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Ketika Perang Dunia II berakhir, Botvinnik memenangi turnamen pasca-perang yang benar-benar berat, di [[Groningen]] 1946, dengan 14.5/19, setengah angka di atas Juara Dunia [[Max Euwe]]. Smyslov menduduki tempat ketiga. Botvinnik juga memenangi turnamen Memorial [[Mikhail Chigorin]] yang diadakan di Moskwa pada 1947.
<!--==World champion==
[[Berkas:Botvinnik-Bronstein_1951.jpg|left|175px|thumb|Botvinnik (left) competes with Bronstein for the World Championship in 1951]]
On the basis of these strong results, Botvinnik was one of five players to contest the [[World Chess Championship 1948|1948 World Chess Championship]], which was held at [[The Hague]] and Moscow. He won the 1948 tournament convincingly, with a score of 14/20, three points clear, becoming the sixth World Chess Champion.
According to [[David Bronstein]], Botvinnik was the main designer of the system which would be used for future World Championship competition.<ref>''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'', by David Bronstein and Tom Furstenberg, 1995}</ref>
Botvinnik then held the title, with two brief interruptions, for the next fifteen years. In that time he played seven world championship matches. In 1951, he drew with [[David Bronstein]], keeping the world title. Additional evidence that Botvinnik essentially designed the World Championship system comes from the introduction to his own book ''Botvinnik's Best Games 1947-1970'' (page 2), where the introduction was written by Viktor Baturinsky: "Now came Botvinnik's turn to defend his title in accordance with the new qualifying system which he himself had outlined in 1946."
In 1954, he drew with [[Vasily Smyslov]], again keeping the title. In 1957 he lost to Smyslov, but the rules allowed him a rematch without having to go through the [[Candidates' Tournament]]; so in 1958 he played a rematch and won. In 1960 he was convincingly beaten by the young [[Mikhail Tal]]; but again he exercised his right to a rematch in 1961, and won. (Commentators agreed that Tal's play was weaker in the rematch, probably due to his health, but also that Botvinnik's play was better than in the 1960 match). Finally, in 1963, he lost the title to [[Tigran Petrosian]]. [[FIDE]] had by then altered the rules, and he was not allowed a rematch. The rematch rule was nicknamed the 'Botvinnik rule', because he twice benefited from it. After the 1963 loss, Botvinnik retired from World Championship competition, but continued with occasional ventures into top-level international and Soviet chess, mostly with success.
His longevity at the top level of chess is attributed to his extreme dedication to study. Pre-match preparation and post-match analysis had not featured quite so prominently in the armoury of many of his predecessors, but this was Botvinnik's real strength. Technique over tactics, [[endgame]] mastery over [[chess opening|opening]] traps. His adoption and development of solid opening lines in the [[Nimzo-Indian Defence]], [[Slav Defence]], [[English Opening]] and Winawer [[French Defence]] stood up to the severest scrutiny, and he was able to focus on a narrow repertoire of openings during his most important matches, frequently guiding the game into well chosen areas of preparation. There were many "secret" training matches against masters of the calibre of [[Salo Flohr]], [[Yuri Averbakh]], [[Viacheslav Ragozin]], and [[Semion Furman]]. It was the unveiling, many years later, of the details of these matches that provided chess historians with a fascinating new insight into Botvinnik's reign.
Botvinnik's most important international tournament win during his years as World Champion was his shared title with Smyslov at the 1956 Alexander Alekhine Memorial at Moscow.
It is perhaps surprising that Mikhail Botvinnik is not widely regarded as a contender for the title of best player of all time. On the one hand, his achievements were undoubtedly impressive and it should be remembered that his main rivals, the younger [[Paul Keres]], [[David Bronstein]], [[Vasily Smyslov]], [[Mikhail Tal]] and [[Tigran Petrosian]] were all formidable players in their own right. He also inaugurated a new trend with his deep opening preparation and training system.
