The 1966 World Championship Match was one of the hardest fought and most exciting matches of this series. It was played under the traditional rules of a 24 game match, time limit was 40 moves in 21/2 hours, and if a 12-12 tie the champion would retain his title. This was a significant factor since the Botvinnik-Bronstein match and the first Botvinnik-Smyslov Match had both ended in a 12-12 tie. There were political implications in this because the Soviets claimed that this was due to the superiority of the Soviet System. The Soviets said, "All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others " Botvinnik was declared to be "First Among Equals." Spassky had qualified to play in the match for the World Championship by defeating Keres (6-4), Geller (51/2-21/2) and Tal (7-4) in candidates matches Bobby Fischer has refused to compete in this world championship cycle, after publishing an article in Sports Illustrated magazine entitled "The Russians Have Fixed World Chess." Fischer claimed that the top Russians had agreed to draws in all their games against each other to save their energies to play against Fischer.

In 1966 and 1969 Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky contested two epic battles for the world crown. In the first of these Petrosian became the only world champion to actually win a title defence for 32 years when his inspired defensive technique thwarted all of Spassky's aggressive intentions. In the second of these two ferocious fights Spassky eventually broke through to seize the world title. En route the two great players created some of the most beautiful chess ever witnessed at this high level, sparkling with numerous sacrifices of rook for bishop or knight, piece sacrifices to inaugurate enduring attacks and even a stunning queen sacrifice by Petrosian in game 10 of the first encounter.

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."

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).