Editing Mikhail Botvinnik (section)

== Early years ==
Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911,<ref name="NYTBotvinnikObit" /> in what was then [[Repino, Saint Petersburg|Kuokkala]], [[Vyborg Governorate]], [[Grand Duchy of Finland]],<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/misc/JewishEncycRussia/b/index.html| access-date=2009-06-06| title=Russian Jewish Encyclopedia | year=1995|website=Belarus SIG}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Service|first=R.|title=Lenin: a biography|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2000|pages=180–181|chapter=Russia from Far and Near|isbn=0-674-00828-6|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frDGHIxc4EUC&q=kuokkala&pg=PA180|access-date=2009-06-06}}</ref> now the district of Repino in [[Saint Petersburg]].<ref name="Beizer2007SovietMetropolis">{{cite book|last=Beizer|first=Michael|title=Revolution, Repression, and Revival. The Soviet Jewish Experience|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7425-5817-5|editor=Gitelman|editor-first=Zvi|location=|pages=113–119|chapter=The Jews of a Soviet Metropolis|access-date=2009-06-06|editor2=Ro'i|editor-first2=Yaacov|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cd3RM6Emko0C&q=kuokkala+repino&pg=PA118}}</ref> His parents were [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian Jews]]; his father, Moisei Botvinnik (1878–1931),<ref>{{cite book|title=Mikhail Botvinnik: The Life and Games of a World Chess Champion|publisher=McFarland & Co.|isbn=9780786473373|author=Andy Soltis|year=2014|page=11}}</ref> was a [[dental technician]] and his mother, Shifra (Serafima) Rabinovich (1876–1952),<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kovalchuk|first=Svetlana|date=January 2002|title=Vladimir Rabinovich|url=https://www.centropa.org/biography/vladimir-rabinovich|access-date=2021-01-22|website=centropa.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Winter|first=Edward|title=Graves of Chess Masters|url=https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/graves.html|website=Chess Notes}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Sosonko|first=Genna|author-link=Genna Sosonko|title=Russian Silhouettes|year=2009|publisher=New In Chess|edition=3rd|chapter=A Journey to Immortality. Mikhail Botvinnik|quote=My mother was two years older than my father.}}</ref> a dentist, which allowed the family to live outside the [[Pale of Settlement]], to which most Jews in the [[Russian Empire]] were restricted at the time. As a result, Botvinnik grew up in Saint Petersburg's [[Nevsky Prospect]]. His father forbade speaking [[Yiddish]] at home, and Mikhail and his older brother Isaak "Issy" attended Soviet schools.<ref name="Beizer2007SovietMetropolis" /><ref name="BotvinnikFirstMoves">{{cite book|last=Botvinnik |first=M.M.|translator=Bernard Cafferty|title=Achieving the Aim|pages=1–16|chapter=First Moves}}</ref> Botvinnik later recounted, "I was asked once, "What do you consider yourself to be from the point of view of nationality?" My reply was, "Yes, my position is 'complicated'. I am a Jew by blood, a Russian by culture, Soviet by upbringing.""<ref name="AchievingTheAim">{{cite book|last=Botvinnik|first=M.M|title=Achieving the Aim|translator=Bernard Cafferty|publisher=Pergamon Press|year=1981|page=178|chapter=The Algorithm of Chess Play}}</ref><!--"Botvinnik grew up in an assimilated family, but encountered [[antisemitism]] in daily life. He displayed courage in the dark years of [[Joseph Stalin]] and after, and published warm words about Israel, [[Pinhas Rutenberg]], and the [[kibbutz]], defending the right of the Jews to live in their ancient [[homeland]]. In contrast to other Jewish cultural activists, he never signed letters condemning Israel." ''[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]]'', art. "Botvinnik, Mikhail", authored by Botvinnik's friend [[Gerald Abrahams]]</ref> ****** --> On his religious views, he called himself an atheist.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mikhail Botvinnik: The Life and Games of a World Chess Champion|publisher=McFarland & Co.|isbn=9780786473373|page=74|author=Andy Soltis|year=2014|quote=By character they were absolutely opposites,” their only child, Olga, recalled in 2012. Gayane was religious, while Botvinnik was fond of saying, “I am an atheist and a communist in the spirit of the first communist on earth, Jesus Christ.” He reveled in his “hard character.” She was apolitical. He was an ardent Marxist. As time went by, she found it hard to deal with the stress that he seemed to thrive on.}}</ref>

In 1920, his mother became ill and his father left the family, but maintained contact with the children, even after his second marriage to a Russian woman. At about the same time, Botvinnik started reading newspapers, and became a committed [[Communism|communist]].<ref name="BotvinnikFirstMoves" />

