Petrosian Played Like Tal

     The 1968 Moscow City Championship was a very strong tournament which included World Champion Tigran Petrosioan. He was, as is well known, a solid positional player and this was his second tournament in a row (the other was an international event in Bamberg, Germany) in which he did not lose a single game.

     He was sometimes criticized for his strictly positional play, but that was simply a matter of preference; you do not get to be World Champion with out being very good at all phases of the game, including tactics. 

     Petrosian's opponent, Yakov Estrin (1923-1987) was an IM, theoretician, writer and World Correspondence Champion who held the Correspondence Grandmaster title. Estrin was an authority on the Two Knights Defense. His game with Hans Berliner in which Berliner played the Two Knights and won is one of the most famous and important games in correspondence chess.
 

     In OTB play, Chessmetrics estimates Estrin's highest ever rating to have been 2595 in 1974 and that placed him at number 90 in the world. At the time this game was played Chessmetrics estimates his rating to have been 2456 which was no where close to even the top 100. 

     As an opening theoretician, Estrin's poor play in the opening is quite surprising and Petrosian took advantage of it and crushed him. 

[Event "Moscow Championship"] [Site "Moscow URS"] [Date "1968.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Tigran Petrosian"] [Black "Yakov Estrin"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "1968.??.??"] {English Opening} 1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 d6 4. Nc3 Be6 {Already a poor move as this move has never worked well for black. Best is 4...g6} 5. d3 g6 6. b4 { [%mdl 32]} Qd7 (6... Nxb4 {loses to} 7. Qb3 a5 8. a3 Nc6 9. Qxb7 Nd4 10. Rb1 { Black has no good continuation. For example...} Rc8 11. e3 Nf5 12. Nb5 { and there is no satisfactory way to meet Na7}) 7. b5 Nd8 8. Nf3 {Black's poor opening play has resulted in reaching a position where he has no really satisfactory reply.} Bg7 (8... f6 9. a4 Ne7 10. O-O Bg7 11. Ba3 O-O {White is better. Perkins,A (2305)-Tarjan,J (2405) Graz 1972}) (8... Bh3 9. Bxh3 Qxh3 10. d4 Bg7 11. dxe5 Ne6 (11... dxe5 12. Ba3 Qg4 13. O-O {Black's position is very poor. Li,C (2680)-Makka,I (2154) Guben GER 2014}) 12. Nd5 {with the advantage. Li,C (2680)-Makka,I (2154) Guben GER 2014}) (8... h6 {This probably black's best reply.} 9. O-O Bg7 {Here white should play...} 10. Bb2 c5 11. bxc6 Nxc6 12. Nd2 {with the better game.}) 9. Ng5 e4 {Not good. Because white is better developed the opening of the position is unfavorable for black. A developing move like 9...Nf6 or 9....Bf5 was better.} 10. Bb2 {Naturally, Petrosian is not going to fall for taking the e-Pawn.} (10. Ngxe4 f5 {wins the N.}) 10... exd3 11. Qxd3 a6 {This is a serious tactical error.} (11... Qe7 {keeps fighting.} 12. Nxe6 fxe6 {and white is clearly better, but at least black has some hope of defending himself.}) 12. h4 {Petrosian had a number reasonable positional continuations available, but here, especially against Estrin's weak opposition, he prefers to go for the throat. Black has a number of difficulties: his K will not be safe on either wing and trouble is brewing on the a1-h7 diagonal which he carelessly opened on mpve 9.} axb5 13. cxb5 Ne7 14. Qd2 O-O {Castling into trouble, but there weren't any really good options.} ( 14... d5 15. Nce4 d4 (15... dxe4 16. Qxd7+ {wins material.}) 16. a4 Bd5 17. Nc5 Qd6 18. Nge4 Bxe4 19. Nxe4 Qb6 20. a5 Qxb5 21. Bxd4 O-O (21... Bxd4 22. Qxd4 { White is winning.}) 22. Bxg7 Kxg7 23. Qc3+ {with a clear advantage.}) 15. h5 gxh5 {[%mdl 8192] Estrin appears to have a death wish.} (15... h6 {was considerably better.} 16. Nxe6 fxe6 17. a4 {White has a clear positional advantage.}) 16. Rxh5 (16. Nxh7 {is unsound because after} Kxh7 17. Rxh5+ Kg8 18. Ne4 f6 {White's attack is at a standstill and the advantage has shifted to black.}) 16... Bf5 17. Be4 {White is clearly winning.} Bg6 {At first glance it appears that black has managed to shore up his K-side, but white's next move destroys the Ks defenses.} 18. Rxh7 Bxh7 19. Bxh7+ Kh8 20. O-O-O {Bringing the R into play.} Ng8 21. Rh1 Nh6 22. Nd5 {Bring his remaining pieces into play.} f6 (22... Bxb2+ 23. Qxb2+ f6 24. Rxh6 Qg7 25. Rg6 {Black's position is hopeless.}) 23. Ne4 Rxa2 (23... Ndf7 24. Nexf6 Qxb5 25. Ne7 Qc5+ 26. Bc2 { mate is unavoidable.} Qg5 27. Qxg5 Nxg5 (27... Ne5 28. Rxh6+ Bxh6 29. Qxh6#) 28. Ng6#) 24. Rxh6 Bxh6 25. Qxh6 Qg7 26. Qh4 {Black resigned.} (26. Qh4 Qxh7 27. Bxf6+ Rxf6 28. Qxf6+ Qg7 29. Qxd8+ Qg8 30. Qxg8+ Kxg8 31. Nec3 {White wins the ending.}) 1-0