Some things you may not know about Tigran Petrosian

     "The first move I make is always a good one." That's what he told an interviewer before his 1969 match with Boris Spassky. Unfortunately for Petrosian, and fortunately most chess lovers, his subsequent moves weren't always the best and Spassky won. 
     A Life Magazine article described Petrosian as a "jocular, absentminded former street sweeper of emphatically Armenian extraction. He was further described as "a born mugger" who was given to quick, modest smiles. In addition to possessing a moderately enlarged waste, the interviewer noted he had a prominent nose, but his most noticeable feature was his eyes. Dark and thoughtful, they peered from deep sockets "like an alien force, watching every detail of what is going on" and they bespoke of the great caution that he was known for in his chess. 
     Petrosian was known for avoiding flashy attacks and his ability to stifle his opponent's counterplay. As a result, his cautious style was considered uninteresting and boring. Of his play Petrosian asked with some contempt, "What do they mean my games aren't as interesting as they could be?" He said he could play more interesting games if he wanted to, but that was not the point of chess, adding that he would also lose more games. 
     Petrosian was born to semi-literate parents in Tibilisi and was orphaned at the age of 13 and earned his early living as a street sweeper. World War Two was a desperate time during which Petrosian was often hungry and ill, but even then he saved his money to buy chess books. 
     He recalled that he began sweeping streets in the middle of winter using a broom and described how he was a sickly and weak child, but some of the older men helped him out. Petrosian said he was ashamed of the job...it wasn't too bad in the morning when the streets were empty, but when daylight came and people filled the streets he hated the job. 
  

a typical babushka

   Then he got really sick and missed a year of school. During that time a babushka, who was his aunt, gave him her bread when he was sick and hungry. He could not recall how it happened because things of those days were not very clear in his mind, but that's when the trouble with his hearing started. Petrosian wore a hearing aid and he habitually pulled the earbuds in and out of his ears.
     During that time he already played chess having been taught the rudiments by a 12-year old friend. He got his first chess book by saving his money instead of buying food. Petrosian explained that when you get a book the hard way like that you really read it and he took it to bed at night, read it then put it under his pillow so he could read some more in the morning. He read the book without benefit of a chess set. 
     Within in a year, at the age of 13, he won a simul game against a visiting GM and by the age of 17 he had won the Soviet Junior Championship and at age 23 he was a GM, got married and graduated from college as a teacher of Russian. All during that time he was also playing a lot of chess. 
     By 1963 he had beaten all the best players in the world and earned the right to challenge Botvinnik. What's not known about the match is that his supporters convinced him that a good Armenian diet was essential so they flew in lavash (a soft, thin unleavened flatbread), dolma (stuffed vegetable dishes), shashlik (skewered and grilled cubes of meat, similar to shish kebabs), matnakash (a leavened traditional Armenian bread) and fresh trout. 
     In 1963, at the beginning of his world championship with Botvinnik, Petrosian admitted to being somewhat intimidated by his renowned opponent who had been a national institution for many years. Petrosian explained that any chess book you opened was connected to Botvinnik in some way and when he (Petrosian) realized he was just an ordinary person who happened to play chess, he got the sense that it was impossible to beat Botvinnik and thought of himself as "poor old Petrosian." 
     As a result, Petrosian started badly by losing the first game when he "played like a child." He was ashamed of it and described it being like a cold shower. However, as a chess columnist for a Soviet sports newspaper, Petrosian had been studying Botvinnik's game for the last five years and so after winning the fifth game, he was never again behind in the match and went on to win the match. 
     After winning the world championship Petrosian, who was officially a chess coach for a group of trade unions called Spartak, found his job to be rather meaningless. He lived in an apartment with his wife and two sons and did pretty much as he pleased. He was also not particularly ambitious because, as he put it, as champion he could pretty much make as much money as he wanted because "all sorts of magazine pounce on anything I write." He also supposed that he could lecture and play, but explained that what he got without hard work was enough and the prize money he won in tournaments enabled him to buy "toys." 
     A non-smoker and non-drinker, Petrosian was a cross country skier and enjoyed all sports. He was also one of the few Russians who understood baseball and once watched Fidel Castro, whom he described as a pretty good thrower, play baseball in Cuba. Petrosian described his three loves in life as being hockey, chess and soccer...in that order! Then as an after thought he added, “And billiards, I guess.” He then admitted that the only time he could get his mind off chess was when he was playing billiards. 

     The worst thing about being world champion was the people he met on the street knew who he was and always wanted to stop him and buy him a drink, ask for an autograph, or worse, show him a chess position that had them puzzled. Petrosian had an unlisted phone number, but somehow a lot of fans had discovered it and often called him. 
     His favorite restaurant, a place called Ararat, was no longer a safe haven. When he went there people would yell out, "Tigran Vartanovich! A toast!" He would raise a glass and pretend to drink. And, by the time he finished his meal his table was full of bottles of cognac, little cakes and Armenian candy. He would politely nibble at them, all the while wishing he were somewhere else. 
     At the board Petrosian always appeared relaxed and he often wandered about chatting with spectators and watching other games while awaiting his opponent's move. Somehow this rattled a lot of his opponents. 
     A realist, Petrosian knew his destiny was that someday he was going to lose his title because somewhere in Russia someone was going to be studying his games and go after him like he went after Botvinnik. One of his ambitions was to write a book, but he never got around to it. He joking said he'd call it Ten Easy Lessons On How Hard Chess Is. 
     In 1966 Petrosian met the popular Boris Spassky who was the big favorite. Spassky had convincingly defeated Keres, Geller and Tal in candidates matches and possed what was referred to as universal style. In the match Spassky achieved numerous promising positions only to run into exchange sacrifices and other sophisticated maneuvers and after 10 games was two points down. He managed to even the score, but Petrosian went on to win the match. In a surprise comment, Spassky described Petrosian as, "first and foremost a stupendous tactician." 
     The two met again in 1969 and before the match Smyslov wrote that it was hard to predict who would win, but hinted that that Spassky had a good chance. He was right. After 23 games Spassky had amassed the required 12.5 points and was the new world champion. 
     Chess.com has an article titled The Tactical Side of Petrosian You Didn't Know About! by Daniel Naroditsky in which he wrote, “there is a tendency to believe that most of his games feature protracted, yawn-inducing stages of maneuvering in which Petrosian gradually exploits an imperceptible structural defect in his opponent's camp.” Three annotated games in which Petrosian conducted a vicious attack are presented. What was especially interesting was the first game against Taimanov. Naroditsky pointed out that after move 14, Petrosian's moves matched Houdini's top choice!  Read the article.