Tigran Petrosyan's Speech

Tigran Petrosyan was born in Tiflis. From the 40s he began playing chess. His first achievements were during the All-Union Youth Championships. In 1962 after winning the candidates tournament he got the right to challenge Mikhail Botvinnik for the world champion title. Tigran Petrosyan won Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963 and got the world champion title. In 1966 he retained his world chess title by defeating Boris Spassky. While being in USSR National team he won 9 times at the chess Olympiads (1958-1974), 8 times - in the European team championships (1957-1983). He had a lot of world records. During the USSR 6 championships he did not lose any game, at 10 World Chess Olympiads (from 1958-1978) he achieved an impressive result - 79 wins, 50 draws, 1 defeat. Patience and skill of defense made Tigran Petrosyan difficult to defeat. Although he conceded the title of champion, Tigran Petrosyan was one of the strongest chess players in the world for many years. Since 1952 he was International Grandmaster, since 1960 - Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. Tigran Petrosyan was a chess theoretician-analyst, editor of the “Chess Moscow” magazine (1963-1966), editor-in-chief of the “64” weekly newspaper from 1968-1977. Since 1984 the Central Chess House in Yerevan is named after the 9th World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosyan. Died in Yerevan.