Tigran Wartanowitsch Petrosjan (1929 - 1984)
Tigran Petrosian was born in Tiflis (Georgia) on June17, 1929 as the son of Armenian immigrants. During World War II, Petrosian lost his parents and had to look after himself. This had a big influence on his chess style, which was very defensive. In 1949 he went to Moscow as a journalist. He died in Moscow August, 14th 1984 after a long fight against the cancer.
Petrosian
learned chess at the age of 12. In 1945, he became the city master of Tiflis.
In 1946, he was the youth master of Russia. The grandmaster title was given
to him in 1952. In 1959 and 1961 he became master of the USSR. And finally
he won the world master title in 1963. The match against Botwinnik
ended with 12,5:9,5 points. He defended his title in 1966 against Spasski..
But the next challenge of Spasski lost Petrosian the title with 6:8 points
with 9 draws.
The style of Petrosian was very unconventional. He played extremely defensively. His primary objective was not to lose the game. Also Petrosian was able to calculate variants very fast but he used this skill for defense. He prevented the combinations of his opponents very early. His style was characterized by Capablanca (position play) and Nimzowitsch (to cover important fields).