In autumn 1923, at the age of twelve,<ref name="NYTBotvinnikObit" /> Botvinnik was taught chess by a school friend of his older brother, using a home-made set, and instantly fell in love with the game.<ref name="BotvinnikFirstMoves" /> He finished in mid-table in the school championship, sought advice from another of his brother's friends, and concluded that for him it was better to think out "concrete concepts" and then derive general principles from these – and went on to beat his brother's friend quite easily. In winter 1924, Botvinnik won his school's championship, and exaggerated his age by three years in order to become a member of the [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] Chess Assembly – to which its president turned a blind eye.<ref name="BotvinnikFirstMoves" /> Botvinnik won his first two tournaments organized by the Assembly. Shortly afterwards, [[Nikolai Krylenko]], a devoted chess player and leading member of the [[Law of the Soviet Union|Soviet legal system]] who later organized [[Joseph Stalin]]'s [[Moscow Trials|show trials]], began building a huge nationwide chess organization, and the Assembly was replaced by a club in the city's Palace of Labour.<ref name="BotvinnikFirstMoves" />

To test the strength of Soviet chess masters, Krylenko organized the [[Moscow 1925 chess tournament]]. On a rest day during the event, world champion [[José Raúl Capablanca]] gave a [[simultaneous exhibition]] in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]]. Botvinnik was selected as one of his opponents, and won his game.<ref name="BotvinnikFirstMoves" /> In 1926, he reached the final stage of the Leningrad championship. Later that year, he was selected for Leningrad's team in a match against [[Stockholm]], held in Sweden, and scored +1=1 against the future [[grandmaster (chess)|grandmaster]] [[Gösta Stoltz]]. On his return, he entertained his schoolmates with a vivid account of the rough sea journey back to Russia. Botvinnik was commissioned to annotate two games from the match, and the fact that his analyses were to be published made him aware of the need for objectivity. In December 1926, he became a candidate member of his school's [[Komsomol]] branch. Around this time his mother became concerned about his poor physique, and as a result he started a programme of daily exercise, which he maintained for most of his life.<ref name="BotvinnikFirstMoves" />

[[File:Botvinnik (1927).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Botvinnik in 1927]]
When Botvinnik finished the school curriculum, he was below the minimum age for the entrance examinations for higher education.<ref name="BotvinnikPolyEntrance">{{cite book|last=Botvinnik |first=M.M.|author2=Cafferty, B.|title=Achieving the Aim|pages=16–22|chapter=The Polytechnic}}</ref> While waiting, he qualified for his first [[USSR Chess Championship|USSR Championship]] final stage in 1927 as the youngest player ever at that time,<ref name="Fine1952Botvinnik" /><ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.chessbase.com/post/mikhail-moiseyevich-botvinnik-hundredth-anniversary/20 | title=Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik – hundredth anniversary | date=17 August 2011 }}</ref> tied for fifth and sixth places and gained the title of master.<ref name="BotvinnikPolyEntrance" /> He wanted to study Electrical Technology at the [[Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University|Leningrad Polytechnical Institute]] and passed the entrance examination; however, there was a persistent excess of applications for this course and the ''Proletstud'', which controlled admissions, had a policy of admitting only children of engineers and industrial workers. After an appeal by a local chess official, he was admitted in 1928 to Leningrad University's Mathematics Department.<ref name="BotvinnikPolyEntrance" /> In January 1929, Botvinnik played for Leningrad in the student team chess championship against Moscow. Leningrad won and the team manager, who was also deputy chairman of the ''Proletstud'', secured Botvinnik a transfer to the Polytechnic's Electromechanical Department, where he was one of only four students who entered straight from school. As a result, he had to do a whole year's work in five months, and failed one of the examinations.<ref name="BotvinnikPolyEntrance" /> Early in the same year he placed joint third in the semi-final stage of the USSR Championship, and thus failed to reach the final stage.<ref name="BotvinnikPolyXXXXX" />

His early progress was fairly rapid, mostly under the training of Soviet Master and coach [[Abram Model]], in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]]; Model taught Botvinnik the Winawer Variation of the [[French Defence]], which was then regarded as inferior for Black, but Botvinnik analysed it more deeply and played this variation with great success.<ref>''How to Play the French Defence'', by [[Wolfgang Uhlmann]], Mikhail Botvinnik, [[Viktor Korchnoi]], and [[Anatoly Karpov]], RHM Press, 1975, introduction</ref>

Botvinnik won the Leningrad Masters' tournament in 1930<ref name="BotvinnikPolyEntrance" /> with a score of 6½/8,{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}<!-- This score is nowhere mentioned in "Achieving the Aim", and is not even found on his profile at Chessmetrics.com, whose home page was previously given as reference--> following this up the next year by winning the [[Leningrad City Chess Championship|championship of Leningrad]] by 2½ points over former Soviet champion [[Peter Romanovsky]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Alexey Popovsky |url=http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_repub/1931/ch_len31.html|title=8 Championship of Leningrad- 1931|website=Russian Chess Base}}</ref>

In 1935, Botvinnik married Gayane Davidovna Ananova, of Armenian descent, who was the daughter of his algebra and geometry teacher. She was a student at the [[Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet]] in Leningrad and, later, a [[Ballet dancer|ballerina]] in the [[Bolshoi Theatre]]. They had one daughter, named Olga, who was born in 1942.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mikhail Botvinnik: The Life and Games of a World Chess Champion|publisher=McFarland & Co.|isbn=9780786473373|author=Andy Soltis|year=2014}}</ref>