Grip of the Iron Tigran

John B. Henderson • May 19, 2023

In the immediate aftermath of Fischer-Spassky in Reykjavik 1972, one of my first “proper” chess books picked up from a visit to my local William Patrick Memorial Library in Kirkintilloch was Bob Wade’s account of another world championship clash from a decade earlier, between Tigran Petrosian and Mikhail Botvinnik, that took place in Moscow 1963 and concluded 60 years ago tomorrow.


Petrosian got off to the worst of all possible starts in the two-month epic struggle, with a horrific loss in the first game but equalised in game 5, after famously adjourning with his (White) rampant king deep in the enemy’s bowels; and the challenger used this brilliant game (see below) as the launchpad for going on to win 12½-9½ and subsequently crowned the ninth world champion.

A crucial historical side-note to the match was that Petrosian had marshalled sufficient political clout within the Kremlin to deny postwar multi-time champion Botvinnik his usual automatic 12-month rematch clause, which the cunning Patriarch had successfully availed himself of after losing to “Winter kings” Vasily Smyslov (1957) and Mikhail Tal (1960). Petrosian then went on to successfully defend his title against Boris Spassky in 1966 before the latter defeated him in 1969; Spassky was, in his turn, famously dethroned by American lone wolf Fischer in 1972.


Nicknamed “Iron Tigran”, Petrosian became a hero in his native Armenia, and it’s said that when he was preparing for Botvinnik, they closed his street in the capital, Yerevan, to traffic so that he could concentrate fully ahead of the match - and his victory sixty years ago proved to be the catalyst for the outbreak of a big chess fever that inspired an entire generation of Armenian players, who went on to capture - in their own right, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 - gold in three Olympiads (2006, 2008 & 2012).


"That [Petrosian’s victory] was what started it all. It was a fantastic example of the development of chess in Armenia," once observed Armenia’s national chess team coach, Arshak Petrosian (no relation). "Chess quickly became a national obsession, thousands of families named their children Tigran in his honour, and enthusiasm for the game has only grown in the decades since."


“Oh, those exclamation points! How they erode the soul of the innocent amateur, removing all hope of allowing him to examine another player’s ideas critically.” This is one of my favourite Petrosian quotes about the chess notation “!” indicating a good move. There are several in his famous game 5 recovery win over Botvinnik, but each and every one of them is fully deserved and crystal-clear in the creation of this instructive endgame masterclass.

GM Tigran Petrosian - GM Mikhail Botvinnik

1963 World Championship Match, Game 5


D94: Grünfeld, 5.e3

1.c4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.e3 Slow systems became a hallmark for Petrosian against the Grunfeld Defence. 5...O-O 6.Be2 dxc4 7.Bxc4 c5 8.d5 e6 9.dxe6 Qxd1+ 10.Kxd1 Bxe6 11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.Ke2 Petrosian actually trailed by a point when this game was played, but stays true to his style with a low-key opening contest to seek the tiniest of advantages. In his pre-match preparation on this line, Petrosian confidently predicted Botvinnik would lose if he went for the queen trade owing to the isolated Black e-pawn and the dominance of the White knight - and how right his assessment was of the position! 12...Nc6 13.Rd1 Rad8 14.Rxd8 Rxd8 15.Ng5 Re8 16.Nge4 Nxe4 17.Nxe4 White's knight arrives at its perfect square - a square from where Petrosian demonstrates his supremely deft handling of knights.17...b6 18.Rb1A subtle little move, typical of Petrosian, that aims to neutralise Black's primary compensation: the queenside pawn majority. 18...Nb4 19.Bd2 Nd5 20.a4 Rc8 21.b3 Bf8 22.Rc1 Be7?! Mikhail Tal, a great contemporary of both Botvinnik and Petrosian, suggested that now 22...Rb8! to sidestep White's next move - a move that sees Petrosian take a clear advantage. Hindsight in chess, as always, is 20/20! 23.b4! Petrosian allows Botvinnik a passed pawn, but it is not going anywhere. 23...c4 24.b5 Now Black's cut-off c-pawn can't be saved in the long run. Botvinnik had to realise here he was facing a very tough defence - not something anyone would relish against Iron Tigran! 24...Kf7 25.Bc3 Ba3 26.Rc2 Nxc3+ 27.Rxc3 Bb4 28.Rc2 Ke7 29.Nd2 The c-pawn is just too vulnerable - and if that falls, the ending with the isolated e-pawn will be bad for Black, as Petrosian masterfully demonstrates. 29...c3 30.Ne4 Ba5 31.Kd3 Rd8+ 32.Kc4 Rd1 So why not the tempting 32...Rd2, you may well be asking? It fails to the calm riposte 33.Kb3! and next comes Nxc3 picking off the c-pawn. 33.Nxc3 Rh1 34.Ne4 Rxh2 35.Kd4! A remarkable winning concept from Petrosian. 35...Kd7 If 35...Rxg2 36.Rc7+ and White easily wins after Rxh7 first followed by the a7-pawn. 36.g3 White dominates the board. His rook controls the only open file, his knight is ready to pounce, and everything is defended. The crucial winning ingredient now is Petrosian's king marching into the enemy’s gut to dominate. 36...Bb4 37.Ke5! With White's king joining the fray, Petrosian finishes things off with pinpoint accuracy against Botvinnik's misplaced forces. 37...Rh5+ 38.Kf6 Be7+ 39.Kg7 e5 40.Rc6 Rh1(see diagram) 41.Kf7! Petrosian's sealed move - and he makes no mistake with it being the winning move. There's no escape from here - not even for Botvinnik, who was the absolute master of the lost art of adjournment analysis that saved and won many games. 41...Ra1 42.Re6 Bd8 43.Rd6+ Kc8 44.Ke8 Bc7 45.Rc6 Rd1 46.Ng5 Rd8+ 47.Kf7 Rd7+ 48.Kg8 1-0 Botvinnik throws in the towel, facing lines like 48...h5 49.Ne6 Re7 50.Rxc7+ Rxc7 51. Nxc7 Kxc7 52.f4! Kd6 53.Kf7 exf4 54.exf4 with an elementary K+P endgame win.

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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