philidor_position
Order of The White Lotus

View complete profile

I always tell you, Pai Sho is more than just a game.

-Iroh

Time is merciless in the chess universe.

-Nabokov

When I speak of the beauty of a game of chess, then naturally this is subjective. Beauty can be found in a very technical, mathematical game for example. That is the beauty of clarity.

-Vladimir Kramnik

Kramnik considers chess less as a sport and more as the art of carrying out a long-term plan.

-Kramnik.com

[Kasparov] stressed a number of times during the lecture that there are no miracles in chess.The “real secret” is to work hard no matter what the training tools are. In his days it was books and notebooks and today it is computers.

He said “The tools can be different but what is important remains the same.” Kasparov also said that “I don’t think champions are born, I think they are made, it’s all the result of very hard work.” However, he further added that “being able to work hard is unique talent.”

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2009/04/gks-chess-wisdom.html

It is when working under limitations that the master reveals himself.

-Garry Kasparov

Until recently I was a schoolboy, I am not very accustomed to rigid, hard and painstaking work. Only by working with Garry Kasparov have I become aware of just how important it is.

-Magnus Carlsen

(...)but it's clear that talent alone, even the most brilliant talent, isn't enough for victory, but what's demanded is professional, intelligent work that's done over many years(...). Dedication, professonalism and renunciation - this is the path to the biggest victories.

-Evgeny Bareev / From London to Elista, p.299

[Botvinnik] drew the correct conclusion from his setback: he had to work still more persistently to improve his strategy, with painstaking analysis of his victories and defeats. Step by step he worked out his own system of training for competitions.
(...)
He combined serious work on chess with studies at the Industrial Institute, and at the same time was an active member of the Young Communist Leage.
(...)
After that defeat it would have been easy to lose heart, but Botvinnik has tremendous will power. He took himself in hand, and his next two games ended in a draw. In the tenth round, playing White against Lasker, he delivered a series of strong, precise blows, and on the 21st move Lasker resigned. Botvinnik was runner up to Capablanca.
(...)
In Nottingham Botvinnik fully revealed his qualities: skill, endurance, persistence, will to win, and theoretical knowledge backed up by superb technique. He played calmly and confidently, going through the entire tournament unstached.
(...)
While laying new paths in the opening and other aspects of theory, Botvinnik continued his work in the field of electrical engineering.

In 1952 he successfully presented his Doctor's thesis. He has been decorated with the Order of the Badge of Honour twice, for his outstanding chess activity, and for his fruitful work as an engineer.

Ever since his youth Mikhail Botvinnik has had a scientific approach to chess as a game demanding the most painstaking study and flights of creative imagination.

He happily combines his natural talent with a tremendous capacity for work, an iron will to win, and patience. His style is now exceptionally versatile: he is equally strong in positional play and complicated positions abounding in combinational possibilities.

(...)
Another characteristic feature of Botvinnik's style was revealed clearly at the Seventh U.S.S.R. Championship in 1931. We refer to his tenacity in defence, his ability to find latent defensive resources when he lands in a tight spot. True, this rarely happens, for he foresees danger in good time and takes steps to meet it properly. Still, when he does get into a tough situation he finds a way out of it more often than other players. When in trouble, Botvinnik usually defends himself by creating the utmost positional difficulties for his adversary. He displays great inventiveness in finding and camouflaging combinational possibilites which increase his defensive resources.
(...)
In his early period Botvinnik preferred a calm positional style of play. He negotiated combinational storms when they could not be avoided, but he was clearly less at home in them than in calm positions with a well-defined centre and a manoeuvring battle. It was here that Botvinnik's main feature as a sportsman revealed itself: he takes a clear, objective view of his short-comings, even the slightest ones, and works persistently to root them out.

Realizing that his weak point at the time was involved combinational positions containing numerous possibilites not subject to precise calculation, he deliberately sought such positions on every convenient occasion in order to acquire maximum experience in them. The following game is typical in this respect.
(...)
The chess world highly appreciates Botvinnik as an all-round player with tremendous theoretical knowledge, great tournament experience, unusal persistence and ability to fight.

(...)

Mikhail Botvinnik has made a deep study of the heritage of Chigorin, whom he resembles in his eagerness for struggle(...)

-Soviet School of Chess / A. Kotov, Y. Yudovich (p.123)

The incredible longevity of Botvinnik's competitive success undoubtedly owed a great deal to his Spartan self-discipline. Alhekine had gone into long periods of intense training before important matches, but Botvinnik adopted a sever training regimen as a permanent lifestyle.

At various times he concentrated particularly on certain aspects of his training. For instance, to inure himself to typical tournament distractions, he would play training matches while a radio was blaring and his opponent was blowing smoke in his face. To avoid the most trivial daily decisions during an important event, he would always dress exactly the same way, eat and sleep at exactly the same times, travel to and from the playing site by exactly the same route, take his refreshment (always orange juice) at exactly the same time during each game.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Botvinnik's chess career is that he was able to perform so successfully for so long while pusuing a seperate full-time career as an electrical engineer. We may never again see a top chess player with a dual career.

-Winning With Chess Psychology / Pal Benko, Burt Hochberg (p70)