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107-498: Tigran Vardani Petrosian ( Armenian : Տիգրան Վարդանի Պետրոսյան ; Russian : Тигран Вартанович Петросян ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed " Iron Tigran " due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, which emphasized safety above all else. Petrosian is often credited with popularizing chess in Armenia . Petrosian

214-745: A Russian Jew born in Kiev , Ukraine. A graduate of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages , she was an English teacher and interpreter. She is buried at the Jewish section of the Vostryakovsky cemetery in Moscow. They had two sons: Vartan and Mikhail. The latter was Rona's son from the first marriage. His hobbies included football , backgammon , cross-country skiing , table tennis , and gardening . Petrosian died in Moscow of stomach cancer on 13 August 1984, and

321-452: A tiger looking for the opportunity to pounce, a python who slowly squeezes his victims to death, and as a crocodile who waits for hours to make a decisive strike. Boris Spassky , who succeeded Petrosian as World Chess Champion, described his style of play thus: "Petrosian reminds me of a hedgehog . Just when you think you have caught him, he puts out his quills." Petrosian's style of play, although highly successful for avoiding defeats,

428-561: A FIDE rating of 2000 or more. The title can also be acquired by getting a medal in U8, U10, U12, U14, U16 World Youth Championships or Continental and Regional Youth Championships of the women's section as well as by scoring more than 50% points in more than 7 games in the Olympiad. From 2017, direct titles are only awarded as long as a candidate can cross the minimum rating of 1800, however this requirement does not apply for direct WCM titles earned through

535-574: A Grandmaster. It is also possible to become a Grandmaster without ever having been an International Master. Larry Christiansen of the United States (1977), Wang Hao of China, Anish Giri of the Netherlands, Olga Girya of Russia (2021) and former world champions Mikhail Tal of the Soviet Union and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia all became Grandmasters without ever having been IMs. Bobby Fischer of

642-520: A consistent Proto-Indo-European pattern distinct from Iranian, and that the inflectional morphology was different from that of Iranian languages. The hypothesis that Greek is Armenian's closest living relative originates with Holger Pedersen (1924), who noted that the number of Greek-Armenian lexical cognates is greater than that of agreements between Armenian and any other Indo-European language. Antoine Meillet (1925, 1927) further investigated morphological and phonological agreement and postulated that

749-510: A crown of the sun shining above the twin peaks of Mount Ararat  – the national symbol of Petrosian's Armenian homeland. On 7 July 2006, a monument honouring Petrosian was opened in the Davtashen district of Yerevan, in the street named after Petrosian. Petrosian was also honoured on the third banknote series of the Armenian dram , with his image on the 2,000 dram banknote . Petrosian

856-859: A display of his often-overlooked tactical abilities. Petrosian was awarded the title of Master of Sport of the USSR in 1960, and won a second Soviet title in 1961. His excellent playing continued through 1962 when he qualified for the Candidates Tournament for what would be his first World Championship match. After playing in the 1962 Interzonal in Stockholm , Petrosian qualified for the Candidates Tournament in Curaçao along with Pal Benko , Miroslav Filip , Bobby Fischer , Efim Geller , Paul Keres , Viktor Korchnoi , and Mikhail Tal . Petrosian, representing

963-439: A factor in the later games. This advantage was increased by Botvinnik being much older than Petrosian. Whereas a multitude of draws in tournament play could prevent a player from taking first place, draws did not affect the outcome of a one-on-one match. In this regard, Petrosian's cautious playing style was well-suited for match play, as he could simply wait for his opponent to make mistakes and then capitalize on them. Petrosian won

1070-468: A loan from Armenian (compare to Armenian եւ yev , ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi ). Other loans from Armenian into Urartian includes personal names, toponyms, and names of deities. Loan words from Iranian languages , along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led some linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that

1177-467: A mistake, securing victory by capitalizing upon this mistake without revealing any weaknesses of his own. This style of play often led to draws , especially against other players who preferred to counterattack. Nonetheless, his patience and mastery of defence made him extremely difficult to defeat. He was undefeated at the 1952 and 1955 Interzonals , and in 1962 he did not lose a single tournament game. Petrosian's consistent ability to avoid defeat earned him

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1284-459: A mix of national federations. The title may also be awarded directly without going through the usual norm requirements in a few high-level tournaments, provided the player has a FIDE rating of over 2300. These include: Beginning with Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978, a number of women have earned the GM title. Since about 2000, most of the top 10 women have held the GM title. This should not be confused with

