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Boris Spassky vs Tigran Petrosian
"We Are the Champions" (game of the day May-03-2007)
Petrosian - Spassky World Championship Match (1966), Moscow URS, rd 7, Apr-25
Torre Attack: Classical Defense (A46)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 7 OF 7 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jun-14-14  andrewjsacks: This game is a too-little-known masterpiece.
Jun-15-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Boris and Vartasha. Terrific struggle.
Jun-15-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <andrewjsacks: This game is a too-little-known masterpiece.>

It does have six pages of densely-packed, single-spaced kibitzing.

Jun-15-14  ughaibu: It also won an Informator best game prize.
Sep-24-15  waustad: This reminds me of the delightful afternoon I spent going through Petrosian's exchange sacs on this database.
Mar-04-16  Joker2048: What a great attack with pawns...
Beautiful
Sep-27-16  Aunt Jemima: What an amazing sequence of moves as this game wraps up. It's like watching Paul Morphy with the attack. 41 Ng4 must have been so exhilarating and satisfying to play.

After 35...g3 you can tell it's all over. I find myself in white's shoes here all the time when playing blitz against stronger opponents. I know a losing position when I see one as I have all too much experience with them!

Mar-17-17  clement41: Another insane Petrosian pawn steamroll and typical exchange sac!
Dec-05-17  Jambow: <Petrosian, stereotyped as positional player extraordinaire, comes up with some brilliant tactics, interwoven on this canvas of what was one of his finest games.>

Indeed his positional skills are likely estimated correctly but his tactical prowess is probably not.

Jun-25-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  Penguincw: Video analysis of this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc9....
Aug-08-18  tigreton: The correct move order is 13. Bg3 g5 14. b4, as exposed in Python Strategy, game 75.
Nov-18-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  sakredkow: I've never come across this wonderful game before! Nevertheless I probably wouldn't have kibbitzed it except I think <sorokahdeen's> tribute above is so warm and so deep - it shows how some people can express their love for chess on a level that most of the rest of us can't. I hope some players will enjoy discovering it. It reminds me of Spassky's own tribute to Paul Keres, which I always found to be very beautiful.
Dec-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: There is a small piece of rapid karma in this game, with Black g+h pawns.

They become doubled early on:


click for larger view

Then the manage to undouble themselves:


click for larger view

But right at the end they are doubled up again:


click for larger view

Dec-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <In Petrosian's hands, the Torre attack became a platform for demonstrating the strengths of Nizowitzchean principles including overprotection of the advanced pawn on e5 and the use of knight outposts usually after creating a "hole" on d4. Petrosian's play against it here involved his first negating the positional advantages of the formation as an attacking platform by driving back white's dark-squared bishop; forcing open the g-file by threatening to trap it; castling long to rob white of any chance for the Torre attack's well-known attacking themes, and then using prophylaxis against Spassky's opening lines against his king by playing his pawns to b6 and a6.

All of these things are straightforward applications of things that can be seen in Nimzowitsch's theories and once the preventive measures are in place and black has no cause to fear for his king, black goes over to the attack in a way that Nimzowitch would have understood perfectly; sacrificing the exchange to create a pawn-roller which, supported by black's queen, centralized knight, and the latent threats generated by his light-squared bishop, became a juggarnaut that smashed Spassky's king position with the calm inevitability of a steam-roller in a way that is reminiscent of Petrosian's game against Glirorich where he won with the black pieces in a Maroczy bind sicillian.>

Well, the queens had been exchanged, but otherwise we see pretty much all of this in a game from 1907, played by a second-tier master, long before any of Nimzowitsch's books had been written.

Janowski vs Leonhardt, 1907

Dec-03-18  RookFile: Play over enough Petrosian games and you'll start thinking a knight is stronger than a rook. More than anybody, this guy was making exchange sacrifices.
Dec-20-19  Jambow: <Play over enough Petrosian games and you'll start thinking a knight is stronger than a rook. More than anybody, this guy was making exchange sacrifices.>

Indeed if one looks over Petrosian games that is what stands out as his signature move... Rooks were merely a piece no more or less than a knight or bishop in the hands of the Tiger, well perhaps less.

Jul-24-20  mikealando: Wow, nice game. Only just seen it.
Jul-24-20  Petrosianic: <mikealando> What other games have you seen?
Jul-29-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  SteinitzLives: Yes, it was a nice game and shows how Petrosian could play outside his usual square by square python-like style, and play for initiative too. Yet he stayed true to his style with the exchange sac on move 24 to keep and make the initiative last. As World Ch. games went in the 1960's, this one was pretty exciting.
Jul-29-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <....Your score: 82 (par = 72)

LTJ>

As the orgy of self-deification by that poster proceeds apace.

Oct-11-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Very systematic build up here with little counterplay for Spassky.
Oct-01-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  GrahamClayton: The inexorable advance of the black pawns reminds me of playing Space Invaders back in the day :-)
Oct-04-24  N.O.F. NAJDORF: 44. Ke2 g1=Q 45. Rxg1 Rh2+ 46. Ke1 Qf4 47. Qd4 Qc1+ 48. Qd1 Qe3+ 49. Qe2 Qxe2#
Apr-22-25  mginsburg: This game had a very large number of ! and !! moves for black, perhaps one of the most in any world championship game.
Apr-22-25  Petrosianic: Well, ! and !!'s are subjective, but this is probably the most recognizable game of either Petrosian-Spassky match. This, and Game 10 of this same match.

In the next match, Petrosian's best win is also with Black (Game 11), while Spassky's best win is... hard to say. He had several good ones, but not really a standout one. Maybe Game 5. Maybe Game 4.

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