Hi there.
In this lecture, we see an iconic historical game between Tekken Petrosian and Viktor Korchnoi.
So Tigran Petrosian, a possible chess champion.
Victor Korchnoi.
They could have been so easily a world chess champion, and they have distinctive styles which later
evolved.
This was an underwriting tournament, so they were meeting in their youth.
1946 URS Championship round six.
So Petrosian with the white piece is playing D4 so Petrosian style later on turned into a kind of really
strengthening position so he couldn't lose.
He really hated losing.
He had experience of taking quite a few losses in some of the strong tournaments and gradually made
his style kind of impenetrable so he couldn't lose.
He really hated losing, basically.
But caution is a great counterattack.
His style evolved into being able to really counterattack.
And so, you know, he could take counterattack wins against even the greats like Bobby Fischer.
And that's quite different to playing against Petrosian, who's trying to not to lose and not really
attacking him directly.
So the counter attack role isn't so available in general if the opponent's just got this strengthening
style, you know, not wanting to lose.
So in this game, yeah, this early encounter, cautionary place, an aggressive Dutch formation, Dutch
Stonewall and actually Tigran Petrosian displays great positional play here with this plan, which is
very, very logical to exchange off the dot square bishops and trying to amplify these dots where weaknesses
in Black's camp.
So that's the guardian bishop to try and be swapped off so we have black castling.
Bishop A3 So Bishop takes a free knight, takes A3 and now there's basically a backward pawn which is
not able to be supported.
Plenty of the pieces and generally against backward pawns.
We want to use the outpost square.
Ideally there's a semi.
My father isn't here, but ideally we want to use that outpost square in front of the pawn.
Such a pawn knight C two We have Queen H five, Queen C one, we have 94, knight C one.
These knights are kind of engaged in the E5 square occupation G5 pawns don't go backwards.
So it seems as though Kush thing is going out of his way to attack Tigran Petrosian.
But in a way, this strengthening operation as a side effect is creating committal pawn moves.
And we see time and time again, you know, you don't mess around with Tigran Petrosian with this kind
of stuff because you could end up flat on your face because in a way, you know, Petrosian is a hugely
talented tactical and compensatory player.
If there's a vacuum of weaknesses you're leaving behind, expect to be punished basically for that vacuum
on a strong counterattack based on comments or pawn moves.
So this is a classic for commensal pawn moves from black.
So Knight's f e5 shows already tactical prowess not mining e to being sacrificed.
Here we have King H eight.
So what happens on Queen takes E to why is this positional operation possible?
Well, here one can play Bishop takes E4 and if F takes e4, Queen takes G5 check.
Ouch.
So exploiting the king, The black king.
Yes.
And therefore this is just crushing.
What is black doing?
Rook, thanks for this is just a winning position.
But you know what else takes E5?
We've got the king to ourself already.
This is a fantastic attacking position in effect, and also winning the Queen as well.
Another perk.
So yes, it's just a crushing position here.
If Queen C2 Knight takes E6 were French, think checkmate on G7 Rook G ain't we've got Knight of seven
checkmate.
The mounts are just already there and this is like you know this is just about move 15 to 19 these variations
where black's getting mated already so you can see take you on E two does seem to be an extremely bad
idea indeed because the Queen is looking at G5.
This queen has abandoned G5.
That's the only defender of G5.
Once we hit G5, we've got all sorts of attacks.
And you might wonder, what about Queen takes E4?
Again, we just take on Gee five.
This is a marvelous position.
This position we can offer d4 up infiltrate with Queen E seven.
And here this is just super strong.
Look at Black's queenside.
It's like can't even get out of bed if it wanted to.
So, Rook 81 or trying to get out of bed.
But it's a bit slow when the queen is skewered against the knight.
And if that's the best move to sacrifice the queen now because Rook takes these seven is coming potentially
well just Knight takes the seven of Queen C3.
It's just a crushing position so okay I hope that's compelling evidence.
Black cannot take on E2, which means one's got a really dominant position already.
We have a three.
So Black's movies catch eight not taking only two.
So we have F 396 and now E4.
So, yes, not minding, trying to make this a semi open file outpost potentially, if we can open up
position.
That's a beautiful outpost square in front of the backward pawn.
We have nine of seven.
So what happens here on D10 E4 after C4 19 C4, there's a penalty here.
After Bishop takes E4, we can give up our fee and cancel Bishop because we're getting some advantages
here.
Of the 95, Black's position is paralysed here.
B six Queen F one And how does Black handle these threats?
Black's playing basically two pieces down in inspiration Line takes E4.
We're think things like Queen F six, so say Queen H six to stop Queen F six check, Queen F seven check.
And here, this is brutal.
