The Games of Tigran Petrosian Volume 1 1942-1965
Tigran Petrosian was World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He became the first player in the modern era to win a match to defend the world chess title by defeating Boris Spassky in a match in 1966. He had gained the World Chess Championship by defeating Mikhail Botvinnik in a match in 1963. He is perhaps best known today for being the one who broke Bobby Fischer's streak of winning 20 games in a row against grandmasters. Petrosian represented the USSR in the World Chess Olympiad ten times. His result was 78 wins, 50 draws and only one loss, for 79.8 per cent. The most famous instance of this was at the 1966 Chess Olympiad in Havana, Cuba, where he won the gold medal on top board with 88.46 percent vs. Bobby Fischer’s 88.23 percent. Petrosian was a Candidate for the World Championship on eight occasions (1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1971, 1974, 1977 and 1980). He won the world championship in 1963 by defeating Botvinnik, successfully defended it in 1966 against Spassky, and lost it in 1969 to Spassky. Thus, he was the defending World Champion or a World Champion Candidate in ten consecutive three-year cycles. He won the Soviet Championship four times (1959, 1961, 1969, and 1975). In spite of these impressive results, he is perhaps best known for breaking Bobby Fischer's winning streak of 20 games by beating Bobby in game two of their 1971 match. The importance of this accomplishment of breaking Fischer's Streak is shown by the fact that all of his games from that match against Fischer are annotated in this book. One would think that this book would emphasize his winning the World Championship by defeating Botvinnik in 1963 or his successful defense of the world championship by beating Spassky in 1966. But, No! His most noteworthy accomplishment was in breaking Fischer's streak in 1972, even though Petrosian lost the match to Fischer.