Why I love Benko and Petrosian

Tigran Petrosian not only had some really nice attacking games, but had a great understanding of positional play, often squeezing and strangling opponents positions until they simply collapsed under the strain. Later, Pal Benko would show a similar playing style that wasn't flashy but was still beautiful to watch. He would say, " why do in 2 moves what you can do in 20."

I miss Benko's Bafflers in the Chess Life magazines because his positions and composed studies made you look deeper into the positions to find the winning edge.

This was a 10 minute game that I was toying with White having played into a passive position and while not at the level of these Masters, I was reminded of the level of patience they would take in positions. Game is an Accelerated Move Order Semi-Slav Defense.

Excellent,