Superstars at Botvinnik Memorial 2011

Botvinnik Memorial 2011

All members of the current 2800+ club – Anand, Carlsen, and Aronian, as well as the ex world champion Vladimir Kramnik will participate in Botvinnik Memorial 2011.

It will be a rapid tournament played in Moscow Friday 2nd September (round 1-3) and Saturday 3rd September (round 4-6).

The participants of Men’s section are Viswanthan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik and in the Women’s section the players are Koneru Humpy, Tatiana Kosintseva, Viktorija Cmilyte and Elina Danielian.

The tournament will have two parts. The first part is a double round robin Rapid Competition (6 rounds), with a 25min + 10sec time control and the second is a simultaneous exhibition of the players where each will play on 10 boards.

All games from the Botvinnik Memorial 2011 will be with computer and grandmaster analysis at the live games platform.

Games from Botvinnik Memorial 2011 commented by the players

The main surprise of Botvinnik Memorial 2011 will happen in the middle of every game – clocks will be stopped and players will analyse the game for the audience. While one of the players reveals the ideas on the analysis board, the other will listen to music.

Marking the centenary of a cerebral champ

SANDS: Marking the centenary of a cerebral champ

By David R. Sands

The Washington Times

Tuesday, August 23, 2011



He boasted a record and a resume as impressive as anyone who ever played the game, but it always seemed that three-time world champion Mikhail Botvinnik was more admired than loved by chess players around the world.

Botvinnik, born 100 years ago on Aug. 17, 1911, brought an unprecedented level of precision, drive and technical sophistication to the game, helping to formulate and then mastering the insights of the great Soviet school of chess and ranking among the very best players in the world from the mid-1930s into the 1960s.

But his powerful, logical style generated relatively few brilliancies over his lengthy career, and many of the players he held off as world champion, including such greats as Paul Keres, David Bronstein and Mikhail Tal, today claim far more fervent fans than the cool, cerebral Botvinnik. Still, his was a style that generated impressive results, including 15 years as world champ, six Soviet national titles (a record he shares with Tal) and a string of victories in legendary tournaments.

He influenced a new generation of Soviet greats, including junior stars (and future champs) Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, and top players to this day routinely cite Botvinnik’s “One Hundred Selected Games” collection as a seminal influence on their own early development.

We honor Botvinnik, who died in 1995, with a game taken from the twilight of his career in 1968, two years before he essentially gave up competitive play at age 59.

More here.