MARK RUBERY CHESS
The backward movement of the knight is perhaps responsible for eliciting the greatest number of blunders as the limited range of the piece seems to make us focus mostly where it will go forward next rather than its range from behind.
A young Raymond Keene wrote the following about this clash between Petrosian and Bronstein. “When I first played over this game it made a deep impression on me. Above all I was amazed that such powerful and aggressive effects could be achieved from a quiet and symmetrical variation by purely positional means-by pressing against slightly weakened squares. Yet the game has become famous for entirely the wrong reasons-in fact it is a majestic positional masterpiece ruined by a tragic oversight”.
Petrosian,T - Bronstein,D [E65]
Candidates Tournament Amsterdam (2) 1956
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0–0 5.Nf3 c5 6.0–0 Nc6 7.d4 d6 8.dxc5 dxc5 9.Be3 Nd7 10.Qc1 Nd4 11.Rd1 e5 12.Bh6 Qa5 13.Bxg7 Kxg7 14.Kh1 Rb8 15.Nd2 a6 16.e3 Ne6 17.a4 h5 18.h4 f5 19.Nd5 Kh7 20.b3 Rf7 21.Nf3 Qd8 22.Qc3 Qh8 23.e4 fxe4 24.Nd2 Qg7 25.Nxe4 Kh8 26.Rd2 Rf8 27.a5 Nd4 28.b4 cxb4 29.Qxb4 Nf5 30.Rad1 Nd4 31.Re1 Nc6 32.Qa3 Nd4 33.Rb2 Nc6 34.Reb1 Nd4 35.Qd6 Nf5 (After 36 Qc7 the Black position would not hold for much longer-in fact Stockfish assesses it at +6. Instead Petrosian ignored the attack on his queen and perpetrated one of the most infamous examples of chess blindness. The backward movement of the knight has been responsible for many a catastrophe) 36.Ng5?? Nxd6 0–1
Bronstein remarked on the incident as thus: ‘I will never forget the look of horror with which Petrosian greeted the departure of his queen from the board. With an expression of hopeless resignation, he silently stopped the clocks. A tragic end to what might have been the game of his life.’
When the tournament moved to Leeuwarden for round ten, the Frisian tourist association organized the official reception dinner for the participants. At the end of the dinner there was an ice cream confection in the shape of a chessboard with marzipan and chocolate pieces. When it was his turn to help himself, Bronstein gingerly detached the marzipan queen and, turning to Petrosian, said: “Here is your queen back, Tigran!”