Botvinnik Toppled

MIKHAIL Botvinnik, in his book One Hundred Selected Games, includes four games from his 1940 match against long-time training partner Viacheslav Ragozin.

The latter did not win a game in that match, but the following year, when they played five more games, Ragozin managed to win one, and I thought it would be interesting to look at how that happened.

Botvinnik - Ragozin

Queen's Gambit Declined

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nf3 h6 6.Bxf6!?

More popular in ChessBase's 2025 Mega database is 6.Bh4, but Stockfish17 and Dragon1 marginally prefer the text at first, although they come to fluctuate between the two moves.

6...Bxf6 7.Qd3!?

This continuation has found few followers, although Jan Timman played it in a 1998 rapid game.

7...0-0 8.e4

White is not being subtle

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8...dxe4
Ivan Ivanišević (2611) - Stelios Halkias (2588), Serbian Team Championship 2010, went 8...dxc4!? 9.Qxc4 c6 10.e5 Be7 11.Bd3 b6 12.Be4!? Bb7 13.Rd1!? Nd7 14.h4!? b5 15.Qb3 Qb6 16.0-0, with equal chances, according to the engines (½–½, 28 moves).

9.Qxe4!?

By transposition the game has reached a position occurring 28 times in Mega25.

9...c5 10.0-0-0!?

This is the move Botvinnik has apparently been leading up to. It is not liked by the engines.

10...cxd4 11.Nxd4 Qb6 12.Bd3 Rd8?!

Probably better is 12...g6, which was seen in two subsequent games.

13.Nb3!? Nd7?!

The engines prefer other moves, including, again, ...g6.

14.Qh7+ Kf8 15.Rhe1 Ne5 16.c5!? Qc7

There is no time to snap off the white bishop as 16...Nxd3+? 17.Rxd3 Qc7 can be met by 18.Rxd8+ Qxd8 19.Rd1, eg 19...Qc7 20.Rd6 Bxc3 21.bxc3 a5 22.Nd4!? with what seems a winning attack.

17.Bc2 Bd7?!

Even here the engines suggest 17...g6!?, or first exchanging a pair of rooks and then ...g6, even though White has Qxh6+.

How should White proceed?

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18.Rd6?

The engines reckon both 18.Ne4 and 18.f4 win, whereas after the text they give Black the upper hand.

18...Be8?

This is much inferior to 18...Bc6, according to the engines.

19.Nd5!? exd5 20.Rxf6! gxf6 21.Qxh6+ Ke7 22.f4 d4 23.fxe5 fxe5

White is the exchange down, but has a winning move, according to the engines

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24.Be4?

The engines reckon 24.Qh4+! wins, eg 24...f6 25.Rf1 Qc6 26.Na5 Qa6 27.Bd3! b5 28.a4!? Rac8 29.b4 Qe6 30.axb5 with a continuing attack. They also prefer other moves to the text, including 24.Rf1 and 24.Bd3.

24...a5!? 25.g4 Ra6 26.Qh4+ f6 27.g5 a4!? 28.Qh7+ Bf7 29.g6 Rf8

This difficult game has reached a completely equal position, according to the engines, but it is White to play and lose

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30.gxf7?

Now the black king is safe (better was 30,Nxd4! Qxc5+ 31.Nc2), but after ...

30...axb3

... the white king is open to attack.

Botvinnik resigned as there is nothing better than 31.a3, when 31...Qxc5+ is good enough, but even better is first 31...Rxf7 as ...Qxc5+ cannot be stopped.