The cause of his death is still open to debate...heart attack, choking on a piece of meat or was he was murdered by a French "death squad? Alekhine's son, Alexander, Jr., said that "the hand of Moscow reached his father.” Canadian GMKevin Spraggett, who lives in Portugal, investigated the case and believes the manipulation of the crime scene and the autopsy by the Portuguese secret police indicates that Alekhune was murdered, probably by the Russians, outside his hotel room.
With the death of Alekhine FIDE seized the opportunity to invited six players to a tournament to determine the championship; Botvinnik won it and hekd the tutle from 1948 to 1963 with the exception of a couple of interruptions...by Smyslov (1957-58) and Tal (1960-61). The end of the line came in 1963 when he lost to Petrosian.
Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995, 83 years old), condisered the Patriarch of Soviet Chess, won the first of his 6 USSR Championships in 1931. Tirgan Petrosian (1929-1984, 55 years old) earned his GM title by finishing in 5th place in the 1953 Zurich Candidates tournament.
In this 1963 match there was no provision for a return match which meant that it was the end of the line for Botvinnik’s World Championship reign.
Concerning the match, Botvinnik related how it was really hard to play Petrosian because “he had a somewhat different understanding of positional play. He went deeper into it than usual, and myself, a universal player, did not completely understand Tigran's way and depth of judgment, although I was judging all positions well.”
Botvinnik’s brother, Igor, believed that one of the reasons for Botvinnik's defeat was his poor realization of advantages. In a number of games, after having obtained an advantage in the opening, he couldn’t put Petrosian away.
After the first game of the match it seemed certain that Botvinnik would sweep the match because handled Petrosian so easily.. Botvinnik not only scored an easy win, but it looked like it was a mismatch. The experts were wrong and Petrosian went on to score a decisive victory.
[Event "World Championship Match, Moscow"]
[Site "Moscow URS"]
[Date "1963.03.23"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Tigran Petrosian"]
[Black "Mikhail Botvinnik"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E34"]
[Annotator "Stockfosh/Botvinnik"]
[PlyCount "80"]
[EventDate "1963.??.??"]
{E35: Nimzo-Indian} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 {This continuation
was popular in the 1 9 30s, but then went out of fashion. It offers White a
guarantee against any sur prises, but it is hard for him to count on achieving
anything real} d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bxf6 {It's not surprising that
Petrosin avoids the complications that arise after 6.Bh4} Qxf6 8. a3 Bxc3+ 9.
Qxc3 c6 10. e3 O-O 11. Ne2 {Instead of the far more popular 11.Nf3. With the
text move white intends ot place his N on f4 from where it can go to d3, then
develop the B to e2, play O-O and then begin a minority attack on the Q-side.
Neither Botvinnik nor Keres thought much of the whole idea necause the N is
misplaced on f4.} Re8 {This prevents the N from going to f4 and thereby
upsetting white's plan.} 12. Ng3 {The N needs to make way for the B.} (12. Nc1
{seems to be a viable way of carrying out the above mentioned plan.} h5 13. Nd3
h4 14. Be2 {with equal chances.}) 12... g6 {An energetic continuation that
intends to advance the h-Pawn which, as Botvinnik pointed out, putd white in a
difficult situation. Any other move would allow whie to complete his
development unhindered.} (12... Nd7 13. Bd3 c5 14. O-O cxd4 15. Qxd4 Qxd4 16.
exd4 Nf8 17. Rac1 {was soon drawn. Golod,V (2590)-Filippov, A (2598) Tashkent
UZB 2010}) 13. f3 {Played after 20 minutes thought, this move makes sense if
white intends to castle Q-side, in which case the P on f2 needs defending.
However, castling Q-side turns out not be a good idea and, as a result, the
text wastes time and weakens the K-side.} (13. Bd3 {is equal after} h5 14. Qc2
Nd7 15. h3 Nf8 16. O-O h4 17. Ne2 Ne6 18. b4 {Setting up the Minority Attack.}
a6 19. a4 {and a draw was soon arrived at in Beliavsky,A (2570)-Balashov,Y
(2540) Minsk 1983}) 13... h5 14. Be2 Nd7 {Black does not hurry with the
advance of his h-Pawn. White's problem is that if he castles his N only has
the horrible h1 as a retreat square. Consequently, Petrosian decides to
abandon castling and uses his K to defend the P on e3 and f1 available as a
retreat square for the N. Black is now beginning to show just a bit of an
advantage.} 15. Kf2 {This plan turns out to be faulty. For better oir for
worse he had to try to hold up black with 15.h5} (15. h4 Nb6 16. Kf2 Bf5 17.
