Petrosian Move by Move is a new book published by Everyman Chess written by the Swedish international master Thomas Engqvist. The book consists of 60 closely annotated games, all wins, by Tigran Petrosian, world champion from 1963 to 1969 and an inspiration for the recent successes of the Armenian team, who have won the Olympiad gold medal on three occasions (2006, 2008 and 2012). Petrosian has a reputation for caution, and his victories were often described as pragmatic or even defensive. Engqvist takes a completely different view, depicting Petrosian as an artist of the chessboard, possessed of a quite idiosyncratic style. When he took risks they were strategic, rather than the type of overly sacrificial attack which at times bedevilled the games of Mikhail Tal, world champion from 1960 to 1961.
Engqvist’s notes to this game demonstrate that when Petrosian did go in for a sacrificial attack, he had worked it all out from the start with great precision, rather than relying on intuition or the kind of supercharged guesswork which was sometimes seen in the games of Tal or Spassky.
Andersen-Petrosian: Nimzowitsch Memorial, Copenhagen 1960; King’s Indian Defence
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f3 c6 6 Be3 e5 7 d5 0-0 8 Qd2 cxd5 9 cxd5 a6 10 0-0-0 b5 11 Kb1 Nbd7 12 Rc1 The immediate 12 g4 looks more to the point. 12 … Nb6 13 Nd1 Nfd7 Black prepares the standard break … f7-f5. 14 g4 f5 15 gxf5 gxf5 16 Bd3 This natural move doesn’t anticipate the coming … Nc4 because of the tempo lost when exchanging on c4, so more logical is therefore 16 Nh3 or 16 Qg2. 16 … Nf6 17 Rc6 Nc4 18 Bxc4 bxc4 19 Nc3 19 Rxc4 is a better alternative which is confirmed by the forced variation 19 … fxe4 20 fxe4 Nxe4 21 Rxe4 Rf1 22 Ne2 Rxh1 23 Ng3 Rxd1+ 24 Qxd1, which leads to an even position.
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