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Tigran Petrosian vs Mikhail Botvinnik
"Botvinnik and Paid For" (game of the day Oct-27-2008)
Botvinnik - Petrosian World Championship Match (1963), Moscow URS, rd 5, Apr-01
Gruenfeld Defense: Three Knights. Burille Variation (D94)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 6 OF 6 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jan-12-15  thegoodanarchist: <HeMateMe: Cold War Misha almost outlived Bobby Fischer. He must have ate his vegetables and laid off the vodka.>

Huh??? Botwinnik died in 1995, Fischer in 2008. Yet Botwinnik "almost outlived" Bobby?

I guess it depends on your definition of "almost"

Mar-02-15  kevin86: Just think: how much could you get by predicting that the new champion would win his first game of the match with his king on the adverse king's castling square?
Mar-02-15  1d410: What an irrelevant pun.
Apr-04-15  CMDMB: Amazing how Petrosian is able to capitalize on the slightest edge. Next time you don't think it's worth it to press for the win in a "drawish" position, draw inspiration from this! Grinding out such a win demonstrates awesome and masterful technique.
Apr-26-15  ToTheDeath: Petrosian takes full advantage of his slightly better pawn structure and slightly more active king to wear Botvinnik down. In the hands of a real player small edges can be nursed into big ones.
Apr-26-15  Howard: If I'm not mistaken, Petrosian called this one of the best games of his entire career.

When he died, in 1984, Chess Life showed one game of his---this one !

May-29-16  mykescofield: what's wrong with 19...Nxa2?
May-29-16  User not found: <mykescofield: what's wrong with 19...Nxa2?>

20. Ra1 ..Nb4 .Rxa7 or even BxN first leaving blacks pawns doubled up and his DSB unable to move whites b pawn anyway.

Nov-28-16  paavoh: <<Next time you don't think it's worth it to press for the win in a "drawish" position, draw inspiration from this!>> Exactly true!

What economy of forces covering so many squares with so few pieces. The White King was a power tool, compared to the diverted Black Rook, buzzing through the position.

Jan-20-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  GrahamClayton: The Black pieces are unable to stop the White King from strolling up the board, and being in the perfect position for a pawn endgame, once all of the pieces are exchanged.
Oct-11-17  Toribio3: King walk! Patience is one of the virtue of Petrosian.
Feb-25-18  tgyuid: well, if the rock of troy says this is his best game am i going to argue....
Feb-25-18  tgyuid: 8.d5, i like; i think e6 as response is a little too encouraging;; i might have chosen Nbe7, after which further advance can be met with e5 and a queens fiancetto....
Feb-25-18  tgyuid: Nbd7 is even more effective....
Feb-25-18  tgyuid: mobilise while the bishop is blunt, i say; as it is black enters an awkward endgame where everything is just sort of wrong
Apr-13-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  yiotta: If I were negotiating odds from Petrosian, I would start by prohibiting king walks exceeding two squares. And no exchange sacs! Make him play chess like a real person!
Apr-14-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: That isn't what I should call odds; sounds more like you want to hamstring the poor bugger to me! (laughs)
Oct-11-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: This game is in 184 collections as of the time of this post - Chessgames.com has a lot of positional connoisseurs to have this game in their collections. Great site :) The Knight on e4 was fantastic throughout much of the game.
Oct-11-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: The 41 Kf8 stuff seems quite brutal. If Botvinnik had really pulled off this claim, then this positional masterpiece would not have the result it deserved.

And surely Botvinnik's reputation for making such a claim on an illegal move, would not have helped his reputation for chess fans.

Oct-11-21  Petrosianic: <maxi>: <Botvinnik's move 33...Rh1? bothers me. He was an excellent endgame player. I find it hard to understand how he could miss a chance of exchanging his sorry Bishop for the wonderful Knight.>

He probably wasn't happy about it, but the pawn up R+P ending with pawns on both sides should be a clear win for White, so he kept the minors on hoping for something.

Oct-11-21  Petrosianic: The Kf8 stuff was just a mistake. Kf7 was the sealed move, but Petrosian wrote his 7's with a little tail on the end, that might make it look like an 8 if scribbled. His scoresheets would have shown all the other 7's written the same way.
May-18-22  Ulhumbrus: If after the move 18 Rb1 the move b4 counts as a potential threat one alternative to 18...Nb4 is 18... Rc8 so that 19 Bd2 Bf8 20 b4 can be answered by 20...cxb4
Jun-15-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  plang: The old system with 5 e3 and 6 Be2 is almost never seen nowadays though it might still have some surprise value. 8..Ne8 had been played in Prins-Wood Hastings 1947 and Black had gone on to win; 8..e6?! was new but was certainly no improvement. Flohr recommended 13..Kf7 and 14..Ke7 keeping more pieces on the board. Petrosian spent 26 minutes on 23 b4! which was clearly superior to the alternative 23 Re4..a6 24 b4..b5 followed by ..c4. Botvinnik might have had better defensive chances had he played more actively: ie. 24..Ba3 25 Rc2..c3 26 Bxc3..Rc4 27 Kd3..Rxa4 28 Ra2..Rxe4 29 Rxa3..Nxc3 30 Kxc3..Re5 31 Rxa7..Rxb5 32 Rb7..Rc5+ 33 Kd3..b5. Black's last chance was 33..Bxc3 when he would at least have had some chance of saving the inferior rook ending. 34 Ne4! was a very instructive move; the h-pawn was not worth taking the rook out of play. A beautiful alternative line was 45..Rxa4 46 Ng5..Kb7 47 Ne6..Bb8 48 Nd8+..Ka8 49 Rc8 followed by Nc6.

This is really a great game.

Aug-22-23  Mathematicar: I can see Capablanca trough Petrosian's endgames. His middlegame strategy was somewhat different, more passive and less ingenious, but his endgame tehnique was there with Capablanca's. I praise this more than unsound sacrifices and flashy play.
Apr-27-24  FM David H. Levin: <HOTDOG: 24...Ba3(instead of Kf7?) 25.Rc2 c3 26.Bxc3 Bb4 27.Kd2 Rc4 28.Bxb4 Rxe4 29.Bd6 Rxa4 and Black has good drawing chances(Averbach)>

At the end of Averbach's line, I wonder whether he considered 30.f3, intending e4... to eject Black's knight from its centralized post. After that, I think I'd characterize Black's drawing chances as fair or reasonable rather than good.

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