Petrosian - Gligoric. Six Chess Battles.
Earlier this week a much valued chess friend of mine said that he was studying a game between Petrosian and Gligoric. My instant reply was that they contested many wonderful games! Indeed, some players seem to bring out the fighting qualities in each other - recently I mentioned that in regard Simagin and Bronstein, but there are many other examples.
So I went and looked at all the games between Gligoric and Petrosian, and chose six to share here. Hopefully you will be inspired to go look at all their games. Just wonderful chess battles, and I love my chess battles!
Quick note - Petrosian had White in a majority of their games, and was always happy to play against the King's Indian defence. Gligoric was a true King's Indian lover, so a number of games here are in their personal war on that particular battlefield.
Lets start with two games which I leave for you guys to analyse and annotate for yourselves! Feel free to post the results in the comments. I think that doing what I have always done - studying games for yourself - is a great exercise. Have fun with this first one! Thoughts on White's 14th move awaited with interest! Incredible move imho.
I have included a couple of quick observations in this next one, but it's a wonderful game, so go explore it for yourself!
I have chosen 3 wins by each player so I'll give the third Petrosian win here. It's another King's Indian, and was part of a major theoretical debate which took place in that tournament. ( students of Tal and/or Fischer will know what I am talking about) The games between these two were rarely 'perfect' - such is the nature of real chessboard battles - and this is no exception. But it a game filled with ideas from first move to last, and is one of the first games of Petrosian which I studied deeply. I still love it!
O.K. Three wins by Gligoric - like Lilienthal and Steiner, a man with 1920's film star looks.
There are a couple of stories about this first one.
1. After his result at the 1953 candidates tournament Gligoric considered giving up chess. However, he was persuaded to play in the Beograd tournament, which he won by a big margin, won this brilliancy, and changed his mind.
2. You have to remember the geopolitical situation of the time here. At the end of this game the Yugoslav supporters went into riotous celebrations which resulted in play being suspended, the lights being switched off with players sitting at the board still trying to study the positions, etc. , How much of all this is true, I don't know - I wasn't there!! but it's great stuff - so was the game! You can sit and study many of the games between Gligoric and Petrosian for hours, and still not really understand them. this is one example. the only thing I can say for certain is that Petrosian blundered, allowing the final, beautiful, combination.
I have included my own thoughts, but you should follow the link for those of Gligoric, and some really great pictures.
Gligoric with another World Champion. Lovely picture!! I have mislaid the source. 
. Apologies for my not being the best organised.
That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the games and are motivated to go look at all the fantastic games which these two produced when facing each other. Bravo guys!
