Chess
In memoriam
Raymond Keene
This week I give three brilliant samples of the play of the former world cham- pion Tigran Petrosian, whose premature death in Moscow three weeks ago was such a sad blow to the international chess fraternity.
Keres-Petrosian: Candidates' Tournament, Bled 1959.
Petros'an has powerful attacking chances in the `g' file, which he now drives home with a series of splendidly conceived sacri- fices: 47 . . . Rg3! 48 hxg3 hxg3 49 R1d2 Or 49 bxc5 Qh4 50 Be2 Rh7 51 Kfl Ohl + 52 Ke2 gxf2 wins. 49. . . Qh4 50 Be2 Rh7 51 Kfl Trying to flee the danger zone, but in vain. 51 . . . Qxf4+! and White resigned since 52 Qxf4 Rhl is mate. Next a beautiful game from Petrosian's successful title defence in 1966.
Petrosian-Spassky: 10th Game, Moscow World Championship.
Already the exchange down. Petrosian sacrifices another to corner the Black K: 24 Rx14! Rx14 25 Be6+ Rfl If 25 . . Kf8 26 0h8+ is deadly. 26 Ne4 Qh4 27 Nxd6 Qg5+ 28 Khl Ra7 29 Bxf7+ Rxf7 30 Qh8+ A sparkling finale. Since 30 . . . Kxh8 31 Nxf7+ regains the Q with interest, Spassky had no choice but to resign. The swooping manoeuvre of White's Q is most striking.
Petrosian-Fischer: 2nd Game, Candidates' Final, Buenos Aires 1971; Griinfeld De-
fence.
1 d4 N16 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 Bf4 Bg7 5 e3 c5 6 dxc5 Qa5 7 Rd Ne4 8 cxd5 Nxc3 9 Qd2 Qxa2 10 bxc3 Qa5 11 Bc4 Nd7 12 Ne2 Ne5 13 Ba2 Bf5? A careless move which meets with a ruthless refutation. Correct is 13 . . Qxc5 with reason- able chances. 14 Bxe5! Bxe5 15 Nd4 Qxc5 Too late, since White can now shatter Black's pawn structure. 16 Nxf5 gxt5 17 0-0 Qa5? A further error, after which Black is lost. There are still defensive possibilities with 17 . . f4! 18 exf4 Bd6 combined with . . . 0-0-0. 18 Qc2 14 19 p4 Commencing a sacrificial assault which exp the lack of security for Fischer's K. 19 . . • filq, 20 c5 Qd2 Hopeless is 20 . . . exf2+ 21 Qxf2 22 Bb 1 . 21 Qa4+ K1822 Rcd1 Qe2 23 d6 Qh5 14 The decisive final sacrifice. 24 . . . e2 25 1'05 exd1=Q 26 Rxdl Qxe5 27 Rfl 16 28 Qb3 Kg7 29 Qf7+ Kh6 30 dxe7 15 31 Rx15 Qd4+ 32 Khl Black resigns. A great win against a great opponent. As I write, the victim of the second example given above, Boris Spassky, is in
lots
action in London at the Lloyds Bank Masters in the Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, where the final round is on Thursday 30, August. It was Spassky, described several times as 'legendary' by the Standard, wh°, did in fact depose Petrosian as work'
champion at his second try in 1969.
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