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Robert James Fischer vs Tigran Petrosian
Second Piatigorsky Cup (1966), Santa Monica, CA USA, rd 9, Jul-31
Sicilian Defense: Paulsen. Bastrikov Variation (B48)  ·  1/2-1/2

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
1/2-1/2

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jul-06-10  ckeckmate: Five years later Fischer opted to exchange the knights to creat an isolated pawn on file A.
Jan-01-15  zydeco: Petrosian says that he chose this line against his better judgment - he was surprised by Fischer's opening choice.

Fischer rejected 16.Bf4 because of 16....f6, although Petrosian had planned 16....Nd7 17.fxe6 Nf6.

On move 20, Petrosian writes: "White's plays is logical while black has long been balancing on an abyss. Fischer, therefore, without long thought, captured the KP, feeling, not without foundation, that the agony of black's army had begun. But I have already stated that in this system [Paulsen's Variation] it is the tactical points of concentration that save black."

If 21.Rxf8 Nxe6

If 23.Rf7+ Kb6 24.Rc8? Bc5+

Fischer played very purposefully and logically in this game, and Petrosian had to be extremely resourceful to draw.

Jul-23-15  RookFile: Whatever its objective merits, Petrosian was one of the very few players that could hold this sort of a position for a draw against Fischer.
Aug-26-16  ewan14: Fischer not better than Petrosian in. 1966. ?
Aug-26-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  AylerKupp: They were probably pretty close in playing strength. Although FIDE did not start to formally publish its rating list until 1970, Dr. Elo created several unofficial rating lists from 1967 to 1998. In his first list from June 1967 (https://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo19...), he ranked Fischer and Spassky as #1 with ratings of 2670 and Petrosian as #3 with a rating of 2660. And since until 1998 or so the Elo rating lists were rounded to the nearest 5 rating points, their rating differential could have been as high as 18 points (2674 to 2656) or as low as 2 points (2666 to 2664). Quite a range of uncertainty.
Aug-26-16  Boomie: Not to mention Chessmetrics, which has a bunch together in the first part of the year and Fischer pulling away toward the end.

http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Summ...

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