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After Alekhine and Tal, my next bout of hero worship (in 1975) was aimed at Tigran Petrosian. This guy's games astounded me, and my copy of the excellent "Tigran Petrosian, his life and games" by Vasiliev virtually fell apart from overuse! These games had a profound effect on my style, though trying to play like Petrosian and actually playing like him are two very different animals.

T Petrosian -- M Taimanov
Moscow 1955
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 Bb4 7.0-0 0-0 8.Qc2 Bd6?! [This is hard to understand. Better moves were 8...dxc4 9.Bxc4 Bd6 with the idea of ...e6-e5, or 8...Qe7.] 9.b3! dxc4 [White also gets an edge after 9...e5 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Nb5.] 10.bxc4 e5 11.Bb2 Re8 12.Ne4! [A strong move that forces Black to create a kingside weakness.] 12...Nxe4 13.Bxe4 h6? [A very poor move. Black had to try 13...g6.] 14.Rad1 exd4 15.Bh7+!

[A wonderful move that forces the Black King onto the a1-h8 diagonal, eventually setting up some important tactical themes. The immediate 15.Rxd4 would have been met by 15...Nf6.] 15...Kh8 16.Rxd4 Bc5 [Now 16...Nf6 would have been refuted by 17.c5 Nxh7 18.Rxd6 with the double threat of Rxd8 and Rxh6. This shows why White chased the King to h8.] 17.Rf4 Qe7 18.Re4! [A rare tripling on the b1-h7 diagonal!] 18...Qf8 19.Rh4! [Crushing. Black must weaken all his light squares by ...f7-f6 (Rxh6 can't be allowed) since 19...Nf6 fails to 20.Rxh6! gxh6 21.Bxf6+.] 19...f6 20.Bg6 Re7 21.Rh5! [Making room for the Knight on h4.] 21...Bd6 22.Rd1 Be5 23.Ba3 c5 24.Nh4!, 1-0. The domination of the light-squares is very pleasing to the eye. The threat of 25.Be4 (in some lines 25.Bh7 also does the job) followed by 26.Ng6+ is more than enough to make Black turn over his King.

Petrosian's games taught me to patiently maneuver, and to anticipate my opponent's plans. His games also featured many cases of positional Exchange sacrifices, and I emulated him on many occasions thanks to the lessons received.

One of the most striking examples of a Petrosian Exchange sacrifice occurred in the game Reshevsky-Petrosian, Zurich 1953:

White seems to stand better, thanks to his powerful central pawns which threaten to advance with deadly effect after Bf3 followed by d4-d5. Petrosian turned the game around with the wonderful 25...Re6!! when 26.a4 Ne7 27.Bxe6 fxe6 28.Qf1 Nd5 left White scrambling for a draw.

My only meeting with Petrosian came about as a result of my game with Fedorowicz in Lone Pine, 1976. I managed to beat Fed in this encounter, and afterward I was walking around when Petrosian came up to me and insisted that I was in trouble in the following position:

White to move.

With two pawns for the Exchange, it seems as if Black is doing very well. However, I had decided otherwise and had deliberately gone into this position, thinking that it offered me excellent winning prospects. The game went: 34.Ke3 d5 35.Kd4 Kf7 36.Re3 a4 37.Re1 a3 38.Kc5 a2 39.Ra1 Ke6 40.Kxb4 and White scored the full point.

However, I can certainly understand Petrosian's view! In fact, looking at it now, my first impression is that Black must have a good game. Anyway, the next thing I knew we had found a private corner and were locked in analytical battle over Black's fate. Eventually he had to agree that it wasn't as simple as he had originally supposed. Making a clucking sound, he walked away shaking his head in disbelief. Of course, his understanding of chess dwarfed mine (and just about everyone else's!), so watching him take the position apart was an incredible treat.

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