When to break the principles of chess

Hi all

Petrosian can be a very dangerous tactician as this sacrifice video shows:

https://youtu.be/8q6gNNa-tT8

( My Petrosian playlist is here: https://kingscrusher.tv/tigranpetrosian )

But also Petrosian can seemingly defy the gravity of opening principles. Here is a fascinating game of Tigran Petrosian in his pet b6 line:

An unusual b6 instead of c5 scores well for Petrosian. Perhaps Petrosian just likes celebrating White's weakened light squares without having to commit to giving up the dark square bishop :

The bishop goes all the way back - is the Queen on g4 now a future "tempo gainer"?

Petrosian's King seems safe enough:

This is starting to look a bit scary for White:

Has White factored in what Black can do here?

Quite a lot of compensation for losing the exchange:

Brutal final position

Takeaway points

• In closed openings, tempo loss or otherwise might not mean much. If it is not exploitable it sometimes means you can get away with it!
• Petrosian's b6 instead of the usual c5 is a nice "pet line" - overall he used it with great success!
• A Queen can quite easily become a Tempo Gainer later

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