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Tigran V Petrosian vs Boris Spassky
"Boris Bad and Off" (game of the day Oct-28-2008)
Petrosian - Spassky World Championship Match (1966), Moscow URS, rd 10, May-02
King's Indian Defense: Fianchetto. Panno Variation Blockade Line (E63)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 13 OF 13 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jul-14-17  Howard: This game, if I remember correctly, made Soltis' book of the 100 best games of the 20th century.
Jul-14-17  Petrosianic: Fine's quote is from his (poorly analyzed) book on the Fischer-Petrosian match. It contains NO qualifier about "successfully defended his title".
Jul-14-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  maxi: Now you have put me in a quandary, Petrosianic. I seem to recall I used a cut-and-paste for the quote, but this was more than three years ago and I am not sure of that or where I got it from. I don't have the book. Do you have access to it yourself? I am going to keep looking anyway. Perhaps what I copied was the quote with some editing done to it. Oops.
Jul-14-17  morfishine: I think Petrosian did this not once, but twice to Spassky

*****

Jul-15-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <morf>, perhaps you are thinking of the finish of Petrosian vs Simagin, 1956.
Jul-15-17  morfishine: Thanks <perfidious> you are correct, I much appreciate the correction, I knew Petrosian pulled this type of combo off more than once

*****

Sep-13-17  Whitehat1963: Great high-level look at the Opening of the Day, in an immortal championship game no less!
Oct-11-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  tpstar: <Upon further review, it still appears to be magnificent. And to pull this off in a world championship match is even more remarkable.>

I wonder where this combination would rank among all WC match games.

<That sole loss(!) was on time due to a faulty clock. Petrosian smashed it with his hands after he lost.>

Now that would have been something to see.

Oct-11-17  Howard: According to CL&R, Petrosian actually threw the clock across the room, and it was "witnessed by millions on Yugoslavian television".

Petrosian, in other words, didn't necessarily smash up the clock.

Dec-05-17  Jambow: Because of his positional motif it is easy to forget how brutally tactical Petrosian could be when the position demanded it.
Oct-11-18  RookFile: Spassky said that first of all, Petrosian was a stupendous tactician.
Dec-15-18  MrJafari: An uninteresting game as I expect...I value the attractiveness of moves more than the result in chess...
Feb-27-19  newzild: A magical finish to a world championship game!
Aug-16-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  profK: Great name for the game. I wonder if these days folk actually remember Boris, Natasha, Rocket J Squirrel, and Bullwinkle moose?
Feb-28-20  asiduodiego: Beautiful game by Petrosian. Punishing the erratic strategic choice by Spassky.

What I mean by this?. The theme of the game, and the opening was "a battle for the Queenside", in which his Knight on a5 was needed. But Spassky senses a weakness in the Kingside, so he goes full speed ahead to create a Kingside attack, which is beautifully refuted by Tigran with two exchange sacrifices!. In the end, the minor pieces of White swarm back, and it turned out the Black King was way more exposed than the White King. The final combination caps a beautiful counter-attack.

Feb-28-20  SChesshevsky: Am a big believer in that chess games are much more lost than won. This might be an exception though. Petrosian seems to have seen an awful lot this day. Especially when considering that the actual play on the board is thought up maybe ten or so moves give or take prior.

Might not have called this game "Boris Bad and Off" but more "Petrosi-On!"

Apr-28-20  joddon: best last move everrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! no question about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jun-08-20  Jambow: I have a penchant for exchange sacrificing my rooks especially if sacking a rook activates the second as was the case in this fine example. That Petrosian isolated Spassky's knight for the duration is also very instructive. To finish with the queen sac deflection for the royal fork is the cherry on top.

Had my dear mother been given pitocin two days prior maybe I could have seen Petrosian first hand. As it is May the 4th be with you and happy Cuatro de Mayo...

Aug-20-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Honza Cervenka: Black should have played Rxf4 in the 20th or 21st move, with idea to answer RxR with Qg5+.
Nov-08-20  Luckychess: The last move of Tigran is like Mozart Music
Oct-11-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Beautiful game. I think one of the key takeaway points is that you can try and encourage a vacuum of weaknesses around the opponent's king and then pounce later to squares around there with your pieces :)
Feb-05-22  Zugged: Great game by Petrosian. Great example of relative value of pieces given the nature of the position.
Dec-08-22  N.O.F. NAJDORF: 25...Kf8 26. Qh8+ Ke7 27. Qxh7+ Ke8 28. Qh5+ Ke7 29. Qg5+ Rf6 30. Ne4 Qf8 31. Nf5+ Kd8 32. Nxf6 Kc7 33. Ne4 bxc4 34. Qf4 Rd8 35. Nxc5 cxb3 36. axb3 Ra8 37. Qa4 dxc5 38. Qxa5+ Kb7 39. d6 Qd8 40. Bd5+ Ka7 41. Qxc5+ Kb8 42. Qb4+

and mate in two!

Dec-08-22  N.O.F. NAJDORF: 27...Rf8 28. Qg2+ Kh8 29. Nxf7+ Rxf7 30. Bxf7 Qd8 31. Qb2+

and mate in two!

Jan-29-23  N.O.F. NAJDORF: 26...Nb7 27. Nf5 Qf8 28. Qf6 h5 29. Ng5 Nd8 30. Qg6+ Kh8 31. Bxf7 and mates
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