Botvinnik One Hundred Selected Games is a direct translation in Descriptive Notation of a book in Russian published in Leningrad in 1949. Unlike most other cases where the translator takes some liberties, we have not been able to find any differences in the text between this translation and the original in Russian. Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911. In 1931 at the age of 20 he won his first of six Soviet championships. He won the World Chess Championship in 1948 and held the title with two breaks until 1963. This book covers the most important period of his career from the time he played in his first serious chess event until just before his winning the World Chess Championship in 1948.

Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911 near St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1931 at the age of 20 he won his first of six Soviet championships. He won the World Chess Championship in 1948 and held the title with two breaks until 1963. Botvinnik announced his retirement from chess in 1970. Even after Botvinnik had lost the official world title to Tigran Petrosian in 1963, Bobby Fischer still regarded Botvinnik as the strongest player in the world (other than Fischer himself of course). I know this because I was with Fischer when he was talking to USCF Executive Director Edmund Edmondson while attempting to negotiate a match with Botvinnik for the World Chess Championship in 1970. Botvinnik had claimed that FIDE had acted unfairly when it had abolished the re-match provision prior to his match with Petrosian in 1963. Fischer apparently agreed, believing that Botvinnik would win if a rematch were held and thus was still the world champion, although unofficial. (This seems to have represented a re-appraisal from the views Fischer expressed in his article “The Ten Greatest Masters in History” (pages 56-61 of Chessworld magazine, January-February 1964) in which Fischer had omitted Botvinnik from his list of the ten greatest players of all time.) However, Botvinnik continued to work until almost the day he died. His family says that he still walked to work every day even in his 80s. His work in his later years included developing computer programs to play chess and in training younger up-coming players including future World Champion Garry Kasparov. Botvinnik died of pancreatic cancer in Moscow on May 5, 1995 at age 83.