Mikhail Botvinnik

Home * People * Mikhail Botvinnik



Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, (Михаил Ботвинник, August 17, 1911 – May 5, 1995) was a Russian chess Grandmaster, three-time World Chess Champion from 1948 to 1957, 1958 to 1960, and 1961 to 1963, and a Doctor of Technical Sciences. Botvinnik’s interest in Computer Chess started in the 50s, favouring chess algorithms based on Shannon's selective type B strategy, as discussed along with Max Euwe 1958 in Dutch Television. Botvinnik served as a consultant to Soviet computer chess developers who developed the ITEP Chess Program at Moscow's Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) which won a correspondence chess match against the Kotok-McCarthy-Program led by John McCarthy in 1967. Later he advised the team that created the chess program Kaissa at Moscow’s Institute of Control Sciences.

However, Botvinnik had his own ideas to model a Chess Master's Mind. After publishing and discussing his early ideas on attack maps and trajectories at Moscow Central Chess Club in 1966, with the skeptical Georgy Adelson-Velsky and others attending, he found Vladimir Butenko as supporter and collaborator. Butenko first implemented the 15x15 vector attacks board representation on a M-20 computer, determining trajectories. After Botvinnik introduced the concept of Zones in 1970, Butenko refused further cooperation and began to write his own program.

=Pioneer= In the 70s and 80s, leading a team around Boris Stilman, Alexander Yudin, Alexander Reznitskiy, Michael Tsfasman and Mikhail Chudakov, Botvinnik worked on his own project Pioneer. The research and work on Pioneer took place at the State Committee for Science and Technology, Moscow, USSR, the National Research Institute for Electrical Engineering, Moscow, USSR and the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR. Short time visits with Stilman and Yudin took place in 1978 at University of Mannheim, Germany, and the University of Dortmund, Germany, as well at Control Data Corp., USA. Based on this research, Boris Stilman coined the term Linguistic Geometry, a new type of game theory. Botvinnik published Pioneer's abilities on selected positions, but it never played a public complete game of chess.

=CC Sapiens= In the 90s, Botvinnik already in his 80s, he worked on the new project CC Sapiens, in collaboration with Vasily Vladimirov, Evgeniĭ Dmitrievich Cherevik and Vitaly Vygodsky. For his publication Three Positions, Botvinnik was criticized by Hans Berliner    , and his old chess rival David Bronstein.

=Photos= Botvinnik's Lecture at McGill University 1977 - any questions? Monty Newborn left Don Beal, Ken Thompson, Monty Newborn, and Mikhail Botvinnik, WCCC 1983 Samuel Reshevsky, Reuben Fine and Mikhail Botvinnik, WCCC 1983

=See also=
 * History of Computer Chess
 * Botvinnik-Markoff Extension

=Publications=

Computer Chess

 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1968). Algoritm igry v shakhmaty. (The algorithm of chess)
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1970). Computers, Chess and Long-Range Planning. Springer, reviews from goodreads
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1975). O Kiberneticheskoi Celi Igri. (On the Cybernetic Goal of Games), Soviet Radio, Moscow
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1979). O Reshenii Netochnih Prebornih Zadach. (On Solving Inexact Search Problems), Soviet Radio, Moscow
 * Mikhail Botvinnik, Boris Stilman, Alexander Yudin, Alexander Reznitskiy, Michael Tsfasman (1980). Thinking of Man and Computer, Proc. of the Second International Meeting on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1-9, Repino, Leningrad, Russia.
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1982). Decision Making and Computers. Advances in Computer Chess 3
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1982). Meine neuen Ideen zur Schachprogrammierung. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. amazon.de (German)
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1984). Computers in Chess: Solving Inexact Search Problems. Springer
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1983). The Game of Chess: Its past, present and future. ICCA Journal, Vol. 6, No. 3
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1993). Three Positions. ICCA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2 » Réti Endgame Study
 * Mikhail Botvinnik, Evgeniĭ Dmitrievich Cherevik, Vasily Vladimirov, Vitaly Vygodsky (1994). Solving Shannon's Problem: Ways and Means. Advances in Computer Chess 7
 * Marty Hirsch (1995). Botwinnik und die Schachprogrammierung. Computerschach und Spiele, June-July 1995 (German)

Misc

 * Bob Herschberg, Jaap van den Herik (1995). Mikhail Moiseivich Botvinnik: An Obituary. ICCA Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2
 * Monroe Newborn (1995). A Eulogy for Mikhail Moiseivich Botvinnik. ICCA Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2
 * Jan van Reek (1998). Michail Botwinnik. Schaakspelers als Eindspelkunstenaars. Deel 7. Stichting Eindspel, Margraten. ISBN 90-74827-37-3
 * Michael A. Hudson (2013). Storming Fortresses: A Political History of Chess in the Soviet Union, 1917-1948. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Santa Cruz, eScholarship, Chapter Ten - Botvinnik: The New Soviet (Chess)Man

=Forum Posts=
 * Kasparov missed Beautiful win; Botvinnik's Program muffs analysis by Hans Berliner, rec.games.chess, July 9, 1993
 * Botvinnik article by Jonathan Schaeffer, rgcc, October 23, 1996
 * Re: Botvinnik article by Peter Gillgasch, rgcc, October 23, 1996
 * Re: Botvinnik article by Marc-François Baudot, rgcc, November 07, 1996 » Advances in Computer Chess 7


 * Botvinniks Chess Algorithm ?? by Bruce Moreland, rgcc, October 05, 1997
 * Kaissa & Botvinik by Shay Bushinsky, rgcc, October 16, 1997
 * What is Botvinnik's legacy to computer chess? by Drazen Marovic, CCC, February 20, 2000
 * "The Tale of a Small Tree" by M.M.Botvinnik [fragment] by José Antônio Fabiano Mendes, CCC, March 09, 2000 » Réti Endgame Study
 * М. Ботвинник. Проект "ПИОНЕР" by Kashchey the Deathless, immortalchess, March 10, 2010, (Botvinnik. The "Pioneer" translated by Google_Translate)
 * Botvinnik mastery by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, August 09, 2013

=External Links=
 * Mikhail Botvinnik from Wikipedia
 * Лингвистическая Геометрия Бориса Штильмана, Linguistic Geometry Boris Stilman by Alexander Timofeev (Google Translate)
 * Энциклопедия шахмат - Ботвинник В.Линдер, И.Линдер, The Encyclopedia of Chess - Botvinnik B. Linder, J. Linder
 * По стопам ПИОНЕРа, In the footsteps of Pioneer


 * Mikhail Botvinnik – Russiapedia
 * The chess games of Mikhail Botvinnik from chessgames.com
 * Mikhail Botvinnik from The Computer History Museum
 * Über Stand und Entwicklung seines Computer-Schachprogramms "Pionier" referierte Prof. Michael Botwinnik (67), UdSSR, auf einer einwöchigen Vortragsreise durch die Bundesrepublik, April 04, 1978, Computerwoche 15/1978 (German)
 * The wrong bishop – part two by Frederic Friedel, ChessBase News, May 22, 2016 » Cray Blitz, WCCC 1983, Wrong color Bishop and rook pawn
 * Михаил Ботвинник. Осень шахматиста (1990), YouTube Videos

=References=

Up one level