| Dec-11-04 | | karlzen: A truly fantastic perfomance by Petrosian. Black tries to avoid some lines of the QGD by playing 1...Nf6 to provoke Nf3 but white is cleverer and plays first Nbd2 and then the ingenious move a3 and, as Clarke writes, comes out with the "black" side of the QGA but with two tempi more! 12.Qc2 with the likely idea of 12...Bxb4+ 13.Ke2! is another beautiful move. Whites play after 13...b5 is just tremendous, with subtle ideas like Bh7+ (so the f8-rook loses a defender) and strong tactics like Rxd7 and Nb6. |
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| Jan-13-05 | | chesscookie: What a beautifully played game and great accompanying notes too. |
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| Mar-01-06 | | zarra: Who is this Peter Clarke, who has annotated the game? |
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| Mar-01-06 | | Karpova: <and then the ingenious move a3>
a manoeuver which can frequently be observed in Rubinstein's games |
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| Mar-01-06 | | zhentil: <Karpova> As the notes indicate, 5... cxd4 would equalize at once, when a3 looks more and more like a wasted tempo, and the knight belongs on c3. Petrosian was not known for his incisive opening play, but in this instance, the weak reaction by his (apparently) much weaker opponent gives him a great advantage. It was by no means forced, however. |
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| Mar-01-06 | | Resignation Trap: <zarra> Peter Clarke's biography can be found here: Peter Hugh Clarke . |
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| Aug-22-06 | | InspiredByMorphy: <zhetil> <As the notes indicate, 5... cxd4 would equalize at once> The position was and would already be equal. One might say that after 6. ...dxc4 black stands better than in the text, but no advantage has been attained. Clarke's notes for move six do not have the word equalize in them. |
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| Apr-12-09 | | blacksburg: oooohhh...pretty tactics... |
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| Apr-12-09 | | thomas1722: Nice game |
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| Apr-12-09 | | blacksburg: omg <karpova> what happened to your avatar??? i love Rubinstein, but Cookie Monster too...Rubinstein or Cookie Monster...Rubinstein, Cookie Monster...such difficult decisions that i am burdened with... |
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| May-10-09 | | ToTheDeath: An impressive miniature, full of pretty variations.
<17...Nxb4?> Black's position is already difficult, but this has to be the losing move. He needs to give up his queen with 17...bxc4! 18.Bxc6 Bxc6 19.Rxd8 Rfxd8 when with rook and bishop for queen, two strong bishops and an untouchable passed c pawn (20.Qxc4 Bb5) Black has good chances of saving the game. |
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| Oct-19-09 | | birthtimes: Capablanca also played some instructive games as White with the Nbd2 and c4 setup... |
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| May-04-11 | | lost in space: " a truly fantastic performance by Petrosioan"
Well, most of the maneuvers in this game are very well known - especially the win of a tempo with a3 dxc5 and b4.The rest is nicely played ... but fantastic?? |
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| Mar-11-17 | | zanzibar: Looking in detail at the accuracy of Clarke's annotations: <Only a closer examination reveals White's cunning idea-12...Bxb4+ 13.Ke2!! The Bishop would then have nothing better than to go back to e7, after which White could either recover the pawn at once by Bxf6 and Bxh7+ or, still stronger, continue 14.Rad1 Qc7 15.Ng5 h6 16.Bh7+ Kh8 17.h4 with a tremendous attack. > First of all, 14...Bd7 is likely better (giving equality when 14...Qc7 is +0.72/25 w sf8). Also, the engine doesn't think 15.Ng5 is best for White. But let's skip all that to evaluate the position where Clarke assesses White has a "tremendous attack". (Black to move after 17.h2-h4)
click for larger view
r1b2r1k /1pq1bppB/p1n1pn1p/6N1/2N4P/P3P3/1BQ1KPP1/3R3R b - - 0 17 This is interesting to me because I often try to attack with similar "wild abandon". It certainly looks strong on the surface, but does White even have compensation for the pawn? The engine evals the position as -0.81/26, showing that Black has adequate defenses. In fact, Black seems to be able to immediately defang the attack with 17...Na5, "pinning" the c4-knight. Then if 18.Ne5 Qxc2+ 19.Bxc2 and White's attack is much harder without the queen. If 18.Nxa5 Qxa5 (eyeing a3), and it seems that White does best retreating with 19.Bd3 e5 (screening the f6-knight). In fact, the engine likes to acknowledge White should retreat, and offers 18.Bd3 as perhaps best. The point is the difficulty of assessing an attack. Black cedes White the lsq's, but White can't do anything on the dsq's. Nor can White force a file open to the king, who just sidesteps to the corner. And without either rook or the QN getting into play, the king sits safe. |
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Mar-11-17
 | | Retireborn: <z> My instinct would be to play 15.g4 (also in answer to 14...Bd7) rather than 15.Ng5, to try and open lines quickly. I would say the position remains unclear though, although it is clear that 12...Bxb4+ is a much stronger move than the weakening 12...h6. |
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Sep-28-21
 | | kingscrusher: Peter Clarke seems to be an absolutely fantastic accomplished player judging by Wiki info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter... But it seems he was in the pre-engine era when analysing these games. The notes here are not engine checked liked they would be in any modern chess book. Instead of 17...Nb4 with the note "Despair", in fact black seems to be fine if bxc4 was played: Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian - Yuri M Kotkov 1-0 0.0, URS-ch U18 Leningrad URS 1946
click for larger viewAnalysis by Stockfish 14:
1. = (0.12): 18.Bxc6 Bxc6 19.Rxd8 Rfxd8 20.Qxc4 Bb5 21.Qe4 Bxf1 22.Kxf1 Rac8 23.g4 Rd5 24.Qf4 Kg8 25.h4 Bxh4 26.Nxh4 g5 27.Qf6 gxh4 28.Qxh6 Rc4 29.Qxh4 Kg7 30.Kg2 a5 31.bxa5 Rxa5 32.Kg3 Rca4 33.Qe7 Re4 34.Qc7 Rea4 35.Qc3+ e5 36.Kh2 Rxa3 I once remember GM Aron Summerscale talking about the errors in old books and some moves just completely losing to tactical resources in the pre-engine-checking era. |
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Sep-28-21
| | kingscrusher: 17.Be4 is an inaccuracy it seems
Better is 17.Rxd7
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian - Yuri M Kotkov 1-0 0.0, URS-ch U18 Leningrad URS 1946
click for larger viewAnalysis by Stockfish 14:
1. ± (1.20): 17...Qxd7 18.Nb6 Qb7 19.Nxa8 Ne7 20.Be4 Nd5 21.Bxd5 exd5 22.Qc7 Qxa8 23.Rc1 Bb2 24.Rc2 d4 25.h4 Bxa3 26.Qa5 d3 27.Rd2 Bc1 28.Rxd3 Bb2 29.Rd6 Rc8 30.Qxa6 |
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Dec-04-24
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Peter Clarke had an excellent reputation as a chess writer, which makes both his commentary and yours most interesting. SF and other engines have revealed new truths in games, haven't they? We should show mercy to the pre-silicon monster writers, stuck with primitive carbon-based CPUs. Heaven knows, mine is riddled with bugs... |
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Dec-04-24
 | | igiene: In my opinion, in chess as in life, there is no absolute truth, only a truth relative to the mindset of the time. Clarke's commentary is based on the concept, shared by all pre-computer players, that a significant material loss without tangible compensation inevitably leads to defeat. Then came the engines, which with 20-move analyses demonstrate that a draw is possible—provided one always makes the best moves, something that rarely happens in practice. |
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Kibitzing
Annotations by 
sac: 19.Rxd7