On the other hand, critics point to his rare appearances in post-World War II tournaments while world champion, and his mediocre record in world title defence matches -- out of five title defences, he lost three matches (to Smyslov in 1957, Tal in 1960 and Petrosian in 1963), and struggled to draw the other two (against [[David Bronstein]] in 1951 and Smyslov in 1954). He did, however, win two world title matches as the ''challenger'', beating the reigning world champions Smyslov in [[1958]] and Tal in [[1961]]. While he was World Champion, he was essentially first among equals, based upon his record in title matches and in other major events.
There is also a popular perception that Botvinnik's play was based on correctness rather than the intuitive or the spectacular, an opinion not improved by accounts of his often gruff demeanour and seemingly cold, calculating personality when compared to the genial Bronstein and Tal.
[[Berkas:Botvinnik_1933m.jpg|right|thumb|160px|Mikhail Botvinnik in 1933]]
Three factors contributed to his patchy record. Firstly, World War II broke out just as Botvinnik was entering his prime. Had the war not interrupted international chess competition, Botvinnik may well have challenged [[Alexander Alekhine]] to a world championship match in the early 1940s, and might therefore have won the title as many as eight years before he eventually claimed the crown in 1948. However, it should be pointed out that Alekhine remained a very powerful force as late as 1943, when he overwhelmed a good field at [[Prague]] with 17/19, 2.5 points ahead of Keres. Alekhine's play did drop significantly after that, however. Secondly, Botvinnik was one of the few world-class chess players who at the same time had a long and distinguished career in another field. He earned his [[doctorate]] in [[electrical engineering]] in 1951, the Soviet government decorated him for his achievements in engineering, and [[Reuben Fine|Fine]] has recounted stories which strongly imply that Botvinnik was as committed to engineering as he was to chess. Finally, previous world champions had been free to choose their challengers. When [[FIDE]] took control of the world championship in 1948, Botvinnik became the first world champion who was forced to play his strongest opponent every three years; even with this added challenge, Botvinnik still held the world title longer than any of the players who followed him, other than [[Garry Kasparov]].
== Political aspects ==
{{tone}}
Botvinnik, as a politically correct personality and staunch Communist, who had won his first Soviet championship at age 20, established himself as not only an outstanding player, but as the main Soviet Communist hope from the early 1930s to win the World Championship back from Alekhine, who was of Russian descent. Alekhine was of noble background, was one of the top players in the world at the time of the 1917 [[Russian Revolution]], won the first official Soviet Championship in 1920, yet fled Moscow for good shortly afterwards in 1921. This was seen as a shameful repudiation of his homeland, and few crimes were more serious in Soviet eyes at that time.
[[Boris Verlinsky]] had won the 1929 Soviet Championship and was granted the first Soviet [[Grandmaster]] title for this achievement, yet he was later stripped of it, when it was thought more politically correct to make Botvinnik the first official Soviet GM (note: this is not the same thing as the International Grandmaster title). [Source: Verlinsky wikipedia article, and Bronstein's book ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''.]
Interestingly, Botvinnik had a lot of trouble playing against the amateur master [[Fedor Bohatirchuk]], losing three games to him without winning one, with two draws. More detail on this situation is presented in the article on Fedor Bohatirchuk.
Botvinnik did not win the AVRO selection tournament of 1938, placing third behind Keres and Fine, yet soon afterwards began angling through the Soviet government channels for a match with Alekhine for the World Championship. Botvinnik played relatively poorly in the very strong 1940 Soviet Championship, finishing in a tie for 5th-6th places, with 11.5/19, two full points behind Bondarevsky and Lilienthal. How would it look for him to be trying for a world title match, yet doing that poorly in his own national championship? With World War II underway by this time, and the strong possibility of little or no chess for some time in the future, Botvinnik prevailed upon the Soviet chess leadership to hold another tournament 'in order to clarify the situation'. This wound up being the 1941 [[Absolute Championship of the USSR]], which featured the top six finishers from the 1940 event, playing each other four times. Botvinnik won this tournament convincingly, to reclaim his prominence.
