Taimanov Has Time Enough to Rock Petrosian

Mark Taimanov was born February 7, 1926 in Kharkiv. He became a top Russian chess player and a concert pianist. In 1952, he became a grandmaster. He came in tied for 8th and 9th out of 15 players in the Zurich Candidates Tournament, from which I have selected one of his games. His score was 14 out of 28. Taimanov played in a record (shared with Geller) 23 Soviet championships. He came in tied for first place in 1952 and 1956. In 1952, he lost a playoff match to Botvinnik, while in 1956 he won the playoff against Averbakh and Spassky. He is known for a number of opening variations to which his name is attached. He most famously lost 6-0 to Fischer in their 1971 candidates match. In the selected game, he played the future world champion, Tigran Petrosian, who was three years younger. Petrosian scored 15 points to take clear 5th place. I have added annotations and made use of Bronstein's famous book on the tournament.