1. Tigran Vardani Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969.
52 Facts About Tigran Petrosian
1. 2.
Tigran Petrosian was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, which emphasized safety above all else.
3.
Tigran Petrosian won the World Championship in 1963, successfully defended it in 1966, and lost it to Spassky in 1969.
4.
Tigran Petrosian won the Soviet Championship four times.
5.
Tigran Petrosian was born to Armenian parents on 17 June 1929, in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR.
6.
Tigran Petrosian learned to play chess at the age of 8, though his illiterate father Vartan encouraged him to continue studying, as he thought chess was unlikely to bring his son any success as a career.
7.
Tigran Petrosian was orphaned during World War II and was forced to sweep streets to earn a living.
8.
Tigran Petrosian gave me bread to eat when I was sick and hungry.
9.
Tigran Petrosian used his rations to buy Chess Praxis by Danish grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch, the book which Tigran Petrosian later stated had the greatest influence on him as a chess player.
10.
Tigran Petrosian purchased The Art of Sacrifice in Chess by Rudolf Spielmann.
11.
The other player to have had an early effect on Tigran Petrosian's chess was Jose Raul Capablanca.
12.
Tigran Petrosian earned the title of Master during the 1947 USSR Chess Championship, though he failed to qualify for the finals.
13.
Tigran Petrosian set about improving his game by studying Nimzowitsch's My System and by moving to Moscow to seek greater competition.
14.
Tigran Petrosian placed second in the 1951 Soviet Championship, thereby earning the title of international master.
15.
Tigran Petrosian earned the title of Grandmaster by coming in second in the Stockholm tournament, and qualified for the 1953 Candidates Tournament.
16.
Tigran Petrosian placed fifth in the 1953 Candidates Tournament, a result which marked the beginning of a stagnant period in his career.
17.
Tigran Petrosian seemed content drawing against weaker players and maintaining his title of Grandmaster rather than improving his chess or making an attempt at becoming World Champion.
18.
Tigran Petrosian went on to win his first USSR Championship in 1959, and later that year in the Candidates Tournament he defeated Paul Keres with a display of his often-overlooked tactical abilities.
19.
Tigran Petrosian was awarded the title of Master of Sport of the USSR in 1960, and won a second Soviet title in 1961.
20.
Tigran Petrosian's excellent playing continued through 1962 when he qualified for the Candidates Tournament for what would be his first World Championship match.
21.
Tigran Petrosian believed that in such a long match, physical fitness and endurance could become a factor in the later games.
22.
Tigran Petrosian won the match against Botvinnik with a final score of 5 to 2 with 15 draws, securing the title of World Champion.
23.
Tigran Petrosian studied for a degree of Master of Philosophical Science at Yerevan State University; his thesis, dated 1968, was titled "Chess Logic, Some Problems of the Logic of Chess Thought".
24.
In 1966, three years after Tigran Petrosian had earned the title of World Chess Champion, he was challenged by Boris Spassky.
25.
Tigran Petrosian defended his title by winning rather than drawing the match, a feat that had not been accomplished since Alexander Alekhine defeated Efim Bogoljubov in the 1934 World Championship.
26.
Tigran Petrosian lost the match, and was fired from his position as editor of Russia's largest chess magazine, 64.
27.
Tigran Petrosian's detractors condemned his reluctance to attack, with some attributing this to a lack of courage.
28.
At this point Botvinnik spoke on his behalf, stating that Tigran Petrosian only attacked when he felt secure, and his greatest strength was in defence.
29.
Tigran Petrosian shared first place in the Rio de Janeiro Interzonal the same year, and won second place in Tilburg in 1981, half a point behind the winner Alexander Beliavsky.
30.
In 1952, Tigran Petrosian married Rona Yakovlevna, a Russian Jew born in Kiev, Ukraine.
31.
Tigran Petrosian is buried at the Jewish section of the Vostryakovsky cemetery in Moscow.
32.
Tigran Petrosian's hobbies included football, backgammon, cross-country skiing, table tennis, and gardening.
33.
Tigran Petrosian died in Moscow of stomach cancer on 13 August 1984, and is buried in the Moscow Armenian Cemetery.
34.
Tigran Petrosian was partially deaf and wore a hearing aid during his matches, which sometimes led to strange situations.
35.
Tigran Petrosian did not even respond to the offer, later winning the game.
36.
At the time of his death, Tigran Petrosian was working on a set of chess-related lectures and articles to be compiled in a book.
37.
On 7 July 2006, a monument honouring Tigran Petrosian was opened in the Davtashen district of Yerevan, in the street named after Tigran Petrosian.
38.
Tigran Petrosian was honoured on the third banknote series of the Armenian dram, with his image on the 2,000 dram banknote.
39.
Tigran Petrosian was not selected for the Soviet Olympiad team until 1958; though he had already been a Candidate twice by that time.
40.
Tigran Petrosian made the Soviet team for the first eight European Team Championships.
41.
Tigran Petrosian won eight team gold medals, and four board gold medals.
42.
Tigran Petrosian was a conservative, cautious, and highly defensive chess player who was strongly influenced by Aron Nimzowitsch's idea of prophylaxis.
43.
Tigran Petrosian made more effort to prevent his opponent's offensive capabilities than he did to make use of his own, and very rarely went on the offensive unless he felt his position was completely secure.
44.
Tigran Petrosian usually won by playing consistently until an overly aggressive opponent made a mistake, securing victory by capitalizing upon this mistake without revealing any weaknesses of his own.
45.
Tigran Petrosian was undefeated at the 1952 and 1955 Interzonals, and in 1962 he did not lose a single tournament game.
46.
Tigran Petrosian preferred to play openings that did not commit his pieces to any particular plan.
47.
Tigran Petrosian had a strong affinity for knights rather than bishops, a characteristic that is often attributed to the influence of Aron Nimzowitsch.
48.
Tigran Petrosian was known for his use of the "positional exchange sacrifice", where one side sacrifices a rook for the opponent's bishop or knight.
49.
Tigran Petrosian realized he was in a difficult position because of the passive placement of his pieces, relegated to defensive roles.
50.
Tigran Petrosian was an expert against the King's Indian Defence, and he often played what is known as the Tigran Petrosian System: 1.
51.
Two of Black's responses to the Tigran Petrosian Variation were developed by grandmasters Paul Keres and Leonid Stein.
52.
Today the Tigran Petrosian Variation is still considered the most pressing variation, with the greatest score in Master games.