Although chess was played in ancient Armenia, as evidenced by manuscripts of the 12th and 13th centuries, only Tigran Petrosyan can be called the first outstanding Armenian chess player. Yes, perhaps, and not only at the level of this republic, but also on a global scale. In the Soviet Union, people were very keen on chess, this game can be seen in many films and works of literature. Championships were held in every city and region. On many benches in the park, pairs of players sat, surprising the opponent with coups.
Due to the extraordinary popularity of the game, there were many clubs and sections where coaches taught children from an early age to think ahead. After all, this is a game for thinking people. With so many enthusiastic players from all over the Soviet Union, it was very difficult to get to the top of the chess Olympus, but Tigran Petrosyan succeeded, so much so that his playing style is still popular among players all over the world.
In the article, we will consider the biography of the grandmaster, the beginning and end of his career, the highlights of his chess career. What Tigran Vartanovich Petrosyan was doing in addition to the intellectual game, what titles he had during his lifetime, how his descendants honor him now, we will tell further.
Youth
The future champion was born in an Armenian family, who at that time lived in the capital of Georgia, Tiflis (now Tbilisi), on June 17, 1929. He and his sister Bartush lived in poverty, and his father worked as a gatekeeper to the House of Officers. Even when Tigran Petrosyan was very young, his mother died. Soon after her family buried her father. His older sister was engaged in the upbringing of the boy.
Since childhood, Tigran fell in love with the game of chess and devoted all his free time to his hobby. In the early 40s, he studied under the guidance of A. Ebralidze in the Tbilisi Palace of Pioneers, where in 1.5 years he learned to play a thoughtful and calculated game. His coach really appreciated the Cuban player Capablanca, teaching the great master’s playing style to his students. The respectful attitude towards the Cuban was transferred to the young chess player, and he remained his imitator until the end of his life.
Over time, participating and winning youth championships, Tigran Petrosyan felt the need to study and develop further.
First big win
When the Second World War ended, the chess player Tigran Petrosyan began an active advance towards world fame. Already at the age of 16, he loudly declared his talent at the youth championship of the USSR, held in 1945. The following year, he again took the highest award, repeating his last year’s success.
After 5 years, they already wanted to see Petrosyan in Moscow, where he continued his studies with eminent masters, conducting constant training with experienced Soviet chess players. Immediately after the move, he participated in the men's championship of the Soviet Union and took the 3rd prize, sharing it with Yefim Geller from Odessa, but in 1951 he proved his mastery by becoming the owner of a gold medal. Then Petrosyan shows the grandmaster class of the game, and he is put forward by the coach to participate in international competitions.
Constantly improving, Petrosyan moved towards the conquest of chess Olympus. In 1953 he was invited to participate in the tournament of applicants for world championship, held in Switzerland, in the city of Zurich. There he showed an excellent result, taking 5th place.
Recognition in the Homeland
In the Soviet Union, sporting achievements were often political in nature, and the winner was awarded and provided all sorts of benefits. This was especially true of chess. The political leaders of the country watched every championship, as our players could well qualify for prizes in world championships.
Therefore, chess players felt extraordinary tension and pressure from the side, afraid to show themselves as a failure.
Petrosyan also played very responsibly, because when he entered the world’s chess arena, players from the opposite political camp became his rivals. And here, in no case could you hit your face in the mud. In 1962, Tigran Vartanovich won the applicants tournament, thereby achieving participation in a crucial match with M. Botvinnik, where he won a landslide victory. Already in the next, 1963, he won the title of world champion.
Honorary awards
For such accomplishments, the grandmaster was awarded, giving a prize of 2,000 rubles. For comparison, we can say that the average salary at that time was 85 rubles per month. It was an incredibly large amount. Moreover, after the closing ceremony of the match, the Union of Composers of the Armenian SSR presented its gift to the great compatriot - the brand new GAZ-21 car, although Tigran Vartanovich was not a good driver and rarely used it.
At 33, a chess player outperformed the strongest player in the world. Repeating the achievements of his Cuban idol Capablanca, Petrosyan won the high title of world champion 6 times in a row. Only in 1969 Spassky took the championship.
The biography of Tigran Petrosyan has a huge number of victories both at the country's championships and in world competitions of players and teams from different countries.
First place in the ranking
In 1964, the first rating of the world's great chess players, created by Arpad Elo, was released. The honorable first place was halved by Tigran Vartanovich Petrosyan and Robert Fisher. Their rating was 2690. Until 1980, he was listed in this list in the top six. And according to another version of Kina-Divinsky, our champion entered the top ten best chess players in the world from the 18th century to 1987.
With the advent of computers, the moves of great chess players in different periods were checked and the result of Guid-Bratko’s “least mistakes” was given precisely by Petrosyan.
Character traits
The chess player Tigran Petrosyan, whose photo you can see in the article, had a rather complex character. Many ill-wishers and envious people rated him as a quick-tempered and tactless person. They cited the scandalous end of the duel in Odessa between him and Viktor Korchnoi in 1974, when emotions near the chessboard reached the limit. But many historians attribute a greater role to this rival than Petrosyan himself.
Of course, any champion will not reach a high level without diligence and diligence, zeal for victory and extraordinary wisdom. Naturally, Petrosyan was a stubborn and meticulous man who loved to get to the bottom of things, it was not for nothing that he was given the nickname Iron Tigran.
People who knew him better claimed the opposite, that Tigran Vartanovich was an unusually good-natured person, had a good sense of humor, was warm with his friends and loved being with his family, playing football and backgammon with his sons, frying barbecue and gardening.
Family life
Everyone knows the popular wisdom that behind every great man is a great woman. That was exactly what Tigran Petrosyan’s wife was. Chess and Rona Yakovlevna Avineser - this is what he loved most. The wife of Tigran Vartanovich was born in Kiev, on Podil, was Jewish by nationality. Before meeting with the chess player, she was already married. From her first marriage, her son was born - Michael. Petrosyan loved him as a native, and Misha called him his father.
In marriage, a common child was born, also a boy named Vartan, in honor of Father Petrosyan. They say that Rona Yakovlevna was also courted by the chess player from Odessa, Yefim Geller, and she could not make a choice between two suitors. She told friends that a chess tournament would decide her fate; whoever won, she would marry for that. Lucky Petrosyan, who beat Geller by only half a point.
Wife's influence
Some close family friends claimed that his wife made Petrosyan the champion. She directed him all his life, gave practical advice on life and provided him with complete freedom from domestic anxieties. He had to deal only with chess. The remaining everyday issues Rona Yakovlevna successfully solved herself. All officials knew the woman’s efficiency, because it was she who managed to have their family changed a small apartment for luxurious mansions in the center of the capital.
At one time, Tigran Vartanovich did not receive higher education, his wife insisted on studying, and already in adulthood, he defended the dissertation of the candidate of philosophical sciences.
Tigran Petrosyan (see photo in the article) is a chess player who knows how to build a strategy of a chess battle in an original way, to harmoniously combine attack and defense, deep calculation with subtle intuition. Robert Fisher wrote: “Petrosyan can eliminate the danger of a situation 20 moves before it appears!”
In honor of the great chess player , tournaments and a medal are named, the Central House of Chess Players in Armenia. The FIDE World Organization declared 2004 the year of his memory. A postage stamp with his image was issued. Now in Armenian drams with a face value in 2000 there is a portrait of a great chess player.
Although the great master died on August 13, 1984, they still remember and honor him.