Grandmaster games · World Championship match 1966
Petrosian's Long Diagonal
A knight on a5 that never moves again, two exchanges given away, and a queen offered on h8: Petrosian answers Spassky's plans before they are played.
The setting
Moscow, 2 May 1966, game 10 of a 24-game match. Petrosian, champion since 1963, led 5 to 4: Petrosian had won game 7 and the other eight games were drawn. A 12 to 12 tie would keep the title with the champion, so the challenger needed wins. In four earlier games with Black, Spassky had chosen Queen's Gambit set-ups and a symmetrical English, and drawn every one. Here, for the first time in the match, Spassky chose the King's Indian, with Panno's set-up: ...Nc6, ...a6, ...Na5 and ...b5. Petrosian won and went 6 to 4 ahead. Spassky won games 13, 19 and 23, Petrosian games 20 and 22, and Petrosian kept the title 12.5 to 11.5. Spassky took it from Petrosian in the 1969 rematch.
Why study it
It shows prophylaxis as a way of thinking, not a style. Petrosian asks first what Spassky wants: Nd2, Qc2 and b3 leave the knight on a5 with nothing to attack (it never moves again), Nd1 clears the long diagonal, and the dark-squared bishops come off so that a queen on b2 owns g7 and h8. Spassky attacks the king, wins the exchange, then takes a pawn with 23...Nxf4, the one capture that lets the long diagonal decide. Stockfish 19 checks every line both players calculate, and it disagrees with the champion more than once.
Live it from inside a mind
Each player speaks in the first person, in a voice of their own: what they see, what they fear, the lines they calculate, why they choose. Switch minds at any move.
Tigran Petrosian
White · Soviet Union
World champion since 1963, when Petrosian beat Botvinnik. Aged 36 here, and known above all for prophylaxis: stopping the opponent's plans before they start, often with an exchange sacrifice.
Boris Spassky
Black · Soviet Union
The 29-year-old challenger, who had won the 1965 Candidates matches to earn this match. Spassky took the title from Petrosian in the 1969 rematch.
Nine games played, five points to four, and a drawn match keeps my title. So Spassky has to win games, and has to take risks to do it. My task is to give those risks nothing to bite on. I begin quietly, with ♘f3 and g3. At every move my first question is not what I want. It is what Spassky wants, and which square that plan needs.
One point behind after nine games, and in a drawn match the champion keeps the title, so draws do me little good. Four times with Black I have played solid Queen's Gambit and English positions, and drawn every one. Today I choose the King's Indian with Panno's plan: ...Nc6, ...a6 and ...b5 against c4, and the kingside if the centre closes. Nobody stops a plan better than Petrosian. I want a game with more plans in it than one player can stop.
The game in 6 chapters
- 1
An English set-up meets a King's Indian moves 1–7
Petrosian starts with Nf3, g3 and c4. Spassky answers with the King's Indian and Panno's ...Nc6 and ...a6, aiming ...b5 at the c4 pawn.
- 2
Caging the knight on a5 moves 8–13
8.d5 sends the knight to a5. Nd2, Qc2 and b3 guard c4 three times, so the knight has nothing to do. Spassky turns to the kingside with ...e5, ...Ng4 and ...f5.
- 3
The knight takes the long way moves 14–18
Petrosian moves the knight from c3 to d1, clearing the long diagonal for Bb2. Spassky hits c4 with ...b5 and pushes ...e4, and the dark-squared bishops come off on b2.
- 4
The exchange offer moves 19–23
Spassky pushes ...f4, Petrosian takes with the g-pawn, and after ...Bh3 lets the rook on f1 go with 21.Ne3. Bg4 points the bishop at e6.
- 5
The knight takes the bait moves 23–25
23...Nxf4 wins a pawn and walks into Rxf4 and Be6+. With g7 and h8 covered by the queen, the rook has to block on f7, pinned.
- 6
The net closes moves 26–30
Ne4 and Nxd6 bring a knight to f7's door. Spassky's queen checks and the rook comes to a7, but Bxf7+ and Qh8+ finish it: the king must take the queen, and Nxf7+ forks king and queen.