Welcome to Tiger’s Den! Tigran Petrosian, the ninth world chess champion, was one of the deepest thinkers the chess world has ever seen. His handling of complex strategic positions was legendary. Now, for the first time, Russian international master Igor Yanvarjov has put together a superb collection of virtually all the known games played by Petrosian – with both colors – in the King’s Indian Defense and other closely related Indian structures. The author’s objective was, first of all, to reveal the richness of Petrosian’s chess world and to follow the strategic development of the King’s Indian Defense through the prism of Petrosian’s creative work. He does this with the presentation of almost 300 deeply annotated, complete games. Contents include: Preface by Levon Aronian; Foreword by Igor Zaitsev; The Classical Variation; The Sämisch System ; The Fianchetto Variation; The Benoni; Other Systems; Portrait of a Chess Player; Lessons from Petrosian; The Problem of the Exchange; “Furman’s Bishop”; “Pawns are the soul of chess”; Playing by Analogy; Maneuvering Battle; Experiments; Realist or Romantic?; The King’s Indian with Colors – and Flanks – Reversed; Appendix; Index of Tabiyas; ECO/Opening/Tabiya Indexes. This splendid collection of annotated games will not only have enormous appeal to King’s Indian aficionados, but to all chessplayers who wish to expand their understanding of the strategic concepts underpinning the royal game as a whole.

Tigran Petrosian is a titan of chess history. All agree he was a genius of strategy, defense and sacrifice, but didn t he take too many draws? Possibly so, but when Petrosian selected and annotated his best games, that flaw disappeared, leaving only brilliance and profound chess understanding. As Garry Kasparov said: "My games with the 9th World Champion broadened my understanding of chess. Had it not been for these two defeats, I would possibly not have reached the top in chess." This book is an English translation of a Russian classic that is a favorite of many grandmasters, including Mihail Marin and Levon Aronian. A literal translation of the Russian title might be 'The Strategy of Soundness' but Python Strategy is a better fit for Petrosian s more ambitious games. As another World Champion, Max Euwe, once wrote: "Petrosian is not a tiger that pounces on its prey, but rather a python that smothers its victim."

Tigran Petrosian (1929-1984) was World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969 and was one of the strongest players in the world throughout his lengthy career. Petrosian was a Candidate for the World Championship on eight occasions (1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1971, 1974, 1977 and 1980). He won the world championship in 1963 by defeating Botvinnik, successfully defended it in 1966 against Spassky, and lost it in 1969 to Spassky. Thus, he was the defending World Champion or a World Champion Candidate in ten consecutive three-year cycles. This book was originally published in Descriptive Chess Notation. Since that time, Descriptive has become almost obsolete. For that reason, all 50 games in this book have been converted into modern Algebraic Notation and are included in an appendix in the back of the book.

This book describes the intense rivalry--and collaboration--of the four players who created the golden era when USSR chess players dominated the world. More than 200 annotated games are included, along with personal details--many for the first time in English. Mikhail Tal, the roguish, doomed Latvian who changed the way chess players think about attack and sacrifice; Tigran Petrosian, the brilliant, henpecked Armenian whose wife drove him to become the world's best player; Boris Spassky, the prodigy who survived near-starvation and later bouts of melancholia to succeed Petrosian--but is best remembered for losing to Bobby Fischer; and "Evil" Viktor Korchnoi, whose mixture of genius and jealousy helped him eventually surpass his three rivals (but fate denied him the title they achieved: world champion).

Tigran Petrosian was a World Chess Champion and a true legend of the game. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" because of his incredible defensive skills that made him a formidable opponent who was virtually impossible to defeat. Petrosian was the master of restraint, prophylaxis and prevention. He could spot and defuse threats well before they were created, suck the life out an opponent's position and then seize a vice-like grip on the game. In this book, International Master Thomas Engqvist selects and examines his favourite Petrosian games, and shows us how we can all learn and improve our chess by studying Petrosian's masterpieces. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, the Move by Move format greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. This is an excellent way to improve your chess skills and knowledge. Thomas Engqvist is an International Master from Sweden. He has over 30 years experience as a chess coach and teacher.

He describes and analyses, in depth, his most memorable encounters-both famous victories and painful defeats, against the best chess players of the last 50 years. --