Tactics flow from superior positions

Hi all

Tigran Petrosian known as the "Iron Tiger" was also a master tactician as seen in the following video where I covered some of his amazing sacrifices:

https://youtu.be/8q6gNNa-tT8
(You can see more of Petrosian in my playlist here: http://kingscrusher.tv/tigranpetrosian )

But how do we get into such positions in the first place? Sometimes it is positional probing to cause weaknesses. Pawns DO NOT go backwards. So sometimes a "probing strategy" is the right thing to do to encourage the opponent's pawns forwards and leave "holes".

A shocking probing example game to create a massive g6 "hole" - the case of Petrosian vs Taimanov USSR championship 1955 (where Petrosian didn't lose any games!)

I came across in my studies this game of Tigran Petrosian which shocked me a little. Black seemed to be playing in a thematic manner in what today is a very popular Opening - the Slav defence.

Black played dxc4 as a prelude to e5

Then e5

Slight downside seems to be the f5 square. It seems Petrosian is looking more broadly at other light squares to weaken from this point onwards. He comes up with a way of damaging g6 control. And that proves pretty decisive:

This Bh7 check serves to weaken f7 slightly and mean that black might be tempted for f6 if later the f7 pawn is probed:

Later Rxd4

Rf4 later:

Rh4 later threatening Rxh6:

And here is the irreversible pawn move:

The whole set of squares or "complex" of squares f5,g6,h7 all WEAK now!

Final position:

You can see why Black is busted here from this analysis view of the game:

Essentially it is very hard to stop White from playing Ng6+

Takeaway points

• Petrosian was not content with just one light square weakness - he made it a "complex" of weaknesses or "set of weaknesses"
• Subtle moves like Bh7+ drag the King away from f7 making the f7 pawn more prone to attack later
• "Probing moves" like Rf4 can cause irreversible damage to the opponents position
• Petrosian was also a master tactician - but often the prelude to Petrosian's best combinations are when there are weaknesses around the opponent's king - just like most attacking combinatory players

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.Cheers, K