I have spent no less than half an hour to come up with the first line for this post. Ultimately, I stuck with confessing the challenge and letting the story unfold itself:

This is a story of a world chess champion who stood in a queue with his brother Amayak (Amayak means innocent in Kannada, interesting right?)  at 4 in the morning in front of a closed meat shop to get a wooden chess set! Yes, you read it right.

The boys got up at 4 in the chilly morning, rushed to the next street and stood in front of the closed shop to sell their turn in the queue for 2 roubles. They had 29 roubles in their petite money box and 31 roubles finally got them a chess set!

“His brother was drafted into the army. When he sent his second letter he was already at the front, and his third letter never arrived. A year and a half later, at Avlabari market, someone told his mother he had witnessed her son’s end.

It turned out that his brother was alive, but his mother didn’t know it; her grief filled her” —Nikolai Tarasov

There was a moment in his life where his father expressed doubts and concerns about him playing chess, to which he said, retaining Nimzowitsch’s flavor:

“To me a ‘passed pawn’ is not simply a pawn but, so to speak, a living, rational being with its unexpressed desires, hopes and doubts…”

At 15, while he was playing a complicated position in a tournament, he was informed that his father had died. His king was in check, but he moved a different piece. He lost the game, but continued the struggle! Petrosian also had to work, apart from playing chess and studying academics. He swept the streets and performed other tasks of a caretaker in a building which experienced severe crowd during the war time.

As Nikolai Tarasov rightly states, Petrosian became an adult much earlier than most people of his age. This legend had a tough childhood and his toughness is invariably present in his moves and concepts that he brings into the game. Remember, he was called Iron Tigran by his contemporaries.

I was introduced to the games of Petrosian through Mihail Marin’s book Learning from the legends where he focused on exchange sacrifices by the legend.  By restricting opponent’s pieces and sensing the danger from afar, Petrosian combined his strengths and went on to become a world champion!

Tal and Petrosian, European Chess Team Championship 1961 at Oberhausen, Photographer Gerhard Hund.

His many positional exchange sacrifices, his virtuosity in defense, his foresight to positional danger, and his ability in exploiting subtle positional maneuvers which seem to have no important role, but suddenly become decisive. It is this harmony of seemingly Incompatible elements of chess strategy that help us to understand Petrosian’s enormous practical strength, and his deep penetration into the secrets of chess –Garry Kasparov

I will share a few positions with you where you will have to sense the danger and make a decision:

Position 1:

White to move

Position 2:

Black to move

Position 3:

White to move

Position 4:

White to move

Position 5:

Black to move

Position 6:

Black to move

Position 7:

White to move

Position 8:

White to move

Position 9:

White to move

Position 10:

White to move

Position 11:

Black to move

The video also contains some of the exchange sacrifices, interesting wins and much more!

Well, Petrosian’s story doesn’t end here, I will be back with more games and exercises in the future