1391-425: A network of schools where modern Armenian was taught, dramatically increased the rate of literacy (in spite of the obstacles by the colonial administrators), even in remote rural areas. The emergence of literary works entirely written in the modern versions increasingly legitimized the language's existence. By the turn of the 20th century both varieties of the one modern Armenian language prevailed over Grabar and opened

1498-454: A prescribed level of achievement in tournaments at classical time controls under FIDE-approved conditions. The title Grandmaster is awarded to outstanding chess players by FIDE. Apart from World Champion , Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. In chess literature it is usually abbreviated to GM. The abbreviation IGM for "International Grandmaster" is occasionally seen, usually in older literature. The usual way to obtain

1605-634: A result, Petrosian developed a repertoire of solid positional openings , such as the Caro–Kann Defence . After training at the Palace of Pioneers for just one year, he defeated visiting Soviet grandmaster Salo Flohr at a simultaneous exhibition . By 1946, Petrosian had earned the title of Candidate Master . In that year alone, he drew against Grandmaster Paul Keres at the Georgian Chess Championship , then moved to Yerevan where he won

1712-404: A strong affinity for knights rather than bishops, a characteristic that is often attributed to the influence of Aron Nimzowitsch . A number of illustrative metaphors have been used to describe Petrosian's style of play. Harold C. Schonberg said that "playing him was like trying to put handcuffs on an eel . There was nothing to grip." He has been described as a centipede lurking in the dark,

1819-587: A strong chess player was initially used informally. From the late 19th century and onwards, various national chess federations began to draw up formal requirements for the use of such a title. The term "Grandmaster", in the form of a calque from German Großmeister , was a formal title in the Soviet Union, and had also been in informal use for the world's elite players for several decades before its institution by FIDE in 1950. FIDE's first titles were awarded in 1950 and consisted of 27 Grandmasters , 94 International Masters , and 17 Woman International Masters , known at

1926-694: A variation of the Caro–Kann Defence with his name, along with former world champion Vassily Smyslov : the Petrosian–Smyslov Variation, 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7. Armenian language Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Armenian

2033-768: Is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and norms (performance benchmarks in competitions including other titled players). Once awarded, titles are held for life except in cases of fraud or cheating . Open titles may be earned by all players, while women's titles are restricted to female players. Many strong female players hold both open and women's titles. FIDE also awards titles for arbiters, organizers and trainers. Titles for correspondence chess , chess problem composition and chess problem solving are no longer administered by FIDE. A chess title, usually in an abbreviated form, may be used as an honorific . For example, Viswanathan Anand may be styled as " GM Viswanathan Anand". The term "master" for

2140-475: Is achieved by a series of 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games with a performance rating of over 1700. Arena FIDE Master (AFM) is achieved by a series of 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games with a performance rating of over 1400. Arena Candidate Master (ACM) is achieved by a series of 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games with a performance rating of over 1100. Arena titles can be achieved on FIDE Online Arena ,

2247-545: Is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages . It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological changes within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization , although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ), Albanian and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian

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2354-512: Is awarded to strong chess players who are below the level of grandmaster. Instituted along with the Grandmaster title in 1950, it is usually abbreviated as IM in chess literature. Like the grandmaster title, the usual way to obtain the title is to achieve three required title norms over 27 or more games and a FIDE rating of 2400 or more. In general, an IM norm is defined as a performance rating of at least 2450 over 9 or more games. In addition,

2461-475: Is buried in the Moscow Armenian Cemetery . Petrosian was partially deaf and wore a hearing aid during his matches, which sometimes led to strange situations. On one occasion he offered a draw to Svetozar Gligorić , which Gligorić initially refused in surprise, but then changed his mind in a few seconds and re-offered the draw. Petrosian did not even respond to the offer, later winning the game. It

2568-545: Is clearly the dialect to be most closely related to Armenian. Eric P. Hamp (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis and even anticipates a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Armenian shares the augment and a negator derived from the set phrase in the Proto-Indo-European language * ne h₂oyu kʷid ("never anything" or "always nothing"),

