What is wrong with Petrosian?

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Avatar of Bartleby73

In every example game featuring Tigran Petrosian which I read or is presented to me in a different form, he is always the loser. I have even seen a chessbook which bothered to include an example of how Petrosian blundered and lost his Queen for nothing.

Do the authors of chess books hate Petrosian? I yes, why? What's wrong with him? Petrosian was a world champion, he certainly wasn't some patzer player.

Avatar of DukeKarl

His style is boring so his wins are unlikely to sell a lot of books. So you only see his losing games.

Avatar of Fralnp

You sure can't be a happy camper if you happen to be either Predrag Nikolic or Miguel Quinteros. I swear to anything, never I have seen a victory illustrated from these two no matter how many books I saw wherever those names popped.

Sad way for immortality eh?

Avatar of TonyH

http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_js/Petrosian_vs_the_Elite.html

for books that treat petrosian with respect

as to posting his losses. well considering how hard it was to beat the guy is losses are noticed.

Avatar of lobosolo21

T.Petrosian is my chess idol,he won many  subtle games with fine technique in all stages of the game;Bobby Fischer himself was a great admirer of him.

Avatar of Bartleby73

Thanks for your replies! I will look into these gems. Finally someone who does poor Petrosian justice.

Avatar of chesspooljuly13

Petrosian nearly beat Fischer in game 1 of their match to determine the challenger to Spassky (and Petrosian had the black pieces!) but he didn't follow the recommended line after a fantastic novelty and lost. I think he was too cautious in that game, too willing to be satisfied with a draw. A GM like Tal would have played the recommended line and thrown caution to the winds

Avatar of pfren

It's funny seeing unrated players finding Petrosian's style "boring" for the simple reason they cannot understand it.

For the record, Tigran was a superb blitz player, where he played extremely aggressively and with terrific combinational skill. But OTB he played in the style he was considering as optimal: positionally squeezing the opponent to suffocation.

There was a joke between Russian masters, which said "if Tal makes a sacrifice against you, then accept it, offer a draw and pray. If Petrosian makes a sacrifice against you, there's no need to do anything: resign immediately".

Avatar of fburton

Wise words, pfren.

 Ishi Press now do a print-on-demand edition of Vasiliev's book that is commended in Silman's review. 

Avatar of jontsef

pfren I remember that quote with a third player thrown in, maybe Spassky?

something like 'if Tal sacrifices against you, take it, then think. if Spassky sacrifices, think, then take it. If Petrosian sacrifices... resign'

Avatar of Fralnp

Even Him got words of praise for Petrosian's book.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/petrosian.html

Avatar of OldHastonian
paulgottlieb wrote:

Petrosian was a great player who won many fascinating games. He was a brilliant strategist, with a subtle feel for position that few players have ever matched. Two players who admired his play very much were Bobby Fischer and Gary Kasparov.  Here are some Petrosian gems:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106540

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1104948

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106725

I particularly enjoyed the first one you linked, against Smyslov.

Is there any significance in Petrosian playing White in all three of your  selections ?

Avatar of OldHastonian

Interesting; I shall trawl through some Black Petrosian victories and try and find a classic.

Avatar of mrtnwldrn

I am a defensive, positional player.

Avatar of mrtnwldrn

well i would proberbly give you a hug,in a manly kind of way you understand.

Avatar of chesspooljuly13

Great point. After Fischer steamrolled Taimanov and Larsen with 6-0 wins in each match, he won his first game against Petrosian and I think some of the remaining games were draws. Petrosian even defeated Fischer in game 2 of their match to determine who would challenge Spassky for the WCC in 1972.

Avatar of chesspooljuly13

Petrosian could have and should have won game 1. That game is really worth playing out. Petrosian, playing black, had Fischer on the ropes

Avatar of waffllemaster
pfren wrote:

It's funny seeing unrated players finding Petrosian's style "boring" for the simple reason they cannot understand it.

For the record, Tigran was a superb blitz player, where he played extremely aggressively and with terrific combinational skill. But OTB he played in the style he was considering as optimal: positionally squeezing the opponent to suffocation.

There was a joke between Russian masters, which said "if Tal makes a sacrifice against you, then accept it, offer a draw and pray. If Petrosian makes a sacrifice against you, there's no need to do anything: resign immediately".

Yes.  Most amateur players haevn't bothered to play over more than a few different world champion's games... if any at all.  They just repeat what they've heard.  Of course any world champion would be a superb calculator and tactician.  If it's Ulf Andersson vs a club player I'm sure there'd be fireworks because GMs find combinations period.

I'd like to take a sample of 50 random games.  10 from 4 different world champions, and 10 from any FM.  How well would someone U2500 be able to determine which games belong to what player?  If they scored as high as 50% it would be a miracle Tongue out

Avatar of jontsef

Do it. Might be interesting. For the WC games use lesser known games though, just in case.

Avatar of waffllemaster

Well, you could purposely make it tricky by picking obscure quick losses by the WCs.  So to be fair you'd have to select them randomly, and maybe afterwards filter out any games that are very well publicised.

Although I would filter it for evenly matched players and long games... that way you have a chance to see some style instead of a quick crush.