| Apr-29-03 | | Fulkrum: I'm not sure what white was thinking when he moved 9. a4 This seems to lose a pawn for him. |
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| Apr-29-03 | | Fulkrum: Interesting positional exchange sac. |
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| Apr-30-03 | | GlassCow: My favorite move in this game was 31 ... Rh8!! Botvinnik knew that taking the insignificant h pawn would have lost him the b4 pawn, so he pushed the rook to the first rank in order to swing it to b8 after the exchange of pawns. Quite an ingenious concept. |
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| May-29-05 | | aw1988: This is Botvinnik's famous blockading of the a4 square in the French, now a well-known idea. |
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| Mar-12-06 | | offramp: Botvinnik was in great form in this event which I think he won by two clear points. In the first round he had beaten the almost-indestructible Flohr. This game against Tolush was in round 2. |
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Mar-11-07
 | | keypusher: Botvinnik finished 15-2 (+13-0=4), which was three points of second-place Isaac Boleslavsky and five points ahead of third-place David Bronstein! http://members.aol.com/graemecree/c... Smyslov, Kotov, Bondarevsky and Lilienthal also participated. Probably the best performance of Botvinnik's career, and one of the greatest tournament performances in history. |
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| Nov-11-07 | | fictionist: I guess Mr. Petrosian learned something from Mr. Botvinnik's 21...Rxd6!? |
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Jul-17-08
 | | plang: 8..c4 is not mentioned in any of the theoretical works I have. 8..Nbc6, 8..Qc7, 8 Bd7 and 8..Qa4 are all mentioned. I guess in modern chess it is not fashionable to release the tension this quickly. Botvinnik considered 10 Be2 to be too slow recommending 10 Ng5 instead. It is not clear whether the pawn sacrifice 9 a4 is valid given how passive white's position is. The maneuver 12 Nh4 along with the exchange on g6 is unfortunate for white as, after this, there is no pawn break on the kingside to play for. Tolush's best piece was his dark squared bishop and 19..Rb6 already anticipated the exchange sacrifice to get rid of it. If Tolush had not played 21 Bd6 Botvinnik could have forced it with ..Qb8 threatening ..b4.
The game was adjourned at move 40. 41 Be2 was sealed but Tolush resigned without resuming. |
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| Jul-18-08 | | GetClubChess: What opening is this? It looks like the French except not. |
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| Feb-22-09 | | WeakSquare: Botvinnik makes the French look like a forced win for Black. |
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Jan-01-13
 | | Honza Cervenka: It was better for white to keep the Queens on the board. Maybe 30.Qh2!? deserved attention. |
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Feb-14-13
 | | Garech: Another superb Winawer from Botvinnik - the man's a legend! -Garech |
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sac: 21...Rxd6
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