Petrosian's beautiful queen sac against Pachman - Classics you must know Ep.02
After Botvinnik vs Capablanca in episode one, we now move to Petrosian versus Pachman on day two of the Classics You must know series by IM Sagar Shah. The 9th World Champion is famed for his positional and prophylactic play. And until move 15 it seems as if the game is going in that direction. But something quite unbelievable happens in the last five moves of the game and the experienced Ludek Pachman resigns after White's 21st move blow! This game has a lot of little nuances that you can learn from. We dissect them for you, with the video analysis, PGN file and also 10 test positions.
Continuing with our series on "Chess Classics you must know", the episode two featured Tigran Petrosian's win over Ludek Pachman from 1961.
Petrosian was two years away from becoming the World Champion. Pachman was a strong player, having played in several interzonals and is famous for his series of books on chess strategy. It's a game that is extremely special for me because of so many instructive elements it encapsulates in 21 moves. The harmony of Petrosian's pieces, the helplessness of Pachman's position, and the very unexpected queen sacrifice, followed by the brilliant restricting idea. All of these put together makes this game an absolute joy to study. Before you can check the game, here are 10 positions where you must try and give your best so that you can understand the game much better. The solutions to these positions is given in the PGN at the end of the article.
Position 01
Position 02
Position 03
Position 04
Position 05
Position 06
Position 07
Position 08
Position 09
Position 10
Something about Petrosian that you should know:
Petrosian was orphaned during World War II and was forced to sweep streets to earn a living.[6] It was about this time that his hearing began to deteriorate, a problem that afflicted him throughout his life. In a 1969 interview with Time magazine, he recalled:
"I started sweeping streets in the middle of the winter and it was horrible. Of course there were no machines then, so we had to do everything by hand. Some of the older men helped me out. I was a weak boy. And I was ashamed of being a street sweeper—that's natural, I suppose. It wasn't so bad in the early morning when the streets were empty, but when it got light and the crowds came out I really hated it. I got sick and missed a year in school. We had a babushka, a sister of my father, and she really saved me. She gave me bread to eat when I was sick and hungry. That's when this trouble with my hearing started. I don't remember how it all happened. Things aren't very clear from that time." (source-Wikipidea)
Solutions:
The answers to all the questions above are found in the game analysis below which is done by Sagar along with the people present during the liveshow:
Products that can help you get better at chess:
If you enjoyed Sagar's analysis then you should get yourself ChessBase 15. This is where he does his analysis and you may even consider getting the Mega Database along with it that has over 8 million chess games in it.
If you want to know more about the great Tigran Petrosian:
Sagar's DVD on Chess Classics can help you to ignite your love for the games of the great masters of the past.
The entire playlist of Chess Classics you must know
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Chess Classics You Must Know Episode #28 - The Dragon without Fire
@ 01/02/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
|
Steinitz's positional play that expanded our understanding of chess | Classics Ep.03
@ 04/10/2020 by Sagar Shah (en) |
|
Learn from the Classics Ep 01: Botvinnik vs Capablanca, 1938
@ 28/09/2020 by Sagar Shah (en) |