Portisch Defeats Petrosian at Moscow 1967

The great tournament at Moscow 1967 had eighteen strong players, including four world champions. Tal and Smyslov were former champions who tied for places 2-5. Spassky, who would become the next champion tied for places 6-8. The world champion at the time was Petrosian who tied for 9-12. The winner was Leonid Stein who score 11 out of 17. Lajos Portisch had as many wins as Stein, but more losses. He was tied with Spassky and Bronstein. Portisch was born in Hungary on April 4, 1937. He appeared in 12 interzonals and qualified for the candidates matches 8 times. He won the championship of Hungary 8 times. His opponent in this game is Petrosian. Tigran V. Petrosian, an Armenian, was born in Tbilisi June 17, 1929 and died in Moscow August 13, 1984. Petrosian won the world championship from Botvinnik in 1963. He defeated Spassky to retain the title in 1966 and in turn was defeated by Spassky to lose the crown in 1969. Portisch shows positional and tactical talent in this victory against Iron Tigran.