Tigran Petrosian vs Anatoly Karpov (1971)

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Tigran Petrosian vs Anatoly Karpov
Moscow (1971), Moscow URS, rd 10, Dec-07
Queen's Indian Defense: Opocensky Variation (E17) · 1/2-1/2

ANALYSIS [x]

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Aug-05-04		white pawn: Draw already? Why?

Aug-05-04		sneaky pete: <white pawn> <Why?> Because these are the chessical ancestors of Kramnik and Leko. These guys of course couldn't help not reaching 21st century level of play, but for 1971 it's not so bad. Watch out for the match between the Young Giants K&L to see this position drawn in 6 or 7 moves.

Aug-05-04		Zenchess: Petrosian and Andersson were the forerunners of the 1/2-1/2,15 crowd that dominates the field today. I feel like taking a draw in a position like this with plenty of play left in the position cheats yourself out of a chance to improve your chess skills. I feel like Petrosian's failure against Korchnoi in Candidates matches was a direct result of this repeated willingness to take draws this early in positions like this. This meant we was frequently worn down by move 35-40, which Korchnoi was used to playing. For instance in 1980, Petrosian kept getting the better game against Korchnoi but then would wear down between move 35-50 and have to concede a draw.

Aug-05-04		acirce: Even in the so-slandered Linares -04 tournament, NO draw was as short as this. Zero. That was out of 42 games.

Aug-05-04		Zenchess: Well, 79% of the games in Linares and Dortmund were draws. And ALL the slow games in Kramnik's section were drawn. To Petrosian's credit if he were around today, he'd be tearing things up with +2 to +4 and we'd be writing about how good he was.

Aug-05-04		acirce: Yes, but contrary to myth, few of those draws were sub-20 ones like this. Most were interesting fighting draws. (Not to say that a draw under 20 moves can't be interesting, it can.)

Aug-06-04		Zenchess: I looked at the games in Linares; of 42 games in that tournament, 14 were draws under 25 moves or less. Of those 14, 7 were by Kramnik. I looked at the final position in each of these draws; in all but one of them, Kramnik could have played on: Round 1 vs. Vallejo Pons: Playable; Kramnik could have tried the pawn break 18...f5!? Round 2 vs. Shirov: Kramnik may very well have tossed away a point here. With 22. Nc6!, White has all sorts of compensation for the e-pawn Black is about to take. His pieces are much more active than Black's counterparts. Knowing how Shirov hates defending, he may have worn down here. Round 3 vs. Rajabov: Kramnik may have had an isolated double, but if anyone was better in this position, it was him. With 24...Qd3!?, Black temporarily sacrifices his c4-pawn to gain Rook penetration to b3; he will soon regain the pawn with more active play. Round 4 vs. Leko: This is the one game where he was right to take the draw; Leko was about to create a central pawn roller. Had Kramnik played d4 himself, Leko captures twice on d4 and plays...d5, creating a dangerous passer. Round 8 vs. Vallejo Pons: Playable; 21. Bd3 was possible to target the e5 pawn. Round 10 vs. Topalov: Kramnik came under some pressure against his K; however, ...Rb8 preparing ...a6, ...b5, and ...c4 counterplay was possible. Round 12 vs. Kasparov: Playable; Kramnik had play against the isolated c6 pawn. Even Kasparov screws up the ending sometimes; once, he lost a drawn R+4 vs. R+3 ending. You can never beat the World #1 unless you set out to do so. In these games, Kramnik showed a clear lack of fighting spirit here. I'm not saying he was better in these positions; however, there was plenty of reason to play on. So not all the GM's in Linares showed a lack of fighting spirit; however, Kramnik did. If you want to study someone with fighting spirit, only a little over 10% of Korchnoi's games were quick draws. Only 5% of Bobby Fischer's games were quick draws. By contrast, almost one third of Petrosian's games are draws of 25 moves or less.

Aug-06-04		acirce: <I looked at the games in Linares; of 42 games in that tournament, 14 were draws under 25 moves or less.> Good research! Meaning most were not, by a big margin. <Kramnik showed a clear lack of fighting spirit here.> He admitted as much after the tournament, saying there would have been more of that kind if he had been better prepared. As it was he repeatedly felt he didn't get enough out of the opening. But - as it turned out, he won the tournament, so it was obviously a successful strategy.

Dec-28-04		Jaymthegenius: Aha! here it is! but of course I had to use a search! This game turned out fully how I expected it to! An exiting hypermodern confrontation! But I prefer the Gruenfeld to the queens indian, but that's me. Nonetheless. Petrosian is an excellent dragoneer, and Karpov, who is the St. George of chess, has MANY anti-dragon weapons at his disposal! So even I would be afraid to play the dragon against him! (that is why I would use my secondary sicilian 1.e4,c5 2.Nf3,d6 3.d4,Nxd4 4.e5,Nf3 against him (learned from La Bourdonais) (and still loose VERY BADLY!)

Dec-06-07		xeroxmachine: <Karpov, who is the St. George of chess, has MANY anti-dragon weapons at his disposal! So <even I> would be afraid to play the dragon against him! >Thats the spirt of a true Bush lover!

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