Spassky-Petrosian World Championship 1969: QGD Orthodox

Tigran V. Petrosian (pictured) lost the World Championship to Boris Spassky in 1969. It was Petrosian’s second defense to the same challenger. A brief opening review shows that the plus two margin of victory for Spassky came with the white pieces. The match lasted 23 games. Spassky had the first move in 12 games. In 4 of those games, Spassky did not play e4 and neither player had a plus score. In 8 games, there were e4 openings. Petrosian drew twice with the Petroff. In five Sicilians, Spassky was plus one. In the only Ruy Lopez, Spassky won. The e4 openings yielded Spassky his plus two for the match. On the other hand, Petrosian had the first move in 11 games which produced an even score. Five games with the Queen’s Gambit Declined went into the Tarrasch Defense resulting in plus one for Spassky. Spassky also won with a Semi-Tarrasch and a Semi-Classic Variation (5.Bf4 c5). Petrosian made up for those three losses with three wins. Petrosian won with a Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein Variation, a Queen’s Indian, and a Queen’s Gambit Declined, Orthodox Variation. Notice that Spassky managed to win only two games as White, but lost none. Petrosian as Black won three games, but lost three.

The three games in the Orthodox Variation are shown with Petrosian’s best win of the match as the main game. Included are the two draws in that line.