2675-469: Is derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵipyós , with cognates in Sanskrit (ऋजिप्य, ṛjipyá ), Avestan ( ərəzifiia ), and Greek (αἰγίπιος, aigípios ). Hrach Martirosyan and Armen Petrosyan propose additional borrowed words of Armenian origin loaned into Urartian and vice versa, including grammatical words and parts of speech, such as Urartian eue ("and"), attested in the earliest Urartian texts and likely

2782-466: Is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. There are words used in Armenian that are generally believed to have been borrowed from Anatolian languages, particularly from Luwian , although some researchers have identified possible Hittite loanwords as well. One notable loanword from Anatolian is Armenian xalam , "skull", cognate to Hittite ḫalanta , "head". In 1985,

2889-454: Is the highest-ranking chess title restricted to women. FIDE introduced the WGM title in 1976, joining the previously introduced lower-ranking title, Woman International Master. The usual way to obtain the WGM title is similar to the open titles, where a FIDE rating of 2300 and three norms of 2400 performance rating is required against opponents who are higher rated than 2130 on average. The winner of

2996-601: Is the working language. Armenian (without reference to a specific variety) is officially recognized as a minority language in Cyprus , Hungary , Iraq , Poland , Romania , and Ukraine . It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . Candidate Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs ) for outstanding performance. The highest such title

3103-418: Is to Petrosian's advantage that his opponents never know when he is suddenly going to play like Mikhail Tal ." (Tal was known as the most aggressive attacker of his era.) Petrosian was known for his use of the " positional exchange sacrifice ", where one side sacrifices a rook for the opponent's bishop or knight. Kasparov discussed Petrosian's use of this motif: Petrosian introduced the exchange sacrifice for

3210-521: The kingside with h2–h4–h5, provoking weaknesses that would make it more difficult to defend later on. Faced with these threats, Petrosian devised a plan to maneuver his knight to the square d5, where it would be prominently placed in the centre and blockade the advance of White's pawns. With the rook vacated from e7, the black knight is free to move to d5, where it will be attacking the pawn on c3 and help support an eventual advance of his queenside pawn majority with ...b5–b4. The game

3317-675: The Armenian Chess Championship and the USSR Junior Chess Championship. Petrosian earned the title of Master during the 1947 USSR Chess Championship , though he failed to qualify for the finals. He set about improving his game by studying Nimzowitsch's My System and by moving to Moscow to seek greater competition. After moving to Moscow in 1949, Petrosian's career as a chess player advanced rapidly and his results in Soviet events steadily improved. He placed second in

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3424-458: The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (11–14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet (" օ " and " ֆ "), bringing the total number to 38. The Book of Lamentations by Gregory of Narek (951–1003) is an example of the development of a literature and writing style of Old Armenian by the 10th century. In addition to elevating the literary style and vocabulary of

3531-503: The Armenian genocide , mostly in the diaspora ). The differences between them are considerable but they are mutually intelligible after significant exposure. Some subdialects such as Homshetsi are not mutually intelligible with other varieties. Although Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th-century BC Behistun Inscription and in Xenophon 's 4th century BC history, The Anabasis ),

3638-565: The French Defence . As white, he often played the English Opening . Petrosian would often move the same piece multiple times in a few moves, confusing his opponents in the opening and threatening draws by threefold repetition in the endgame . In a game against Mark Taimanov during the 1955 USSR Chess Championship , Petrosian moved the same rook six times in a 24-move game, with four of those moves occurring on consecutive turns. He had

3745-631: The Greek language , the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages . Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-3rd millennium BC. Conceivably, Proto-Armenian would have been located between Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian, consistent with the fact that Armenian shares certain features only with Indo-Iranian (the satem change) but others only with Greek ( s > h ). Graeco-Aryan has comparatively wide support among Indo-Europeanists who believe

3852-631: The Indo-European homeland to be located in the Armenian Highlands , the " Armenian hypothesis ". Early and strong evidence was given by Euler's 1979 examination on shared features in Greek and Sanskrit nominal flection. Used in tandem with the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis, the Armenian language would also be included under the label Aryano-Greco-Armenic , splitting into Proto-Greek/Phrygian and "Armeno-Aryan" (ancestor of Armenian and Indo-Iranian ). Classical Armenian (Arm: grabar ), attested from

3959-528: The Mekhitarists . The first Armenian periodical, Azdarar , was published in grabar in 1794. The classical form borrowed numerous words from Middle Iranian languages , primarily Parthian , and contains smaller inventories of loanwords from Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, Arabic, Mongol, Persian, and indigenous languages such as Urartian . An effort to modernize the language in Bagratid Armenia and

