Botvinnik versus Smyslov and Petrosian: Four World Chess Championship Matches - 1954, 1957, 1958 and 1963

The writings of Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik (1911 – 1995) are legendary. And Botvinnik’s legacy is deeply imprinted in the DNA of every grandmaster today, says Andy Soltis in his foreword to this book. ‘The Patriarch’ took professionalism in chess to a new level and was the first to emphasize preparation: what a player does before a game plays an enormous, if not decisive, role in what happens during a game.

In this book, Botvinnik writes the story of the three clashes with his compatriot V...