Tigran Petrosian seized the world championship from Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963, defended the title against Boris Spassky in 1966 and only relinquished it against the same dangerous opponent three years later. In individual play he defeated every other world champion whom he met over the board and in chess Olympiads he twice earned the gold medal on top board for the USSR for his personal performance.
In two weeks time the Petrosian Memorial tournament will commence in Moscow with a powerful line-up, the precise details of which have yet to be announced. Meanwhile here is one of Petrosian’s typical manoeuvring victories with notes based on the must-have book for Petrosian fans, Petrosian: Move by Move by Thomas Engqvist (Everyman Chess).
Petrosian-Reshevsky: Lugano Olympiad 1968; London System
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 d4 e6 3 Bf4 b6 4 e3 Bb7 5 Bd3 Be7 6 Nbd2 Nh5 7 Bg3 Nxg3 8 hxg3 h6 9 Qe2 c5 10 c3 Nc6 11 g4 Qc7 12 a3 d5 13 g5 Breaking the fearful symmetry of the situation, which would otherwise tend towards equality. 13 … 0-0-0 14 gxh6 Rxh6 15 Rxh6 gxh6 Black’s isolated pawn on h6 will eventually prove the chief liability to White’s anvil of pressure on the h-file. 16 Ba6 f5 (see diagram 1) Reshevsky slowly commits positional suicide. Now he has two pawn weaknesses, on h6 and e6. 16 … f6, with the idea of preparing … e6-e5, looks more logical. 17 g3 c4 18 Bxb7+ Kxb7 19 Ng1 White heads for the f4-square, putting pressure on e6 and at the same time also prepares an attack on the h6-pawn with Qh5. 19 … Bd6 20 Qh5 Qg7 21 Ne2 Ne7 22 Nf4 Bxf4 23 exf4 Ng8 24 Qf3 Kc7 25 0-0-0 Nf6 26 Qe2 Kd7 27 Rh1 Ng4 28 Nf3 Re8 (see diagram 2) 29 Kd2 Typically Petrosian prevents threats which hadn’t even occurred in Reshevsky’s head. If so he would certainly have played the rook to b8 already with his 28th move. Now the white king moves to the kingside at just the right moment. 29 … Rb8 30 Ke1 b5 31 Kf1 a5 32 Kg2 a4 33 Ne5+ Nxe5 34 Qxe5 Qxe5 35 fxe5 The rook ending is more advantageous for White when Black cannot play … b5-b4 anymore. White’s rook is more active than its counterpart and White’s king will soon be more active as well. 35 … Rh8 36 f3 Ke7 37 g4 fxg4 38 fxg4 Rg8 39 Kh3 Rf8 It looks natural to place the rook on the only open file, but this is just another illustration that rook endings are difficult endings. 40 Kg3 Rh8 41 Kh4 Rg8 42 Rf1 Black resigns White plans 43 Rf6 or 43 Rf4 followed by 44 Kh5. A brilliant game typical of Petrosian’s patient and unforced style.
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