| Dec-03-03 | | Petrosianic: Opening night jitters. Petrosian later said he played this game at no better than First Category strength. Still, he overcame this nicely and only lost one more out of 21. |
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Nov-07-04
 | | Chessical: Game One of the 1963 World Championship. Petrosian was overcome by nerves and "unable to think". Petrosian uncharacteristically gives himself a weak point on e3 with <13.f3>. Botvinnik then missed a promising N manoeuver to highlight the weaknesses on the K-side, and the e3 square. Petrosian could have held a draw, but even after this respite, he continued to play nervously. Finally, with <30.g4?!> he fatally exascerbates his K-side weaknesses. <13.Bd3> h5 14.Ne2 Bf5 15.Bxf5 Qxf5 16.0-0 Nd7 17.Rae1 h4 18.Nf4 g5 19.Qd3 Qe4 20.f3 Qxd3 = <13...h5!> Botvinnik puts his finger on white's K-side weaknesses. <19.Nf1> was suggested as better , but 19...h3 20.g3 is not inviting. <21...Ng5!> as proposed soon after is very strong: 22.Kg1 Bxh3 23.gxh3 Nxh3+ 24.Kh2 (24.Kh1 Qg5 25.Kh2 Qg1+ 26.Kxh3 Rxe3) 24...Rxe3 25.Nxe3 Qf4+ 26.Kh1 Nf2+ 27.Kg2 Qg3+ 28.Kf1 Nh3 29.Bd1 Qg1+ 30.Ke2 Nf4# Petrosian should now have been able to salvage a draw
with <29.e4> Nf4 30.Qd2 and even <30.Bc2!>, but after <31....Nf4!> it is all downhill for his game. <36.Kg2> is no better, 36...Nf4+ 37.Kf2 Qf6 38.Bxg6 fxg6 39.Rd1 Nd3+ winning. <37....Nf4+!> marks the end for Petrosian as the e file is opened with drastic results. The coup de grace is: <40...Re2+> 41.Qxe2 Qxe2+ 42.Nxe2 Rxe2+ 43.Kf3 Rxc2 44.Rxc2 Bxc2 wins the B on c2. |
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| Nov-07-04 | | Swindler: <Petrosian later said he played this game at no better than First Category strength.> Reading through Russian chess books you often come into contact with these different categories: first, second and third. How do these correspond to the rating system? |
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| Feb-05-06 | | offramp: I can't imagine that this match was looked forward to with any great enthusiasm by the chess public of the day. It was never going to be fireworks-a-go-go, was it? |
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| Feb-05-06 | | Jim Bartle: True, but I'll bet a lot of games were adjourned, which always excites a lot of interest. because players got to analyze the adjourned position. And don't forget, programs weren't so powerful back then. In 1963 they were probably using Fritz 1.5 on an Apple II. (Well, Botvinnik probably had a mainframe working somewhere.) |
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Feb-05-06
 | | plang: No one was using compuers bak then.
That didn't start until the last ten years. |
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| Feb-05-06 | | Jim Bartle: Exactly, my point.
In the previous post I meant to say all chessplayers got to analyze the adjourned position, not just the two players in the game. |
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| Apr-01-06 | | lentil: <swindler> there was another category: "candidate master", which i GUESS should be about "high expert", so using this as an anchor, i further guess that first category is about "A-class", etc. |
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| Oct-17-06 | | orio24: < Swindler: <Petrosian later said he played this game at no better than First Category strength.> Reading through Russian chess books you often come into contact with these different categories: first, second and third. How do these correspond to the rating system?> There use to be so called "performance categories" before the rating system, and before national ratings came into play. It was that way in Slovakia, where I come from, and I guess it was similar in Soviet Union. There were 5 numbered perfomance categories, 5th was the lowest, and 1st the highest. That was followed by master of sport candidante perf category (shortly master candidate), and also master of sport perf category (shortly master), I guess. Those were all national categories.
Only after those followed the international titles (international master, international grandmaster).
If I remember correctly the 1st perf category corresponded to 1900 and master candidate to 2100. |
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| Oct-17-06 | | RookFile: You know, the funny thing about this game is, I do think that if you showed this to some people, and didn't identify the players, they might think that white was an expert or something. (2000) |
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| Oct-19-06 | | slomarko: Petrosian played like crap |
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Nov-08-06
 | | kevin86: It seems that in most every match in which a new champion is crowned,that the champ-to be, is clobbered in the first game. |
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| Mar-21-08 | | Knight13: White should've just played 13. Bd3 and castle. f3 creates weaknes on e3. |
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| Aug-25-08 | | Artemi: Yes a weakness is created on e3 by Petrosian himself! Of all people! |
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Nov-07-08
 | | Honza Cervenka: I guess that Petrosian played 13.f3 with intention to prepare e3-e4 but he missed that this plan can be thwarted by advance of black h-Pawn. |
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Nov-07-08
| | Honza Cervenka: 30.g4 was awful mistake. Iron Tigran was from a bit less solid material that day. |
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May-04-11
 | | lost in space: This was lost by Petrosjan and not won by Botwinnik |
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Nov-13-12
 | | Cemoblanca: So many fine moves in a single game! Wow! For example: 17...Re7! 22...Nh5! 23...Qd6! 26...Re6! 28...g5! 29...Bg6! (Safety first: A typical Vartanovich move!) ;) 30.g4?(?) The beginning of the disaster! 31...Nf4! Prolly overlooked by Botvinnik! 32.Qh2? 2 steps to the left would be the better option (32.Qd2) for example: 32...Nxh3 33.Kg2! (there was nothing better: 33.Kf1? g4! 24.fxg4 Rf6+!, etc.) 33...g4! 34.fxg4 (& again: There was nothing better) 34...Ng5! 35.Kg1! Ne4! 36.Rf1 Rh6! 37.Bf3! (The only move) 37...Rh3! 38.Qg2 (The best, but however, it's not enough & white is lost soon). 32...c5! (if 33.dxc5 then d4! with a deadly passed pawn on the e-file soon!) 34.b5! (with the idea Rb8!) 37...Nf4+! The same game! ;) 40...Re2+! The easiest way! 41.Nxe2 Qxe2+ 42.Qxe2 Rxe2+ 43.Kg3 Rxc2!, etc. |
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Nov-23-12
 | | perfidious: <ray keene> noted long ago that even after the stronger 11.Nf3 as played in Dreev vs Kulaots, 2006 amongst many games since, Black has no problems whatever after 11....Bf5, as he has got himself a type of QGD Exchange with his light-squared bishop favourably developed. |
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| Apr-21-13 | | Expendable Asset: <RookFile: You know, the funny thing about this game is, I do think that if you showed this to some people, and didn't identify the players, they might think that white was an expert or something. (2000)> If you asked me, I would've probably said that White was ~1800 and Black ~2300--there just isn't much in this game to show either player's real strengths. |
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| Apr-22-13 | | Petrosianic: <Expendable Asset>: <If you asked me, I would've probably said that White was ~1800 and Black ~2300--there just isn't much in this game to show either player's real strengths.> Nothing new there. Petrosian said himself that he played the game at about First Category level. Opening night jitters, most likely, because when he camer under pressure in Game 2, he hung in tough and didn't collapse. |
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