Petrosian's Pawn Storm | Boris Spassky vs Tigran Petrosian 1966

you hi everyone is Gerry let's have a look at a game from 1966 World Chess Championship match round seven first decisive game of this match on the white end challenger Boris Spassky and he's against the champ Tigran Petrosian here's a nice photo of these two greats both colleagues and adversaries you could tell they had a great respect for one another that's how I see it anyhow when I look at the photo anyhow this game is one that I first reviewed many years ago much younger player and I recall learning a very nice idea from Petrosian and this idea is one that I must have used several dozen times in my own games over the years and even variations of the idea looking at this game on a more current note I realize it fits not only into the educational category but also entertaining it is quite a unique game I think you'll agree so let's dive in and see how it develops Spassky opening with d4 we have a torii attack Bishop g5 the term attack is a bit misleading or can be a bit misleading the king isn't going to come under some heavy fire anytime soon or at least that's not how it plays out in this game it develops a bit more calm so just getting the minor pieces out you'll note that both sides keep their C pawns free to advance this is commonplace when you're working with a deep on based opening they like to contribute one way or the other in this instance we have black as the aggressor light more defensive with the C pawn these last two moves by black are really the last three an emphasis is on queenside deployment keeping the option open with the King not yet committing to castles King side castle for white Bishop b7 and this moment here move 9 Knight to e5 through the first one to speak of this is now the second white piece in Black's house this is the more invasive of the two Bishop on g5 is no bother this is no pin but the knight on e5 a bit annoying what does Petrosian do next I'll give you two choices Queen c7 or Knight takes Knight feel free to pause the video okay here we go in the game Knight takes Knight is played now an issue or two that can arise if you play this natural-looking Queen c7 Bishop b5 can follow and the white miners start to intersect in blacks house can be a bit uncomfortable moreover you may never get rid of the knight if Queen c7 is played f4 can follow and then if you ever take the knight that would mean the F file is opened up for the white major pieces to have some fun so the knight is knocked out as soon as it arrives there white is not given an opportunity to support it with the F pawn and after Knight d7 one more pop quiz what does Spassky play here this is an extremely important moment in the game and a turning point in this game on this move 11 do you capture the bishop or do you play Bishop to f4 feel free to pause the video okay here we go in the game Bishop f4 is played and this is an issue Petrosian does very well to demonstrate why this is the case Bishop takes Bishop would be better even though you are helping the Queen develop on the recapture better because the e pawn can now be conveniently defended with f4 as it plays out in this game the bishop is on f4 some pressure is now being thrown on e5 and the white pieces now have to play a defensive role and their position will soon be brought into question petrosian's next move h6 this is saying quite a bit this last move moved 12 Petrosian is basically telling Spassky with move 12 I'm not castling kingside I'm looking to play g5 and start kicking around these defenders of e5 unprepared to Castle queenside and open lines towards your king this is the direction we go we're going to have an opposite sides castles position on board Spassky already anticipates this with his next move b4 says go ahead grab upon by taking twice on b4 if you do you may never Castle queenside Petrosian has no interest in this he's not greedy g5 no pawn grab bishop g3 h5 hunting the bishop short on squares h4 is the threat a square needs to be produced h4 on board h2 is available now for the bishop if you play h3 well one way or the other a file will be cracked open towards the king h4 in the game pawn takes pawn and the bishop can't recapture it has a responsibility defendi 5 this is more important Bishop f4 in the game black is up upon but what's more important the G file black has a path towards the White King where is White's path towards the black King in the game queenside castle from here a four and now in my introduction to this game this is the moment move 17 and move 18 that I took something away from what Petrosian did what did Petrosian play on this move 17 and move 18 feel free to pause the video what would you play here as black okay here we go move 17 see form now this is one of those moves that makes this game interesting and when I say game I'm not referring to this specific game I'm talking about just chess the moves see form is a move you would see played by let me see if I get this right I don't think this is something I've ever shared in a video before the move c4 as a movie would see played by a beginner not played by somebody more experienced like a little bit more advanced and you would also see c4 played by a chess great such as Petrosian okay why do I think this well a beginner they like moving pawn this is just my own experience you like moving upon so that it attacks a minor piece okay the more advanced player isn't going to play c4 because they understand the deeper point a deeper point which is to say that well the bishop will just move you're not gonna get the bishop and what have I just done I've given up a wonderful square for the knight on d4 chess great somebody who sees a little bit deeper understands that after c-4 in the bishop move I can now play this next move what is this next move here we go small move a6 what has just happened here blacks last two moves c4 and then a6 have done what they have shut down the Queen side there will now be no way white can create a path to the black King if a five is played b5 the a B and see files remain shut down if b5 there's a five ABC files shut down how are you getting up the King Black has a path where's yours that's what is gained with these two moves c4 and then a6 a complete shutdown of the queenside why is this important well this is going to give black all day to shift his pieces towards the King towards the Kings side