Tigran Petrosian became the 9th world champion in the history of chess after defeating title holder Mikhail Botvinnik in their match in 1963. Six years later, in 1969, he lost the title to Boris Spassky. But Petrosian remained one of the best players in the world for a long time, paticipating several times the Wch cycle. More
Wch match Spassky 1966 and 1969; Candidates final Fischer 1971
Conclusion
Strategy
Description
Introduction
Reshevsky-Petrosian
Portisch-Petrosian
Petrosian-Botvinnik
Petrosian-Spassky
Polugaevsky-Petrosian
Tactics 1-10
Description
Petrosian-Pogrebissky, 1949: Petrosian exploits Black’s weakened king position (no pawn h7!) to strike on the light squares.
Petrosian-Keres, 1952: Cleverly getting the positional advantage of the two bishops, Petrosian masterfully converts.
Reshevsky-Petrosian, 1953: Classics at its best – two different exchange sacrifices à la Petrosian!
Petrosian-Guimard, 1955: Petrosian begins his mate attack on the kingside and finishes it on the other wing.
Petrosian-Simagin, 1956: The winning motif is a “simple“ knight fork, with preparation de luxe.
Petrosian-Taimanov, 1957:In a worse position, Petrosian starts to complicate matters – and emerges as the surprising winner!
Petrosian-Kozma, 1958: In a worse position, Petrosian starts to complicate matters – and emerges as the surprising winner!
Petrosian-Rosetto, 1958: Following a Queen’s Gambit minority attack, Petrosian fixes a black pawn weakness on c6… to win on the kingside!
Keres-Petrosian, 1959: The beginning of Petrosian‘s mate attack on the kingside sees his queen still being placed on a8...
Petrosian-Benko, 1959: In a closed Nimzoindian position, Black fatally fails to batten down the hatches for good.
Tactics 11-20
Description
Petrosian-Gufeld, 1959: Pick the right knight move for Black... to avoid Petrosian‘s winning combination!
Andersen-Petrosian, 1960: Petrosian shines with Black in a Saemisch King’s Indian - and how!
Holm-Petrosian, 1960: Pursuing a nice perpetual check motif, White overlooks Petrosian’s cool counter.
Petrosian-Krogius, 1960: A white queen’s rook c1 calls the shots in the attack on the kingside.
Petrosian-Pachman, 1961: Another Petrosian classic – weak dark squares, and a mate final with a queen sac.
Petrosian-Smyslov, 1961: Symmetrical pawns, a black position without weaknesses – and yet Petrosian’s renowned opponent isn’t given the slightest chance.
Petrosian-Spassky, 1966: The reigning champion Petrosian takes apart his great challenger in a Wch game. Motto: one exchange sacrifice is not enough!
Petrosian-Westerinen, 1968: A careless black pawn move makes Petrosian play on the kingside a very one-sided affair.
Petrosian-Tomic, 1970: “Tactics light“, for a change - the white knight allows a mate pattern to remember.
Kortchnoi-Petrosian, 1971: Petrosian uses of the offside white queen to unfold positional powerplay based on tactics.
Tactics 21-25
Description
Petrosian-Balashov, 1974: If you like IQP positions as White, this is a must- know game – power on the board!
Petrosian-Bangiev, 1974: Petrosian calculates a long variation, but fails to see the final winning point – can you do better!?
Petrosian-Portisch, 1974: Finally having created his dream pawn centre with e4 and d4, White is given a cold shower.
Petrosian-Rantanen, 1979: Playing the Dutch Black must just accept there is no pawn left on f7 - potentially fatal against a Petrosian in an aggressive mood...
Petrosian-Ljubojevic, 1983: Petrosian energically opens the position for his two bishops and won’t even have an exchange sacrifice stop him.
Endgames
Description
Petrosian's trumps
The exchange sacrifice
Excellent technique and the knowledge of theoretical endgames
The space advantage
The Andersson-Petrosian endgame
Petrosian's powerplay
The outpost squares
The king to the centre
The pawn levers
Powerplay on the light squares
Petrosian's prophylaxis
The long king march
The art of defence
Counterplay counts
Interactive videos
Defence against Fischer
Mating attack out of the blue
Bonus
All Games from Tigran Petrosian
Training questions
Petrosian opening book with White
Petrosian opening book with Black
PROPERTIES
Language:
English, German
Level:
any
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Minimum:
Computer: Dual Core Memory: 2 GB RAM Operating System: Windows 10 and higher Graphics Card: 256 MB RAM Other: Windows Media Player 9, ChessBase 14/Fritz 16 or included Reader and internet access for program activation
MacOSX: MacOS "Yosemite" 10.10
Recommended:
Processor: PC Intel i5 (Quadcore) Memory: 4 GB RAM Operating System: Windows 10 and higher, DirectX 11 Graphics Card: 512 MB RAM and more Other: DirectX10-compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11 and internet access for program activation
ChessBase Account:
Internet access and modern web browser, e.g. Chrome, Edge, Safari.
