Tigran Petrosian — The Iron Defender
“If Tal sacrifices a piece, take it. If Petrosian sacrifices a piece—don’t.”
—Mikhail Botvinnik
Petrosian wasn't flashy, nor an attack man but a man who could see about 20 moves ahead!
Tigran Vardani Petrosian was born on 17 June 1929（almost100 years ago) in Armenian. Due to his amazing defending abilities, he was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" and emphasized safety above all else and is extremely happy to pounce on any small mistake the opponent made. In 1963, Tigran Petrosian faced World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Chess Championship. His deep understanding of theory, faultless defending abilities led him to great victory. In 1966, he defended his title against Boris Spassky. People even said that his prophylaxis was so good, even the mosquitoes stayed away from his king!
Early Life
Tigran Petrosian was an excellent student and loved studying. At the age of 8, he learnt chess, but his father kept encouraging to continue go studying, knowing nothing that chess would bring his son to a successful career. During World War II, he was orphaned at only the age of 11 and only could sweep the streets to earn a living. In a 1969 interview with the Time magazine he recalled:
'I started sweeping streets in the middle of the winter and it was horrible. Of course there were no machines then, so we had to do everything by hand. Some of the older men helped me out. I was a weak boy. And I was ashamed of being a street sweeper—that's natural, I suppose. It wasn't so bad in the early morning when the streets were empty, but when it got light and the crowds came out, I really hated it. I got sick and missed a year in school. We had a babushka, a sister of my father, and she really saved me. She gave me bread to eat when I was sick and hungry. That's when this trouble with my hearing started. I don't remember how it all happened. Things aren't very clear from that time.'
At that time his hearing began to fade, a huge problem that haunted him for the rest of his life. Petrosian used his rations to buy Chess Praxis by Aron Nimzowitsch, a Danish grandmaster and The Art of Sacrifice in Chess by Rudolf Spielmann..
Under the tutelage of Archil Ebralidze, Tigran Petrosian began training at the Tbilisi Palace of Pioneers at the age of 12. During the time, he built a repertoire of positional openings such as the English Opening for white. The palace taught him how to play positional positions and discouraged wild tactics. The defensive style became his signature. After one year of training, he visited the Soviet grandmaster Salo Flohr for a simultaneous exhibition.
"Chess can convey as much happiness as a good book or a work of music can"
- Tigran Petrosian
Finally, by the year of 1946, Petrosian earned the title of Canidate Master. That year he drew against the grandmaster Paul Keres at the Georgian Chess Championship and went on to win it. In Yerevan, he won the Armenian Chess Championship and the USSR Junior Chess Championship. By no time, he earned the title of Master at the 1947 USSR Chess Championship but heartbreakingly, he didn't qualify for the finals. He set off to improve by studying one of Nimzowitsch's books, My System, one of the books he later recalled as one of his most loving books. He also moved to Moscow to seek greater competition.
1963 World Championship
After getting his grandmaster norm, he qualified for the Candidates Tournament along with several other strong players including Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal. He, representing the Soviet Union, won the tournament with a final score of 17 and a half. Amazingly, followed behind were fellow Soviet Union players, Geller and Keres. By winning the Candidates Tournament, Tigran earned the right to challenge the world champion, Mikhail Botvinnik. He also prepared the match by skiing ⛷️ everyday as he thought that physical exercise and endurance would become useful in the games. Petrosian's defending style suits the competition as he just could simply wait for the opponent to blunder and then win the game. This is one of his games:
Reigning World Champion
In the 1976 Canidates Tournament semi-final match, Tigran Petrosian withdrew after five games while falling behind 1.5 -3.5. In 1977, Petrosian was fired from the position as the editor of Russia's largest chess magazine. His detractors condemned his unwillingness to attack, attributing this to a lack of courage.
- Victory at the Lone Pine 1976
- 1979 Paul Keres Memorial tournament 12/16 without a loss
- Rio de Janeiro Interzonal
Before he passed away, he has been writing many articles and lessons, in hope of putting these together to form a book. In 1990, Rona, his wife edited and published the book under the name of Petrosian's Legacy and in Russian, Шахматные лекции Петросяна. Garry Kasparov also wrote a preface for the book few years later.
On the sad day of 13 August 1984, Petrosian died in Moscow of stomach cancer and is buried in the Moscow Armenian Cemetery.
On 7 July 2006, a monument honoring Petrosian was opened in the Davtashen district of Yerevan, in a street named after Petrosian. He was also honored by being on the 2000-dram banknote.
He also made contributions to the opening theory, while being an expert against the King's Indian Defense, he often plays the opening known as Petrosian Variation in the King's Indian Defense:
Other openings are:
The Queen's Indian, Grunfeld Defense, French Defense and the Caro-Kann Defense with his name along former world champion, Vassily Smylov - the Petrosian-Smylov Defense.
CONCLUSION
Well, that is the end for this blog. While Tigran is one of my favorite players, I hope that you learnt something new.
Or maybe go ahead and try some of Tigran's openings. 😄
Bye!
