Year of the Tigran
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It is fitting that in the Year of the Tiger, which started earlier this month, according to the oriental astrological calendar, the publishers Elk and Ruby have completed their magnum opus two volume epic on the career of Tigran ( “ The Tiger” ) Petrosian.
Petrosian Year by Year: Volume II (1963-1984) is that eagerly awaited second volume on the life and games of the Armenian world champion, who accomplished the singular feat of becoming the first incumbent world champion to defend his title since Alexander Alekhine defeated Efim Bogoljubov in 1934. The chess world had to wait thirty two years before a regnant champion could pull off the coup of retaining the title against the challenger. Petrosian did this by narrowly defeating Boris Spassky in their bitterly contested match at Moscow in 1966.
International Master Tibor Karolyi and FIDÉ Master Tigran Gyozalyan have produced a comprehensive two-volume treatise on the life and games of Tigran Petrosian, who was crowned world champion in 1963 and remained so until 1969, when he succumbed to the renewed onslaught of Boris Spassky.
Volume II invites the reader to follow the trajectory, from Tigran ’ s victory in the 1963 world title match against Mikhail Botvinnik, until his premature passing through illness in 1984.
Petrosian ’ s tenure was controversial from the start, indeed even before the start of his challenge to Botvinnik. Petrosian qualified from the 1962 Candidates tournament at Curaçao to face Botvinnik, but was immediately accused of cheating by the mercurial Bobby Fischer, who alleged that the Soviet contingent had conspired against him. To my mind, they only prejudiced Fischer ’ s prospects by defeating him six times, against five wins for Fischer.
Even when Petrosian had firmly established himself as the best player in the world, through beating Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963 and then Boris Spassky in 1966, voices were still raised regarding Petrosian as very much a caretaker champion, while Fischer and Spassky remained the democratic choice. When the crunches came, Petrosian had overcome Spassky and in the Havana Olympiad later in 1966, Petrosian won the individual gold medal, ahead of Fischer. Chess is not a democracy and you don ’ t win the world championship by plebiscite or popular vote.
As the authoritative New in Chess review points out, volume two continues by reporting on Petrosian ’ s subsequent candidate ’ s matches against Bobby Fischer, Victor Korchnoi and other world-class players of the era. “ It covers all his tournaments and matches of the second half of his career, ending with his final games in 1983. An added bonus is the inclusion of rare photos taken from private collections in Georgia and Armenia, many of which have never before been published in the West.”
I must declare an interest, since I play a part in volume 2. In the European Team championship at Bath in 1973, I faced Petrosian in the USSR v England match. At a crucial moment, with seconds left on his clock before time forfeit, Petrosian forgot to press his clock and would have lost on time, had I not pressed his clock for him. I went on to lose the game, but morally I felt it would have been impossible to profit from such a Lapsus Manu, especially against a great player who had been a personal inspiration to me.
Mirabile dictu the same scenario arose again later the same year, when, in the British Championship at Eastbourne, my opponent, the perennial Welsh champion Howard Williams, also failed to press his clock, after making his move. Once more, I pressed his clock for him, and went on to lose… again.
Then, mirabilissime dictu , ( if such a construction exists), playing against Michael Basman (who had just tied for the British Championship, in the selfsame event where I had lost to Williams) my opponent failed to press his clock… for the third time.
On this occasion, in contrast, I did nothing and waited for my opponent to notice his error. Not only did I win that game, I won the Woolacombe tournament, the strongest ten player all-play-all (apart from the regular Hastings tournament) to have been contested in England for several decades.
I had come to the conclusion, after the two disasters, that voluntarily pressing my opponents ’ clocks, although morally praiseworthy, converted the game, however imperceptibly, from struggle against i nto cooperation with my chessboard rivals.
So, two painful losses, but lesson learnt and the reward was victory for me in the most significant tournament to have been held in England for many years, one which contained no fewer than six past, present and future champions from the British Isles.
To debate the morality and sporting imperatives of my various decisions, readers are invited to expatiate in the comment sections of TheArticle ’ s Ratings section.
Links to the following great games by Petrosian:
Petrosian v Botvinnik 1963 game 5
Petrosian v Spassky 1966 game 10
Plus the time trouble games:
Raymond Keene’s latest book “Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus”, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from Blackwell’s .
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