4066-543: The Soviet Championship four times (1959, 1961, 1969, and 1975). Petrosian was born to Armenian parents on 17 June 1929, in Tbilisi , Georgian SSR (present-day Georgia ). As a young boy, Petrosian was an excellent student and enjoyed studying, as did his brother Hmayak and sister Vartoosh. He learned to play chess at the age of 8, though his illiterate father Vartan encouraged him to continue studying, as he thought chess

4173-511: The Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title. At 12 years, 4 months and 25 days, Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest person ever to qualify for the Grandmaster title in July 2021. The record was previously held by Sergey Karjakin at 12 years, 7 months for 19 years, Judit Polgár at 15 years and 4 months, and Bobby Fischer at 15 years, 6 months and 1 day for 33 years. The title International Master

4280-547: The World Girls Junior Championship and some other tournaments like Women's Continental Championship is automatically awarded the WGM title. From 2017, the direct titles are only awarded as long as she can reach the minimum FIDE rating of 2100. The current regulations can be found in the FIDE handbook. Woman International Master is next to the highest-ranking title given by FIDE exclusively to women. FIDE first awarded

4387-459: The 1951 Soviet Championship, thereby earning the title of international master . It was in this tournament that Petrosian faced world champion Botvinnik for the first time. Playing White, after obtaining a slightly inferior position from the opening, he defended through two adjournments and eleven total hours of play to obtain a draw. Petrosian's result in this event qualified him for the Interzonal

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4494-452: The 1957 USSR Championship, where out of 21 games played, Petrosian won seven, lost four, and drew the remaining 10. Although this result was only good enough for seventh place in a field of 22 competitors, his more ambitious approach to tournament play was met with great appreciation from the Soviet chess community. He went on to win his first USSR Championship in 1959, and later that year in the Candidates Tournament he defeated Paul Keres with

4601-408: The 5th century to the 19th century as the literary standard (up to the 11th century also as a spoken language with different varieties), was partially superseded by Middle Armenian , attested from the 12th century to the 18th century. Specialized literature prefers "Old Armenian" for grabar as a whole, and designates as "Classical" the language used in the 5th century literature, "Post-Classical" from

4708-481: The Armenian language by adding well above a thousand new words, through his other hymns and poems Gregory paved the way for his successors to include secular themes and vernacular language in their writings. The thematic shift from mainly religious texts to writings with secular outlooks further enhanced and enriched the vocabulary. "A Word of Wisdom", a poem by Hovhannes Sargavak devoted to a starling, legitimizes poetry devoted to nature, love, or female beauty. Gradually,

4815-605: The FM title is Alekhine Nouri from Philippines who was awarded the title after winning the 14th ASEAN Age Group Chess Championships 2013 in Thailand at age seven. The youngest player to gain the FM title by achieving an Elo rating of 2300 is Faustino Oro from Argentina who, when he was nine, hit 2314 Elo rating after participating in the ITT Ajedrez Martelli Jovenes Talentos 2023. Introduced in 2002 along with WCM,

4922-460: The Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian origins for these words and instead suggest native Armenian etymologies, leaving the possibility that these words may have been loaned into Hurro-Urartian and Caucasian languages from Armenian, and not vice versa. A notable example is arciv , meaning "eagle", believed to have been the origin of Urartian Arṣibi and Northeast Caucasian arzu . This word

5029-454: The Olympiad. Arena titles can be earned online using FIDE's server, and are intended for players in the lower rating band. Should a player with an arena title gain an over the board FIDE title, this title replaces their arena title. Arena Grandmaster (AGM) is the highest online title. It is achieved by a series of 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games with a performance rating of over 2000. Arena International Master (AIM)

5136-656: The Russian Empire), removed almost all of their Turkish lexical influences in the 20th century, primarily following the Armenian genocide . In addition to Armenia and Turkey, where it is indigenous , Armenian is spoken among the diaspora . According to Ethnologue , globally there are 1.6 million Western Armenian speakers and 3.7 million Eastern Armenian speakers, totalling 5.3 million Armenian speakers. In Georgia, Armenian speakers are concentrated in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki districts where they represent over 90% of

5243-454: The Russian and Ottoman empires led to creation of two separate and different environments under which Armenians lived. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were further consolidated. Because of persecutions or the search for better economic opportunities, many Armenians living under Ottoman rule gradually moved to Istanbul , whereas Tbilisi became