Nxf5 Qxf5 18. Bd3 {equals}) 15... h4 {This drives the N to a square from which
its prospect of finding purpose is zero.} 16. Nf1 Nf8 17. Nd2 {It's obvious
that white must bring his R on h1 into play. For his part, black wants to
double Rs on the e-file.} Re7 18. Rhe1 Bf5 19. h3 {Obviously white wants to
prevent any possibility of ...h3, a possibility he would have to consider at
every move. At the sa,e time though the move weakens g3.It would have been
safer to eliminate a black attacker with 19.Bd3} Rae8 20. Nf1 {The poor N has
to return to defend e3.} (20. Bd3 {would allow him to put up a manly defense.}
Bd7 (20... Bxd3 21. Qxd3 Ne6 22. b4 {with a slight advantage for black.}) 21.
Nf1 Ne6 22. Nh2 Qg5 23. Kg1 {Black is better, but proving he has a win will be
challenging.}) 20... Ne6 {Adding the N to the attack.} 21. Qd2 {Petrosian is
sticking to waiting strategy, but again 21.Bd3 was bettetr.} Ng7 {The N
retreats when an advance was in order. Botvinnik spent a long time looking 21..
.Ng5 followed by a sacrifice on h3, but he miscalculated the sequence not only
duting the game, but in his post game analysis.} (21... Ng5 22. Kg1 (22. Bd3
Bxh3 23. gxh3 Qxf3+ 24. Kg1 Nxh3+ 25. Kh2 Nf2 26. Kg1 Re4 {The addition of the
R to the attack wraps it up.}) 22... Bxh3 {Ckearky taking the B would be bad,
so...} 23. Bd3 Bf5 24. Bxf5 Qxf5 25. Rad1 h3 26. Ng3 Qf6 27. f4 Ne4 28. Nxe4
Rxe4 29. g3 Qe7 30. Kf2 Qe6 {Black will advance the g-Pawn and meanwhile white
can't do anything constructive.}) 22. Rad1 Nh5 23. Rc1 Qd6 24. Rc3 Ng3 25. Kg1
Nh5 26. Bd1 Re6 27. Qf2 {Petrosian's waiting strategy has managed to keep his
disadvantage at a minimum and it would probably have worn out a lesser
adversary, but not the resolute Botvinnik!} Qe7 {Black has completed
preparations for an advance of his K-side Ps as a prelude to digging out
white's K. Wite's position is hardly hopeless, but the defense will eveltually
take its toll.} 28. Bb3 g5 {Consistent, but perhaps a bit too passive.} 29. Bd1
(29. e4 {This vigorous counterattack in the center offers a much better chance.
} Nf4 30. Ne3 Bg6 31. Qd2 {Black will find making headway difficult. In fact,
5 Shootouts from this position were drawn.}) 29... Bg6 {After 30.b4! black is
better, but exactly how he can make progress is not clear. Additionally, at
some point in the future white has the posibility of finally launching his
Q-side Minority Attack.} (29... Nf4 {as in the game comes to nothing because
the h-Pawn is defended.} 30. Qd2 {Black has no forceful reply.}) 30. g4 {
[%mdl 8192] Petrosin finally cracks. Botvinnik observed that it's interesting
that, just at the moment when nothing was threatened, Petrosian, who has
conducted the entire game using waiting strategy, suddenly launches into
complications. It may have been a purely psychological ploy as Botvinnik was
in some time pressure.} hxg3 31. Nxg3 Nf4 {[%mdl 512]} 32. Qh2 c5 {[%mdl 512]}
(32... Nd3 {packs a wallop...} 33. Re2 Rxe3 34. Rxe3 Qxe3+ 35. Kh1 Qe1+ 36. Qg1
Qxg1+ 37. Kxg1 Re1+ {wins}) 33. Qd2 c4 34. Ba4 b5 35. Bc2 Nxh3+ 36. Kf1 Qf6 37.
Kg2 Nf4+ {[%mdl 512] The N's returns to f4 is even stronger that before.} 38.
exf4 Rxe1 39. fxg5 Qe6 40. f4 Re2+ {White resigned.} 0-1
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