Originally posted by hamworld
Hmm. This game and the one vs Mecking where Petrosian played as White vs the Modern Defence reminds me of something that has been bothering me subconsciously for a while: I just don't understand the weak square concept. Never have. The positional sacrifice concept is also hard for me to understand. I've maybe used that idea in *one* chess game of mine.
...[text shortened]... tactics. Should I hire a grandmaster to pound the fundamental positional concepts in my brain?
Hi Hamworld,
I can think of no better person to show you the concept of weak squares than Petrosian himself.
In this game, he uses a spectacular combination involving the loss (or should I say gift?) of his queen to make all the dark squares around Black's king weak- so weak that the GM playing black resigns before he is mated.
One could even more accurately say that the dark square weaknesses were already in the position, and that Petrosian merely used the combination to exploit those weaknesses. It is highly likely that his recognition of the weak squares is what led to the combination.
Note how Petrosian exploits the dark squares to take complete control of the black position- he is not worried about what pieces leave the board, he is happy to use the ones still remaining on the board.
Hopefully, this will also broaden your opinion of how Petrosian played.
[Event "Bled"]
[Site "Bled"]
[Date "1961.09.10"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Petrosian, Tigran V"]
[Black "Pachman, Ludek"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A04"]
[PlyCount "41"]
[EventDate "1961.09.03"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "19"]
[EventCountry "YUG"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1999.07.01"]
1. Nf3 c5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 g6 4. O-O Bg7 5. d3 e6 6. e4 Nge7 7. Re1 O-O 8. e5
d6 9. exd6 Qxd6 10. Nbd2 Qc7 11. Nb3 Nd4 12. Bf4 Qb6 13. Ne5 Nxb3 14. Nc4 Qb5
15. axb3 a5 16. Bd6 Bf6 17. Qf3 Kg7 18. Re4 Rd8 19. Qxf6+ Kxf6 20. Be5+ Kg5 21. Bg7 1-0