Did Garry Kasparov really conquer Tigran Petrosian's playing style?

Hi all

I once did a four part series on youtube called "Conquering a style" which may be fascinating to be relay here with replayable games.

Petrosian started with a draw with Kasparov in 1979 - a 23 move game, with final position:

It was two years later, in 1981, that Petrosian scored 2 key wins vs Kasparov:

At a critical moment, f6 would have caused Petrosian a great deal of problems, but instead Kasparov chose Qf6+ blocking the f pawn and later losing.

https://youtu.be/hlAiQOhUE8k

Later that year, another loss for Kasparov:

Petrosian made some very provocative moves including Kb7:

https://youtu.be/J1dZ9XdXMHU

In 1982, Kasparov had his first revenge game but to be fair it seems as though Petrosian had a lost opening:

https://youtu.be/nOynIujnFvk

Then in 1983, Kasparov won again thus leveling the score:

https://youtu.be/Jj3LAJOVgzw

But did Kasparov really conquer Petrosian's style? After doing this series I got some comments that actually Petrosian wasn't in the best of health and maybe this contributed to the losses.

[SSteinnes91 - 8 years ago] on Youtube commented:

Tal's health was certainly ill in later years, but it wasn't very good in his youth, either. He had to withdraw from the last quarter of the 1962 candidates tournament due to his health issues, at which time being born in 1936 should put him at the relatively young age of 25 or 26. He could beat literally anyone on a good day, but unfortunately, he didn't have too many of those.

Fun Puzzles!

Key Takeaway points

• Health plays a major role in the strength of chess players. We are human after all!
• Having a good opening position helps any player independent of their "style"
• A "style" in terms of World champions is more of a "stylistic default". World champions can play both tactically and positionally and are largely "universal" players good at all aspects of chess
• Kasparov had great difficulties against Petrosian in 1981 and needed even to seek advice from players such as Boris Spassky for handling Petrosian
• Whether or not Kasparov really conquered Petrosian's style is highly debatable. Anatoly Karpov has indicated he plays like Petrosian but for a win more often than a draw. Kasparov nearly got demolished 6-0 when playing his World championship first match against Kasparov. So if Karpov is derivative of Petrosian in terms of style, it seems the evidence is far the opposite!

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