200 Words by Lev Khariton

[nice, interesting article]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any comments?

Goran Tomic

-- Let's always remember about Botvinnik's
contribution, his Botvinnik's Chess School.
It has enriched chess not just in the
former Soviet Union but indirectly
the whole of Chess.

-- Late in his chess career Botvinnik avoided
large tournaments but he didn't avoid
playing against the toughes competition.
Indeed, he played in the prestigous Soviet
team championships.

The following incident is described by Tal
in his autobiographic text and superb collection
of his games.

Before their last game with Tal, Botvinnik
had a plus 1 life score against the grandmaster
from Riga. It was clear that he had an inferior
position, clear enough for the captain of
the Botvinnik's team to start a motion toward
arranging a draw. Botvinnik only waved his
captain away and resigned the game a few moves
later.

This clearly and nicely shows what kind of a man
Botvinnik was. Thus while I believe that Keres
and Bronstein were at certain critical moments
under a subtle or crude pressure from KGB, I don't
believe for a moment that it had anything to do
with Botvinnik. On the contrary, based on what I have
read about Botvinnik and by Botvinnik, I believe
that Botvinnik wanted his victories to be fair
and purely within the sport, on the chess board
only. That he would never value them otherwise.
He wanted the real thing, authentic, not anything
superficial, fake.


Best regards,

Wlod