During the War, Botvinnik enjoyed the patronage of Soviet Foreign Minister [[Viacheslav Molotov]] to secure comfortable conditions for himself, far from the front, and was able to study and analyze chess extensively, and to play secret practice matches against strong rivals who were sent to prepare him for future battles. He won the strong [[Sverdlovsk]] 1943 tournament.
Immediately following the end of the 1946 Groningen tournament, with Alekhine having died earlier that year, and with no set system for choosing the new world champion, Botvinnik personally invited Samuel Reshevsky, Reuben Fine, Max Euwe, Vasily Smyslov, and Paul Keres to join him in a tournament to decide the new world champion. [Source: ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'', by David Bronstein and Tom Furstenberg]
FIDE, the World Chess Federation, was set to take over the system for choosing the world champion, following Alekhine's death. One proposal then was to either declare former champion Euwe the new champion, or to hold a match between Euwe and Reshevsky, with the winner becoming the new champion. [Source: ''Botvinnik's Best Games 1947-70'', by Mikhail Botvinnik; introduction by Viktor Baturinsky, page 1.] But at this stage, the Soviet chess organization was not even a member of FIDE, so how could they influence its decisions!? The Soviets joined FIDE in 1947, and their proposal for the new world championship format (the one originally put forth by Botvinnik the year before in an informal fashion at Groningen) was accepted. Fine eventually declined to play, but otherwise, this wound up being the format used in 1948 to select the new champion, who turned out to be Botvinnik.
Bronstein, in his book, writing in 1995, makes the valid point that certain other exceptionally strong players, who had emerged during the war years, perhaps could have been invited as well to the 1948 World Championship tournament, especially since Fine had withdrawn. He mentions [[Miguel Najdorf]], [[Isaac Boleslavsky]], and himself; all three were entirely worthy candidates for inclusion, based upon their form of that time. Bronstein also criticized the timing and sequencing of the two 1948 major events. The World Championship tournament was held early in 1948, beginning in March, and then the [[Interzonal]] tournament (which Bronstein won) was held later the same year. Bronstein suggests that a fairer method would have been to reverse the order, with the top players from the Interzonal, held first, advancing to the World Championship tournament. This seems quite logical. It had by 1948, after all, been ten years since AVRO, the last qualifying tournament, was held in 1938.
Reference to the site [[chessmetrics]].com in 2007 tends to support Brontein's points. Chessmetrics is a site which endeavours to place chess ratings of strong players in historical context, while correcting for different methods of calculation. Formal chess ratings for top players were not formally introduced internationally by the [[World Chess Federation]] (FIDE) until 1970; they had been used in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]] since the 1950s for national play. The lack of ratings made it difficult to compare the relative strengths of players at that time, especially since there had been almost no international chess involving the top players from the different parts of the world during World War II. Chessmetrics puts the [[Argentinian]] Najdorf's February 1948 rating at 2797, #2 in the world behind Botvinnik, and Botvinnik had lost badly to Najdorf at Groningen 1946. Boleslavsky hit 2738 at the same time, for #5. Bronstein himself sat at 2721 for #8, and this would rise later in the year after he won the Interzonal. Another very strong player at that time was the Swede [[Gideon Stahlberg]], who was #3 in the world at 2762. None of those four players were included in the 1948 World Championship tournament.
There are persistent rumours that other Soviet players were coerced or forced to "throw" games to allow Botvinnik to win or keep the World Championship. These rumours usually centre around Keres (who lost his first 4 games to Botvinnik at the [[World Chess Championship 1948|1948 Championship Tournament]]), and Bronstein (who seemed to prematurely resign the penultimate game of their 1951 Championship Match). These rumours, which have never conclusively been proven or disproven and continue to generate debate, are discussed further at the [[Paul Keres]] and [[David Bronstein]] articles respectively.
