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An ethnic Armenian, Tigran Petrosian was born in the village Mulki of
Aragatsotn region, Armenia, and lived during his childhood in the city
of Tbilisi, Georgia, USSR. Most of his life he lived in the Russian
capital, Moscow. He learned the game of chess at the age of eight. A
significant step for Petrosian was moving to Moscow in 1949, and he
began to play and win many tournaments there. He won the 1951 tournament
in Moscow, and began to show steady progress.
His results in the triennial Candidates Tournament, held to determine
the challenger to the world champion, showed a steady improvement: fifth
at Zürich in 1953, equal third at Amsterdam in 1956, third in Yugoslavia
in 1959, and first at Curaçao in 1962. In 1963 he defeated Mikhail
Botvinnik 12.5–9.5 to become world chess champion. His patient,
defensive style frustrated Botvinnik, who only needed to make one risky
move for Petrosian to punish him. Petrosian is the only player to go
through the Interzonal and the Candidates process undefeated on the way
to the world championship match.
Petrosian defended his title in 1966, defeating Boris Spassky 12.5–11.5,
the first World Champion to win a title match while champion since
Alekhine beat Bogoljubov in 1934. In 1968, he was granted an M.Phil.
from Yerevan University for his thesis, "Chess Logic". In 1969 Spassky
got his revenge, winning by 12.5–10.5 and taking the title.
Tigran Petrosian was the only player to win a game against
Bobby Fischer during the latter's 1971
Candidates matches, finally bringing an end to Fischer's amazing streak
of twenty consecutive wins (seven to finish the 1970 Palma de Mallorca
Interzonal, six against Taimanov, six against Larsen, and the first game
in their match).
Some of his late successes included victory in the 1979 Paul Keres
Memorial tournament in Tallinn (12/16 without a loss, ahead of Tal,
Bronstein and others), shared first place (with Portisch and Huebner) in
the Rio de Janeiro Interzonal the same year, and 2nd place in Tilburg in
1981, half a point behind the winner Beliavsky. It was here that he
played his last famous victory, a miraculous escape vs. the young Garry
Kasparov [1]. Petrosian died of cancer in 1984.
Tigran Petrosian has two major opening systems named after him: the
Petrosian variation of the King's Indian Defence (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3.
Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. d5) and the Petrosian system in
the Queen's Indian Defense (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3). A
variation of the Caro-Kann defense also bears his name, along with
former world champion Vassily Smyslov; the Petrosian–Smyslov variation
(1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7).
Tigran Petrosian is most famous for being one of the best players
pioneering the theory of prophylaxis, years after Aron Nimzowitsch. His
style of play was often highly strategical, notable for anticipating
opponent's possible attacks and he based many of his games on avoidance
of error, content with accumulating small advantages. His games are now
widely used for instruction in chess schools around the world. He was
also the chief editor of the chess magazine, "Shakhmatnaya Moskva" from
1963–66.
Play Through Over 1900 Tigran_Petrosian Games