Riddle: Was Flohr vs Botvinnik sound?

In 1933 Mikhail Botvinnik won the USSR Chess Championship. Soon after that, a match was organised between the new Soviet champion and one of the other top players at the time. Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr was born in a Jewish family in what is today Ukraine. His parents were killed in a massacre during World War I, and he and his brother fled to the newly formed nation of Czechoslovakia. Flohr took up chess, became champion of Czechoslovakia in 1933 and 1936, and was considered a leading challenger for the World Championship.

The match against Botvinnik was scheduled over twelve games, six to be played in Moscow and six in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg). Flohr was considered the favourite, and the first half of the match seemed to confirm this assessment. Flohr wrapped up the first half with a +2, but Botvinnik fought back in Leningrad, winning two games to leave the match tied 6:6.

If you want to see how a match like this was staged and how it drew crowds in the USSR, take a look at the following video:

Flohr won the first game with black, and outplayed Botvinnik in game six with the white pieces. In his book "How to Play Chess Endings", Eugène Znosko-Borovsky says that the game contained an extremely instructive ending, which well demonstrates the concentrated power of the two bishops, and the helplessness of the two knights against them — they move in various directions on the board, without any coordination. "The slow pressure exercised by the bishops against a closed position is demonstrated after 40...Ne8. The bishops have ample space, whilst the knights are confined to the first three ranks. Worse still, they can obtain no strong points in the centre, which is frequently the case against two bishops, which can dominate the whole board. The knight on d7 is particularly badly placed: as soon as it moves, the opposing bishop is played to c8, attacking the b-pawn, which in turn cannot move without weakening the a-pawn: we see how difficult the situation is for Black." 

Master Class Vol.10: Mikhail Botvinnik

Our experts show, using the games of Botvinnik, how to employ specific openings successfully, which model strategies are present in specific structures, how to find tactical solutions and rules for how to bring endings to a successful conclusion

Mikhail Botvinnik and Salo Flohr during their match in Moscow, in 1933

This brings us to today’s riddle: In this famous endgame, considered singularly instructive in the way to play a bishop pair against two knights, did Flohr show the chess world how to convert the superiority of the bishops? Or did Botvinnik misplay the ending? One thing is clear: the ending is very deep.

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Please send any analysis you come up with to me at the following email address: Karsten Müller. You may also like to use more powerful engines to assist you in your efforts. Fat Fritz, for instance, goes for some unconventional continuations and surprises. Dr. Müller will evaluate your submissions and discuss them with you.

In case you are not familiar with our replay board (above), please note that there are a large number of functions you can use to understand the game and the moves. Just an engine (fan icon) and it will help you to analyse. You can get multiple lines of analysis by clicking the + button to the right of the engine analysis window. The "!" key, incidentally, shows you the threat in any position, which is incredibly useful in the case of unclear moves.

There is one more thing you can do. It is a lot of fun, but also a serious challenge: Click on the rook icon below the notation window. This will allow you the play the above position against Fritz, at your level of playing strength (e.g. "Club Player"), right here on the news page. Note that your analysis, in which you can delete, move or promote lines, is stored in the notation as new variations. In the end you will find the game with your analysis in the cloud. So nothing is ever lost.

Links

• The old riddle of Fischer vs Taimanov
• Riddle solved: Fischer was winning! 
• Historical riddle: Could Kramnik have defeated the computer?
• Solution to the historical riddle: Kramnik could have defeated Fritz!