Petrosian's World Championship Immortal! - Best Of The 60s - Petrosian vs. Spassky, 1966

Petrosian's World Championship Immortal! - Best Of The 60s - Petrosian vs. Spassky, 1966

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Tigran Petrosian's World Chess Championship matches against Boris Spassky were some of the best ever. Both sides displayed great chess and brilliant victories.

Petrosian is renowned for his defensive and prophylactics skills, and those are on display in his analysis of this game as he underestimates his own position and is hyper-attuned to Spassky's threats. Watch him totally suppress the great Boris Spassky and then turn to a decisive attack!

Top 10 Games of the 1960s

Petrosian meets Spassky's King's Indian Defense with a fianchetto setup, and after ...e5?, he shows that Spassky has misevaluated the opening of the position. With 14.Nd1! and 15.f3, he initiates an opening of the positions that favors him, and with 21.Ne3!! and 24.Rxf4!, he gives up both rooks for a crushing domination that concludes with a remarkable final move.

My annotations with some of Petrosian's comments from "Python Strategy" (Amazon affiliate link supports the content.) are below.

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NM Sam Copeland

I'm the Head of Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.

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