Kasparov – Petrosian

Former World Champion Petrosian beat me twice in 1981. My aggressive play did not bring me any luck, so at the super-tournament at Bugojno, I decided to try to play positionally against him. The result was one of my best games.

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Date: 1982.??.??
Location: ?
Tournament: Bugonjo
Round:
Opening:
Submitted by:
Published on: February 9, 2020

[Event "Bugonjo"] [Site "?"] [Date "1982.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Kasparov"] [Black "Petrosian"] [Result "1-0"] [PlyCount "55"] 1.d4 {Former World Champion Petrosian beat me twice in 1981. My aggressive play did not bring me any luck, so at the super-tournament at Bugojno, I decided to try to play positionally against him. The result was one of my best games.} Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.g3 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 O-O 7.Bg2 d5 {A quiet system. I just want to get my pieces developed comfortably.} 8.O-O dxc4 9.Na3 c5 10.dxc5 Qxc5 11.Rac1 Nc6 12.Nxc4 Qe7 {Petrosian reacts a bit nervously, and will find it hard to develop his bishop.} 13.Nfe5 Nxe5 {13...Bd7 14.Nxd7 Qxd7 15.Qxd7 Nxd7 16.Nd6} 14.Nxe5 Nd5 {An attempt to limit the power of my bishop, but the d5-square is now a target.} 15.Rfd1 Nb6 16.Qa5 {An interesting move. The idea is to transfer my queen to c5 at the appropriate time. As it turns out, that moment will be the final move of the game!} g6 {This creates holes in the kingside, but without a dark-squared bishop there is not too much I can do with them.} 17.Rd3 Nd5 18.e4 {One might think that Petrosian welcomed this development, since now my bishop is cut off by its own pawn. But I have other ideas for the bishop.} Nb6 19.Bf1 Re8 20.R3d1 {The rook is no longer accomplishing anything on the third rank, and I need to bring my bishop into the game.} Rf8 21.a3 Kg7 22.b3 Kg8 23.a4 {My pawns are sneaking up the queenside with a purpose. I can now plan on moving a rook to c5 and then bringing the queen behind it for support from c3 which also operates on the long diagonal.} Rd8 {Black must try to contest the open files, but now the weakness of the back rank becomes important.} 24.Qc5 {Here Petrosian resigned. If 24...Re8, then I would have exchanged queens and then checked on the 8th rank, followed by an advance of the a-pawn, which would have deprived the bishop at c8 from its defense.} Qxc5 25.Rxd8+ Qf8 {25...Kg7 26.Rxc5} 26.Rxf8+ Kxf8 27.Rc7 {The invasion of the rook on the seventh rank is decisive, even though the material is even.} f6 28.Ng4 1-0