Hello fellow members of <Chessgames.com>, I really enjoy being on this site: having fun and improving my game. There are a lot of great people here, that make this website very special.
My favourite player is Mikhail Botvinnik.
I like his approach to chess and his reserved manner.
<Biography on Mikhail M. Botvinnik>
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquar...
<Short Movies on Botvinnik>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld6W...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stns...
<What Others had to say about Botvinnik>
"From Mikhail Botvinnik one can learn that it is necessary to prepare seriously for each encounter. Here is a little example: Before the tourney for the world championship in 1948, I was acting as Botvinnik's second. Botvinnik included in his program the study of all rook endgames with f- and h-pawns. I was astonished: Why? That happens only once in a lifetime. <'No, if I am not acquainted with such endings, I do not have the right to participate in the world championship'>, said Botvinnik. I had to search for all examples of this endgame!"
- Salomon Flohr (Source: Fide Review #3, 1961)
"He has become a real school of how to avoid superficiality."
– Bobby Fischer
"We all view ourselves as Botvinnik's pupils, and further generations will learn by his games."
– Tigran Petrosian
"Botvinnik almost makes you feel that difficulty attracts him and stimulates him to the full unfolding of his powers.
Most players feel uncomfortable in difficult positions, but Botvinnik seems to enjoy them. Where dangers threaten from every side and the smallest slackening of attention might be fatal; in a position which requires nerves of steel and intense concentration, Botvinnik is in his element."
– Max Euwe
"He has made himself at home in each department of the game: opening, positional strategy, combinative tactics and endplay, so that it is impossible to say that he is stronger in one brand of play than another.
His best games have the smoothness of an epic poem, rolling on grandly to their appointed end."
– William Winter (on Botvinnik)
"If you play Botvinnik, it is even alarming to see him write his move down. Slightly short-sighted, he stoops over his score sheet and devotes his entire attention to recording the move in the most beautifully clear script; one feels that an explosion would not distract him and that examined through a microscope not an irregularity would appear. When he wrote down 1.c2-c4 against me, I felt like resigning."
– IM Hugh Alexander
<Some of my favourite quotes by Botvinnik>
"If Acoustics was a science that informed the world about sounds, then Music was an art that revealed the beauty of that science; if Logic was a science that revealed the laws of Thought, then Chess, in the form of artistic images, was an art that illuminated the logical side of thought."
- Mikhail M.Botvinnik
"Chess is the art of analysis."
- Mikhail M. Botvinnik
"Chess is a part of culture and if a culture is declining then chess too will decline."
- Mikhail M. Botvinnik
"The chessplayer's greatest art lies in creating positions in which the normal relative values cease to exist."
-- Mikhail Botvinnik
"Of course, I would have crushed him! You know, every chess champion has a period in his life when he is just in a class by himself, and if for Alekhine it was the period from 1927 till 1934, for me it was from 1941 through 1948. Nobody could have beaten me at the time."
– Mikhail Botvinnik (on the never played match with Alekhine)
"Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929."
– Mikhail Botvinnik
<"Young man, remember this: I never played chess for pleasure.">
– Mikhail Botvinnik (on having it suggested to him in his latter years, that he play blitz chess for fun)
<Other favourite quotes>
"There are many players who have a good command of the art of accurate combinations, but who will never reach master strenght: for they lack the ability to conduct the entire game on the basis of a correct plan laid out in advance."
- Ludek Pachman
"It takes a strong player to realize how truly weak he is."
- Saviely Tartakower
This is now a good moment to say <Special Thanks<<>>> to <Brankat> and <Whiteshark> for pointing out and shareing numerous of the above Botvinnik-related quotes.
And of course a big thank you to all the others as well, for support and friendship: <Open Defence>, <Jessica>, <Woody>, <Hms>, <Niels>, <Boomie>, <Justakid> and <Mal>.
And of course <WannaBe> for hooking me up with correspondence chess - a vice I do have!
<Favourite Chessbooks>
Mikhail Botvinnik: "One Hundred Selected Games"
Ludek Pachman: "Modern Chess Strategy"
László Polgár: "Chess. 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games."
<About me> Rudolf Zipperer, Germany. No official rating. Started playing chess only about two years ago - but I've been "infected" ever since. And I am curious about how far I can advance.
Gameknot: PykeCG (http://gameknot.com/stats.pl?pykecg)
Quit playing at Fics and Playchess.
Feel free to challenge me.
You all, have a good time, and remember:
<"Chess will always be the master of us all.">
- Alexander Alekhine
<Chess Studies By Botvinnik>
<No1: 1925>
White to play and win.
White to play and win.
Enjoy! (All studies taken from Botvinnik: "One Hundred Selected Games" p. 260 ff)
