Tigran Petrosian

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. He was born Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian in June 17 1929 and of Soviet Armenian parents. He had his own nickname in the chess world, the Iron Tigran; this was because once you sat with him on a chess table, you had to think hard and smart if you wanted to penetrate his defensive plays.

In his humble begins as a boy, he was an avid reader and loved studying like his siblings Hmayak and Vartoosh. He was introduced to chess at the age of eight though his father never saw any future in the game or it ever being a career his son could successfully pursue. So naturally he discouraged him from day one. Though his family was a simple one, they were happy together up until the World War II when he lost both his parents to the war.

Life then became tragic for him as he had to sweep streets in order to make enough money to eat. He also started developing a hearing problem which was to affect him for the rest of his life. However, despite this harsh progression of his early life, he refused to give up on two things he loved the most; reading books and playing chess.

With the little money he managed to save from his sweeping job, Tigran Petrosian bought himself a book on chess, Chess Praxis, which had been published by a grandmaster from Denmark, Aron Nimzowitsch. There was so much to learn from this book that even he himself admitted in his later years. His thirst to read grew and it saw him buy a second book The Art of Sacrifice in Chess written by a chess veteran turned author Rudolf Spielmann. These two men were highly vocal in training him as a young boy alongside watching another great chess player, Jose Raul Capablanca.

At twelve years of age, the upcoming top chess player joined the Tiflis Palace for Pioneers. He got this chance from a supportive Archil Ebralidze who was a great supporter of players like Jose Raul Capablanca. He enjoyed how such players used a scientific approach to playing chess which created a clearer tactic line. This is what this young chess player had to learn from and he worked had to try and create such concrete positional openings to defeat his opponent; all the while not forgetting to put his defensive nature in the game as well.

One of the great defensive tactics Tigran Petrosian loved to use is the Caro-Kann defense tactic. This was one of the tricks in his sleeves that he used to defeat a Soviet Champion Salo Flohr who was then visiting the Palace of Pioneers. It was not long before the Iron Chess Player started conquering in tournaments. In 1946, he got his first recognition as Candidate Master after winning in a Candidate’s Chess Tournament. That same year he play Paul Keres, a renown Grandmaster, in the Georgian Chess Championship. He then travelled to Yerevan where he proceeded to play at the Armenian Chess Championship and won immensely. Next was the USSR Junior Chess Championship which he also took first place. From Candidate Master, he graduated to the full title of Master after making an appearance in the 1947 held USSR Chess Championship. He was not able to make it to the finals in the tournament; nevertheless he had already made a name for himself as a master.

He went back to the drawing line, train more on his skills and improve where he failed. As usual, he started reading another chess book, this time around written by the Grandmaster Nimzowitsch dubbed My System. He then knew that his performance improvement depended on playing stronger fields, which then prompted him to move to Moscow.

His choice of moving paid off when he showed remarkable improvement at the Soviet Tournaments held around 1949. He took second place when playing at the Soviet championship in 1951 which landed him the prestigious title of International Master. This is the very tournament where he faced the World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik.

Like most chess champions in their career, he also started getting a few hitches on his plays. In the play with Botvinnik, he had a slow start which almost saw him lose but was quick to defend through adjournments until he managed a draw. This very play earned him a spot in the Interzonal chess tournaments where he finally got his accomplished title as Grandmaster of chess. The Interzonal Stockholm tournament saw him qualify further for the Candidates Tournaments which saw him become fifth overall. This was in the year 1953.

However after experts analyzed his plays over the years, they realized a tendency to remaining stagnant at the same spot and not moving to greater wins. Whenever he met a weak opponent, Tigran Petrosian would make sure they score a draw so he can retain his title as the grandmaster. He saw no need to improve his game plays so he could advance. This is the iconic point where the nickname Iron Tigran was coined; he was an expert in defensive plays and was not that easy to break.

His defensive play came all out when playing the USSR Tournament of 1955. Even though he won overall in the 19 games played, he only won in 4 of them and maintained a draw in the rest. Though he saved his skin from defeat, his public audience started to get bored by his games. The stagnant nature of his play became all too predictable and was even ridiculed in print media.

This is when he decided to break from his comfort zone and play real chess. In the 1957 USSR Chess Championship, he managed to gain 7 wins and 4 losses in the 21 games played. He only drew 10 of them this time around. The Soviet chess faculty began to appreciate him once more and this was the motivation he needed that fueled him to win the USSR Championship of 1959.

Tigran Petrosian will go down in history as the chess player who had a solid defense to his game that few could break.