We're threatening F seven vacating F seven for seven.
Check to Fort King and Queen Queen G seven.
This could be the horror ending Knights of seven checking g89 of six Player has to give up the Queen.
It's nasty.
And we're coming in with H six mate as a friend now.
Okay so this looks also it's fairly tragic.
Basically, this is a tragic variation where it might not seem it, but this is absolutely, you know
what what is black actually doing here if we don't choose b six, what about 97?
You know, again, Queen F one is strong and it's kind of pin down.
If the knight takes, then we have Queen F eight.
These guys are not helping the back row here.
That's checkmate.
So if King G seven takes E, six, Jack, Queen F five, and yeah, White's getting a gigantic attack
winning material.
It's brutal.
So, okay, so F seven is played and we have those C takes D five Knight details E5 which seems to sell
the whole at least on E5.
If C takes the E5 here, Knight takes F seven, chunk Rook takes seven, Y could play E takes D five,
E takes the five F for targeting D five isolated Queen's pawn here.
And this position is just brutal of F tanks g 595 It's another huge possession.
White can give up the thing catto here because this is just such a brutal position that's even Queen
65 as a tactic winning the queen that winning material as an example.
So Knight D takes e5 D tanks, e5 C tanks D five.
And now look at this.
This Queen can also infiltrate.
Now he takes the E5 e takes and now f four making a strong protected pass pawn a big target of D5.
Where is Black's attack?
Black has just left this vacuum of weaknesses and these pieces are still not out of bed yet.
We have Rook d eight if Bishop e six, Queen C seven.
This position is just beautiful for white.
Any F-type C5 gives us that lovely F4 square for the knight and this is very very nice if G4 Yeah,
we're just taking on D5.
We can consolidate here with Queen C C4 and this is a beautiful position.
So Rook, the eight is played, we have Queen C seven, B six if rook D7 this doesn't really help.
The Queen can bounce threatening Queen F eight.
If the rook goes back, we gain a tempo there for our queen to be in even more aggressive place.
So this position.
F Thanks.
G five.
It's just a dismantling of the knight at four.
The Queen's clinging on to the knight.
The Queen's been hit.
Yeah, it's just a horrendous position if the knight So Queen HD eight for Queen two, queen size of
seven so B six is tried F tanks G five vacates f4 anyway for the beautiful knight bishop a6 if Knight
takes G5.
Yeah, we're just taking on D eight if Queen actually if I would just take an F seven just to recap.
So Bishop A6 Knight at four.
Brutal.
Trying to get the queen away from the knight and it's end of game so cautionary resigned quite a bit
of loss here it seems and they really did become.
Like fierce enemies of the board later in matches like kicking each other under the table.
But yeah, there's a stylistic, stylistic kind of clash between the two.
Of course, when he enjoys games, he likes people attacking them directly, not strengthening their
position.
It's like there's a funny kind of undertone to their rivalry in terms of the style.
You can see how agitated.
You know, fundamentally, if you're playing against a player that doesn't really attack you, whereas
your role as a counter attacker.
So, yes, it does seem as though, you know, Petrosian has got on his number here.
There's no contract.
This is just an early encounter, though.
But I'm just generalizing from their style.
So if the game continued to pieces for a rook with that big passport is huge here, you know, this
position is just huge.
For example, one's going to have a huge advantage.
Yeah.
So I thought, this is a very interesting game.
Very interesting indeed.
So we'll go to the end of the game.
And it just shows you that you can attack in subtle ways.
You can attack by kind of strengthening opposition like Nimzowitsch.
So Petrosian was a big Nimzowitsch fan.
You know, the idea of positional security can also give your opponent kind of rope to hang themselves
if they start committal, poor moves, they kind of self-destructing in their own king position and
they're making the attacks that you can have later way easier, way more effective.
So this is a kind of form of delayed gratification as well.
You could say that we're delaying our gratification through strengthening our position, and that delay
in itself is causing the opponent to make commit or poor moves, which in itself is creating weaknesses
around their king.
And it just makes attacking chess looks extremely easy and effective if there's a vacuum of weaknesses
around the opponent's king.
So, yes, an interesting game showing, in fact.
It's the kind of counter-attack style shown by Petrosian in this particular game against Korchnoi on
the attack from early on, but later cautioning was to develop into a counter-attacking player waiting
usually for the opponents to come at him to unbalance the position to make it more dramatic and more
intense, more difficult to calculate.
So of course they're here on the direct attack.
It really backfires through Petrosian counterattack in this particular game.
Okay, so there's a number of interesting aspects to this game.
It's one of my favorite Tigran Petrosian crushes early on in his career.
Okay, How have you found that interesting so much.