What you'll learn
Be able to see how to avoid losing chess games - especially useful if you really hate the pain of losing!
Be able to use counterplay reduction plans and prophylaxis, overprotection and restraint to help ensure you do not lose
Be able to see the dynamic pawn structures like Hanging Pawns in action
Be able to understand more closed and semi-closed positions and their strategies
Be able to play the Torre Attack - a relative of the London system through seeing Petrosian's amazing examples
Be able to appreciate Petrosian's amazing tactical strength and almost cat-light ability to land on his feet from seemingly difficult positions
Be able to see Tigran Petrosian as an exciting attack player - especially with the emphasis of this course on Petrosian's shorter wins :)
Be able to see how one of the hardest players historically is so resourceful and tenacious in defence
Be able to play "simple chess" and welcome queens coming off if no counterplay for opponent
Be able to play the Black side of the winawer with Petrosian's pet move b6 instead of c5
Be able to appreciate a World champion who persisted and was leading Kasparov 2 to zero before health issues and Kasparov later equalised their match record
Be able to play super solid variations of the french defence which can neutralise even Mikhail Tal
Be able to understand more the Nimozvichian concept of "Restrain, Blockade, Destroy"
Be able to understand more the Nimzovichian concept of prophylaxis through mysterious rook moves, blockade, and overprotection
Be able to understand more the concept of positional security in terms of handling threats even before they are conceived by opponent akin to installing alarms
Be able to understand that Petrosian played original and interesting chess and a fair number of chess miniatures
Be able to play the Petrosian variation against the King's indian defence which is also a favourite of Vladimir Kramnik
Be able to value and appreciate the importance of solid openings even at faster time controls. Experience great french defence, caro-kann examples
Be able to appreciate that despite Petrosian's quiet style, at his heart he was a major tactician
Be able to appreciate a defensive use of tactics to create pitfalls and traps for opponents in promising positions
Be able to appreciate some similarities in style and philosophy to Nimzovich who was one of his role models
Be able to play for win like Petrosian without taking inappropriate risks
Be able to appreciate the principle of flexibility - making the move you know is essential first to keep all other options open
Be able to appreciate that often less pieces means less counterplay and less complexity
Be able to appreciate the importance of pawn breaks especially when stakes are high in World championship match games
Be able to appreciate how having fewer pawn islands can be an advantage and be used for example to reduce counterplay and get great knight placements
Be able to appreciate the importance of the "follow up moves" - in terms of plans sometimes being more important than technically more correct moves
Be able to appreciate that a central pawn island of 1 pawn when 3 pawn islands can shield a central knight from frontal pressure
Be able to appreciate more Spassky's comment after losing in the 1966 World Championship match that Petrosian was "first and foremost a stupendous tactician"
Be able to appreciate a more scientific angle on chess with less speculation to find "order and reason" on the chess board at least in a crazy world
Be able to see how to play against and with different pawn structures
Be able to neutralise tactical players more effectively by emulating Petrosian's opening choices and playing style to reduce opponent's counterplay
Be able to see the strength of play behind an eight time candidate World champion and 6 year world champion
Requirements
Know how the chess pieces move
Description
Tigran Petrosian has created the reputation of being one of the most sophisticated World Champions with specialisms in exchange sacrifice, prophylaxis, and prevention strategies. He is also one of the most successful world champions.
Petrosian really did not like losing! In fact, Petrosian's consistent skills and resourcefulness to avoid defeat earned him the nickname "Iron Tigran". He was considered by many to be the hardest player to beat in the history of chess. Future World Champion Vladimir Kramnik called him "the first defender with a capital D". Even Garry Kasparov had extreme difficulties when playing Tigran Petrosian, losing the first two encounters in a dramatic fashion.
Petrosian's extreme playing style has fascinated and intrigued future generations of players trying to study and fathom his games. Petrosian was a Nimzovich and Capablanca fan which explains many of his playing attributes. His prophylaxis style of reducing risk and trying to seek the logic of the chessboard, and reducing unnecessary risks, in general, contribute to him being very difficult to beat. Often this would result in draws for sure which may not have given him a daring attacking reputation during the time of his career. But in retrospect now, we can be selective and choose the more interesting wins of Petrosian using a relatively risk-free style. It is this playing style that Anatoly Karpov has admitted during an interview at Gibraltar, to making use of. But Karpov emphasizes playing for a win quite often instead of a draw and modeling some of the same positional opening choices of Tigran Petrosian such as the Caro-Kann with the black pieces against 1.e4. We can all choose to do this if we do want to play for a win, and the end result is playing for a win in a more secure relative-risk-free manner. The chessboard does not have to be a kind of gambling casino full of chance and luck, but can instead by driven by logic and control, and the gradual accumulation of advantages in a relatively noncontroversial manner.
Although during his lifetime he was not so well appreciated like many of the great artists in many other domains, his victories and triumphs have been celebrated through many Petrosian memorial tournaments, which put greater emphasis on his amazing track record.
Tigran Petrosian's amazing track record includes
Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions (1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1971, 1974, 1977, and 1980)
Defending World Champion or a World Championship Candidate in ten consecutive three-year cycles
Victories in two World Championship matches against Botwinnik and Spassky
First prize in the World Championship Candidates Tournament - Four Soviet Championship titles
Two individual and team gold medals on top board for the USSR team in the international Olympiads of Havana 1966 and Lugano 1968
Numerous first prizes in important tournaments
Match and game victories against Kasparov, Fischer, Karpov, Hübner Portisch, Korchnoi, Polugayevsky, Smyslov, Tal, Euwe, Reshevsky, Keres and many others
Overall performance in Olympiad play very impressively: +78−1=50 (only one game lost, to Robert Hübner, out of 129 played), for 79.8 per cent, the third all-time best performance after Anatoly Karpov (+43−2=23 for 80.1 per cent) and Mikhail Tal (+65−2=34 for 81.2 per cent)
Petrosian also made the Soviet team for the first eight European Team Championships (from 1957 to 1983). He won eight team gold medals and four board gold medals. His totals in Euro teams play, according to olimpbase online site are (+15−0=37), for 64.4 percent
This course focuses in particular on Petrosian's more interesting games - his relatively shorter wins, in particular, are brought into focus in this course. But also includes many of his more important games regardless of game length to show the true depth of his playing style and deep positional understanding.
Who this course is for
All chess players

Homepage

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