MARK RUBERY CHESS
The twelfth game of the 1966 World Championship between Petrosian and Spassky saw the challenger employ the irregular formation called the ‘Hippopotamus’, a line that is normally reserved for blitz games rather that an outing on the highest stage. Black’s set-up is most provocative and a reasonable analogy would be Mohammed Ali’s rope-a-dope technique, where the famous boxer would encourage his opponent to crowd him in to a small space, but always with the eye on a decisive counter-attack. The game sees the then champion, Tigran Petrosian, in majestic form and only time trouble errors prevented this largely forgotten game from being a masterpiece.
Petrosian, Tigran V - Spassky,Boris V [A42]
World Championship 26th Moscow (12) 1966
1.Nf3 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.d4 d6 4.Nc3 Nd7 5.e4 e6 6.Be2 b6 7.0–0 Bb7 8.Be3 Ne7 9.Qc2 h6 (The main strength of this formation is that it challenges White to find a constructive plan as he has nothing obvious to ‘bite’ on) 10.Rad1 0–0 11.d5 e5 12.Qc1 Kh7 13.g3 f5 (Bronstein, a devotee of the Kings Indian which this game now resembles prefers 13…a5, then… Nc5 and…Bc8 before playing the text move) 14.exf5 Nxf5 15.Bd3 Bc8 16.Kg2 Nf6 17.Ne4 Nh5 18.Bd2 Bd7 19.Kh1 Ne7 20.Nh4 Bh3 21.Rg1 Bd7 22.Be3 Qe8 23.Rde1 Qf7 24.Qc2 Kh8 25.Nd2! Nf5 26.Nxf5 gxf5 27.g4! e4 28.gxh5 f4 (With both his bishops attacked by pawns the world champion finds an exquisite solution-he sacrifices a rook!) 29.Rxg7! Qxg7 30.Rg1 Qe5 (But now the position looks highly confused: for the moment White has a material advantage, but one of his bishops will be lost and most probably, if he does not do something extraordinary, Black will simply be better.-Kasparov) 31.Nf3! (‘Petrosian rightly considered that, with the disappearance of the g7-bishop, the black king has suddenly become most uncomfortable, and secondly, with two arbiters watching, in one move Spassky would be unable to capture all three pieces simultaneously!-Bronstein)… exd3 (31…exf3 is effectively met by 32 Bd2 and Bc3) 32.Nxe5? (32 Qxd3! Bf5 33 Nxe5 {less spectacular but more effective is 33 Qe2}…Bxd3 34 Bd4! dex5 35 Bxe5+ Kh7 36 Rg7+ and White has a ‘windmill’ combination that was brilliantly executed in Torre-Lasker, Moscow 1925)… dxc2 33.Bd4 dxe5 34.Bxe5+ Kh7 35.Rg7+ Kh8 (The difference with this version of the ‘windmill’ is that White still has to deal with the c2-pawn, hence the perpetual check) 36.Rf7+ Kg8 37.Rg7+ Kh8 38.Rg6+ Kh7 39.Rg7+ 0,5-0,5
All chess players should have a hobby. – Saviely Tartakower