== Olympic controversy, and eventual selection ==
Somewhat controversially, Botvinnik, although World Champion at the time, was not selected in 1952 for the first Soviet team to challenge for the [[Chess Olympiad]] in Helsinki. This was apparently because of his relatively poor play just before that event. For example, in the 1951 Bronstein match, he had been expected beforehand by almost everyone to win easily, but the match was eventually drawn after a hard struggle. Then, in the 1951 Soviet Championship, he placed only fifth with 10/17; at the 1952 [[Geza Maroczy]] Memorial tournament in [[Budapest]], he scored 11/17 for a tie of third to fifth places. Botvinnik notes in his book ''Botvinnik's Best Games 1947-70'' that this 1952 Soviet Olympiad team decision was taken in a strange way, in a vote among team members where there was only one vote for the World Champion. Botvinnik regained his form and eventually won the 1952 Soviet Championship after a playoff match with [[Mark Taimanov]]. He includes several wins from that tournament over the 1952 Soviet team members in his book, writing "these games had a definite significance for me". The fact that he was not selected, despite his strong political influence, may have meant that this factor was waning around that time, along with [[Joseph Stalin]]'s health (the Soviet dictator was to die the next year, 1953).
Botvinnik was selected for the Soviet Olympiad team from 1954 to 1964 inclusively, and performed strongly, helping his team to gold medal finishes each of those six times, according to the comprehensive chess Olympiad site olimpbase.org. At [[Amsterdam]] 1954 he was on board one and won the gold medal with 8.5/11. Then at home for [[Moscow]] 1956, he was again board one, and scored 9.5/13 for the bronze medal. For [[Munich]] 1958, he scored 9/12 for the silver medal on board one. At [[Leipzig]] 1960, he played board two behind Mikhail Tal, having lost his title match to Tal earlier that year. But he won the gold medal with 10.5/13. He was back on board one for [[Varna]] 1962, scored 8/12, but failed to win a medal for the only time at an Olympiad. His final Olympiad was [[Tel Aviv]] 1964, where he won the bronze with 9/12. Overall, in six Olympiads, he scored 54.5/73 for an outstanding 74.0 per cent.
Botvinnik also played twice for the USSR in the European Team Championship. At [[Oberhausen]] 1961, he scored 6/9 for the gold medal on board one. But at [[Hamburg]] 1965, he struggled on board two with only 3.5/8. Both times the Soviet Union won the team gold medals. Botvinnik played one of the final events of his career at the [[Russia (USSR) vs Rest of the World]] match in [[Belgrade]] 1970, scoring 2.5/4 against [[Milan Matulovic]], as the USSR narrowly triumphed.
==Late career==
After losing the world title to [[Tigran Petrosian]] for the final time in Moscow in 1963, Botvinnik withdrew from the World Championship cycle. But he remained involved with competitive chess, appearing in several highly-rated tournaments and continuing to produce memorable games. He retired from competitive play in 1970 aged 59, preferring instead to occupy himself with the development of [[computer chess]] programs and to assist with the training of younger Soviet players, earning him the nickname of 'Patriarch of the Soviet Chess School'; the famous three K's ([[Anatoly Karpov]], [[Garry Kasparov]], and [[Vladimir Kramnik]]) were just three of the many future grandmasters to have studied under Botvinnik. He established his chess school in 1963. The young [[Garry Kasparov|Kasparov]] in particular seems to have formed a close relationship with Botvinnik; his 2004 book ''On My Great Predecessors II'' dedicates several pages to Kasparov's own personal fond memories of his former tutor and friend. Kasparov's account, in which Botvinnik appears almost as a kind of father figure, goes some way towards providing a warm and human side to balance the previous public perception of Botvinnik's dour personality.
Botvinnik's autobiography, ''K Dostizheniyu Tseli'', was published in Russian in 1978, and in English translation as ''Achieving the Aim'' (ISBN 0-08-024120-4) in 1981. A staunch Communist, he was noticeably shaken by the collapse of the Soviet Union and lost some of his standing in Russian chess during the [[Boris Yeltsin]] era. Botvinnik died of [[cancer]] in 1995.-->
== Pertarungan tak terlupakan ==
{{Chess}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:lifetime|1911|1995|Botvinnik, Mikhail}}
{{lifetime|1911|1995|}}
[[Kategori:Juara dunia catur]]
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