towards the G file meanwhile what is what does white do what's White's constructive plan there isn't one there's it's like white is helpless - what black does next if white excuse me if black does not play a six in this position let's say just throws a rook here notice after a five in b5 trying to keep things shut down it's not the same thing if a six if this kind of structure is available it's true the files are closed but there's one key square that's available and you could be sure the white rook will make use of it in fact Knight d4 and rook a five would coordinate on b5 this is not something black wants to tend to you do not want to allocate pieces to the defensive pawns the way to avoid this is to make this one little baby move this deep move a six that's what I took away from Petrosian with this game a small subtle point but man can this really be applied in your own games this idea to buy yourself time opposite sides castling positions okay in the game Spassky at is king half of a half-open file the rook D to g8 rock g1 rook g4 kind of seems a little bit awkward to do this your are opposite the bishop but black is up upon and already anticipating some possible exchange sacrifice a capture on g4 would straighten out the black pawns they would start to be pretty strong from here Queen d2 battery on the G file a5 is met with sure enough I mean this was the idea with move 17 and 18 to meet a5 with b5 locked down how do you get it the king Rick d1 bishop fe e 5 to attack two defenders a moment away from a third attacker so Spassky plays Knight H - going for the exchange pick up the rook Petrosian says go ahead take it Spassky does and in the end the pawns have been straightened out what do we have here we have an imbalance it is a minor piece and two pawns versus a rook but look at these pawns look at how close they are to the King the side that has that rook that extra rip white where are the open files they don't exist how valuable is the rook really in this environment from here efore okay trying to open up the D file create some pawn exchanges black cannot take the pawn in this position taking the pawn would be a losing move because of Bishop takes Knight and you can't recapture because you get made it so no pawn takes pawn black breaks this pin Queen to e3 if pawn takes pawn the bishop will be there to recapture no big deal Queen III Petrosian simply offers a dark square Bishop exchange dark square Bishop Saar off rook to d4 if something other than rook to d4 let's say a capture once more we're just recapturing no problem keep the diagonal open h3 right around the corner in the game rook d4 is played and now we have e5 rook is dropping back f5 every black pawn will play in this game and we are not done now if pawn takes pawn the Queen can step over and pick the pawn up pawn takes pawn on d5 and we don't recapture Petrosian does not recapture on this point this is another instructional moment I don't know if when I first reviewed this game that this moment it might have been something I learned without really realizing I learned something I'm not sure if I'm explaining that as well as I can but this idea to kind of hide behind the white pawn capturing on this point capturing on this move would not be a good idea to be going into a self pin this file is now closed so black is going to work around that pawn f4 for Knight f6 Queen check King b8 now white would really like to play Queen to e7 here offer a queen exchange and maybe get the the D file open so the the rook can do something but the timing is not right playing E Queen to e7 in this position would not be good Spassky on move right now Queen e6 Queen e6 is not good because in the end there would be 94 that's a killer move see what's happening here it's not about Knight takes rook it's about mate in two that's how serious Knight to e4 would be in this with this sequence so what is Spassky do he eliminates this possibility Knight to e4 now he's ready to jump into e6 Petrosian sniffs this one out says no way Bishop c8 go away go back home Queen B 1 and now G 3 these pawns continue to march this rook is dead every white piece is dead what are they doing nothing from here rook to e1 h3 King needs a square the h-file is gonna be opened up it's preparing to run but he won't run too far bishop f1 rook AJ on takes Bishop takes bishops are off and from here we're not done with these pawn moves efore what do you do if you take with the rook you lose the Queen Queen here Queen to d1 Queen back home if you take like this there's f3 in the game queen d1 Knight g4 it's just a fantastic game just leaving the knight out for what exactly well for one he's ready to jump into e3 that's a killer check you know even if white tries to give up the exchange that'd be too much black would have 2 passers and still a winning attack along the h-file in the game the knight is captured and now we continue to push f3 talk about some killer pawns controlling all four squares mate ah h1 next Spassky plays rook g2 well what else is there it seems like a really weird move to make but how else are you defending against the main threat on each one if you play King g1 in this position there's Queen h6 you're not stopping checkmate so in the game rook g2 pawn takes rook and well Spassky simply resigns at this stage move 43 is the last move so if it did continue King takes pawn we can have a check and then Queen h6 check checkmate is the threat there's no no good defense here it's just a winning attack made possible in large part by these earlier decisions on moveset this reached what move 43 but going back to move 17 and 18 c4 in a6 this is what enabled this type of attack towards the white king this is what bought so much time for Petrosian to pursue an attack against the white king anyhow as usual feel free to leave any feedback to this video in the comment section below I hope you enjoyed it and maybe even took a thing or two away that's all for now take care bye you

Channel: ChessNetwork

Views: 176,673

Rating: 4.9459963 out of 5

Keywords: tigran petrosian, tigran petrosian chess games, boris spassky, boris spassky chess games, tigran petrosian best chess games, 1966 world chess championship, petrosian vs spassky 1966, best chess games, chessnetwork, chess, chess network, tigran petrosian vs boris spassky 1966, torre attack

Id: Mc9OmY3Tiso

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 25 2018