MARK RUBERY CHESS
I played my only game with Botvinnik in the spring of 1989. He was in Holland to buy a new, stronger computer that he needed for his work, and I was with him all the time. On one of the days Botvinnik was asked to make an appearance at the closing ceremony of the Dutch Junior Championship in Hilversum. There were of course, both photographers and television cameras. At some point the director of the television broadcast asked ‘If Mr Botvinnik has no objection, we would like to film him during a game.’
‘Well I haven’t played for a long time.’ I urged him: ‘ They are very insistant Mikhail Moiseevich. You yourself know television; they won’t leave you in peace.’ ‘Well if that’s the case…’
We set up the pieces I got White. ‘Let’s go, let’s go, the director ordered. I decided not to try anything original and advanced my queen’s pawn. There was the whirring of the TV camera, and somewhere the voices of children. His entire appearance had changed. He had drawn himself erect and stiffened on his chair. Finally, looking at the board, he adjusted his glasses and his tie, and made his reply. Unfortunately, neither then, in the bustle of the moment, nor later in the drag of daily life, did I record the game, although I remember its course very well. He played the Dutch, an old-fashioned Stonewall with the bishop on e7.
I made all the well-known moves and Botvinnik replied unhurriedly, always stopping to think. But after about fifteen moves for some strange reason my position had lost its flexibility, the general plan had been lost. ‘Is that enough?’ I asked the director. ‘More than enough’. Botvinnik was thinking over his move. ‘Mikhail Moiseevich, he says he has taken enough film.’ Botvinnik continued looking at the board. Finally he raised his head. Not blinking, he looked harshly at me with his blue, already discoloured eyes, with their astigmatically arranged pupils, which had also looked into the eyes of Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine, and he knew well the evaluation of the position on the boardand he knew that I also knew…
A famous combination from Botvinnik that displays great power and originality.
BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN