From the rear cover :

“Tigran Petrosian, the ninth world chess champion, was one of the deepest thinkers the chess world has ever seen. His handling of complex positions was legendary.
With his rare strategic feeling and exceptional vision, Petrosian gradually became one of the top exponents of the art of the exchange sacrifice, and perhaps the leading protagonist for the positional exchange sacrifice.

Acclaimed author Vassilios Kotronias has assembled a splendid collection of Petrosian’s games, exemplifying the artist at work. The Greek grandmaster presents 36 games – all deeply annotated – in which he puts the Tiger’s signature sacrifice under the analytical microscope. And each game has an exceptional introduction putting it into historical perspective.

As noted by American grandmaster Alex Fishbein in the Foreword:
You will find your share of positional exchange sacrifices here. But you will also see exchanges sacrificed in the midst of a crushing attack. You will see sacrifices born of desperation, to save a bad ending. You will see correct and incorrect sacrifices. In fact, Tigran Petrosian will lose some games here. This is real life; there are mistakes, and the author explains it all to you.
Vassilios Kotronias has brought you the material in a way that will enhance your appreciation of chess as an art form. He has also offered you practical lessons you can use in your own chess endeavours.

You are already familiar with the exchange sacrifice as an art form. Now enjoy the brilliant games of its greatest artist, Tigran Petrosian.”

About the Book

This is a very interesting and enjoyable book.

It is also a very unusual, or rather original, book in that it focuses on a specific facet of one great player’s handling of chess positions. Certainly there are books dedicated, say, to Tal’s attacks or Karpov’s endgame play, but it is difficult to think of other books with such a specific subject based on a single player. All of which makes Kotronias’ book all the more enticing to look at. Plus, of course, it is a facet of the game for which Petrosian was justly famous.

As stated in the blurb above, the bulk of the book (257 of the 304 pages) is devoted to 36 annotated games, presented in chronological order spanning the years 1947-1980. Many of the games feature the strongest possible opponents from those times, eg Spassky, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Gligoric, Fischer, Hubner, Korchnoi amongst others. The book also gives the unannotated scores of a further 88 games. Kotronias does this for three reasons:
1 completeness ;
2 to give the reader food for thought (he invites readers to analyse the games without initially using computer assistance) ;
3 aesthetics! As Kotronias puts it: “Many of the examples which follow are true gems of sacrificial play and a treat for the eye”.
A nice touch is that these games, although unannotated, have a diagram near the point where the exchange sac occurs, so that readers who are too lazy for reason 2 can at least appreciate reason 3!

The book also includes:
– an Introduction by the author, which adds another annotated game (less deeply than the others) – the famous Reshevsky-Petrosian exchange sac (…Re6!)
– a nice foreword by GM Alex Fishbein ;
– an index of players ;
– an index of openings (ECO codes, not names).

Kotronias’ Style of Annotation

The annotated games, to a greater or lesser extent, follow a pattern:
– an introduction, of varying length, which puts the game into its sporting and historical context  and provides an overview of the game;
– the whole game itself is analysed, especially the middlegames and most deeply around and after the exchange sac;
– a short epilogue where the author sums up the game, and often draws conclusions that can be applied more widely.

Despite his evident admiration for Petrosian, Kotronias’ annotations are objective. Indeed, some of the annotated games are losses for Petrosian, and in other games the author points out when the exchange sac was unsound (or a second-rate choice) even when Tigran prevailed.
As befits a player of Kotronias’ strength (he was regularly in the world’s top 100 players in the 2000’s, with a 2600+ rating) his analysis is sometimes very deep, but he  favours explanations over lengthy variations, reserving the heavy analysis for the most complex positions. Indeed, he is a very readable annotator.

Example Game Annotation

Anyway, here is an excerpt, taken from the famous Petrosian-Spassky 1966 match, game 10:

[fen] r1bq1rk1/7p/p2p4/nppPnp2/2P5/1P4P1/PQ1NB2P/R2N1RK1 b – – 0 19
[/fen]

[pgn pieceSymbol=”figurines” navigation_Board=”none”]
[FEN “r1bq1rk1/7p/p2p4/nppPnp2/2P5/1P4P1/PQ1NB2P/R2N1RK1 b – – 0 19”]
[Setup “1”]
f4 $2

{Spassky had committed a couple of inaccuracies so far,
but the text move is a rather serious mistake, giving up control of the vital
square e5. It was imperative to avoid that, focusing instead on bringing more
forces to the kingside. With the above reasoning in mind, one of the following
two continuations should have been preferred:} ({(a)} 19… Bd7 20. Ne3 Qf6 21.
Rab1 Rae8 22. Ng2 Qg7 23. Bh5 Ng6 24. Qxg7+ Kxg7 25. Rf2 Kh6 $14) ({or (b)}
19… Qf6 20. Nf3 Bd7 21. Nxe5 Qxe5 22. Qxe5 dxe5 23. Nb2 e4 24. Kf2 Nb7 25.
Ke3 Nd6 26. Kf4 Kg7 27. Nd1 bxc4 28. Bxc4 a5 29. Ne3 a4 $14 {In either case
White’s chances are preferable but there is nothing essentially wrong with
Black’s position and he should be able to hold.})20. gxf4 $6

{The only move
of Tigran’s in this game that deserves some criticism, but without it the
brilliant game conclusion would never have seen the light of day. Thus, as a
spectator and enthusiast I am grateful to him for making this error, but as an
author and professional player I am obliged to offer the following powerful
improvement:} ({In fact,} 20. Rxf4 $1 {would have easily won. After} Rxf4 21.
gxf4 Ng6 22. Ne4 $1 Nxf4 23. Ndf2 $1 {it does not take too much time to
realise that Black is fighting a hopeless cause:}) {[#]}20… Bh3 $5

{
Succumbing to temptation, but bitter experience should have taught Spassky
that Tigran rarely cared about an exchange! Although the move is not in itself
bad, it is the prelude to an error as the intention to capture the f1 rook is
wrong.} (20… Rxf4 21. Rxf4 Qg5+ 22. Kh1 Qxf4 23. Nc3 Qd4 $1 {[#] This was
the most clear-cut way to play, with White having just a minimal edge after}
24. Rf1 b4 25. Nd1 Nb7 26. Qc2 Bh3 27. Nf3 $1 Qf4 $1 28. Ng5 $1 Bg2+ $1 29.
Kxg2 Qxg5+ 30. Kh1 Kh8 31. Qe4 $14 {The line is spectacular, but both players
should have been able to find these moves in view of the relatively forced
nature of the position.}) 21. Ne3 $1

{Take the rook, please! [#]} Bxf1 $2

{
A clear case of understimating the danger; this move seals Black’s doom. The
thing here is that White’s bishop will have no counterpart on the light
squares after the removal of its counterpart, so this capture should have by
all means been avoided. The critical line runs} (21… Rxf4 22. Rxf4 Qg5+ 23.
Rg4 $1 Nxg4 24. Nxg4 Bxg4 25. Bxg4 Qxg4+ 26. Kh1 Qd4 $8 27. Rg1+ Kh8 28. Qxd4+
cxd4 {(Burgess/Emms./Nunn) but White has only a minimal edge in the final
position; Black will not find it hard to neutralise White’s plus.})*
[/pgn]

Other quotes from the book

In the intros and epilogues to the games, Kotronias makes a number of observations, some of them quite repeatable, for example:

“Choosing the right way to attack requires perhaps a greater sense of danger than the one required to choose the best way of defence.”

“We should never forget that we are only human beings and not machines, and thus, as long as players of approximately the same level compete, psychology and energy will always play a small or bigger role for the final outcome. A trivial thought, but the exceptional depends on a number of trivial factors, do you not think?”

Conclusion

“I sincerely hope that you will find the games presented in this book not only enjoyable, but instructive.” writes the author in his introduction.

Well, this reviewer always enjoys well-annotated game collections of great players which are written by an engaging writer, and this book hits the mark in all these respects.

The theme is an interesting one (in both parts, Petrosian and the exchange sac) and the selected games are fascinating. The book isn’t a formal study of when/why exchange sacrifices work and when they don’t (perhaps the point is that knowing this comes from accumulated experience, calculation and judgement)  but it is easy to believe that study of these games will help players improve their judgement in this area.

There is something in this book for a wide range of playing strengths and is highly recommended.

Colin Purdon, December 23rd 2022

Book Details :

• Flexicover : 304 pages
• Publisher:Russell Enterprises (15 Sept. 2022)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1949859487
• ISBN-13: 978-1949859485
• Product Dimensions: 15.24 x 1.91 x 22.86 cm

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