5350-742: The Soviet Union, won the tournament with a final score of 17½ points, followed by fellow Soviet players Geller and Keres, each with 17 points and the American Fischer with 14. Fischer later accused the Soviet players of arranging draws and having "ganged up" on him to prevent him from winning the tournament. As evidence for this claim, he noted that all 12 games played between Petrosian, Geller, and Keres were draws. Statisticians pointed out that when playing against each other, these Soviet competitors averaged 19 moves per game, as opposed to 39.5 moves when playing against other competitors. Although responses to Fischer's allegations were mixed, FIDE later adjusted

5457-766: The Soviet linguist Igor M. Diakonoff noted the presence in Classical Armenian of what he calls a "Caucasian substratum" identified by earlier scholars, consisting of loans from the Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian languages . Noting that Hurro-Urartian-speaking peoples inhabited the Armenian homeland in the second millennium BC, Diakonoff identifies in Armenian a Hurro-Urartian substratum of social, cultural, and animal and plant terms such as ałaxin "slave girl" ( ← Hurr. al(l)a(e)ḫḫenne ), cov "sea" ( ← Urart. ṣûǝ "(inland) sea"), ułt "camel" ( ← Hurr. uḷtu ), and xnjor "apple (tree)" ( ← Hurr. ḫinzuri ). Some of

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5564-498: The United States attained both titles solely by virtue of qualifying for the 1958 Interzonal (IM title) and 1959 Candidates Tournament (GM title), only incidentally becoming IM before GM. The more usual path is first to become an IM, then move on to the GM level. At 10 years, 8 months, and 16 days, Faustino Oro of Argentina became the youngest-ever person to qualify for the IM title in 2024. Introduced in 1978 along with WFM, FM ranks below

5671-568: The WIM title (formerly called International Woman Master, or IWM) in 1950. The usual way to obtain the WIM title is similar to the open titles, where a FIDE rating of 2200 and three norms of 2250 performance rating is required against opponents who are higher rated than 2030 on average. The runners-up in the World Girls Junior Championship , the U18 and U16 World Youth Champions as well Continental Championship medalists and U18 Continental and Regional Champions of

5778-484: The all-time third-best performance after Anatoly Karpov (+43−2=23 or 80.1 percent) and Mikhail Tal (+65−2=34 or 81.2 percent). His Olympiad results follow: Petrosian also made the Soviet team for the first eight European Team Championships (from 1957 to 1983). He won eight team gold medals, and four board gold medals. His totals in Euroteams play are (+15−0=37), for 64.4 per cent. His Euroteams results follow: Petrosian

5885-620: The board and to avoid any risk of defeat." Petrosian responded to his criticisms by saying: "They say my games should be more 'interesting'. I could be more 'interesting'—and also lose." Another consequence of Petrosian's style of play was that he did not score many victories, which in turn meant he seldom won tournaments even though he often finished second or third. However, his style was extremely effective in matches. Petrosian could also occasionally play in an attacking, sacrificial style. In his 1966 match with Spassky, he won Game 7 and Game 10 this way. Boris Spassky subsequently stated: "It

5992-622: The book which Petrosian later stated had the greatest influence on him as a chess player. He also purchased The Art of Sacrifice in Chess by Rudolf Spielmann . The other player to have had an early effect on Petrosian's chess was José Raúl Capablanca . At the age of 12 he began training at the Tiflis Palace of Pioneers under the tutelage of Archil Ebralidze . Ebralidze was a supporter of Nimzowitsch and Capablanca, and his scientific approach to chess discouraged wild tactics and dubious combinations . As

6099-434: The center of Armenians living under Russian rule. These two cosmopolitan cities very soon became the primary poles of Armenian intellectual and cultural life. The introduction of new literary forms and styles, as well as many new ideas sweeping Europe, reached Armenians living in both regions. This created an ever-growing need to elevate the vernacular, Ashkharhabar, to the dignity of a modern literary language, in contrast to

6206-565: The existence of the two modern versions of the same language was sanctioned even more clearly. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1920–1990) used Eastern Armenian as its official language, whereas the diaspora created after the Armenian genocide preserved the Western Armenian dialect. The two modern literary dialects, Western (originally associated with writers in the Ottoman Empire) and Eastern (originally associated with writers in

6313-468: The field must have an average rating of at least 2230, must include at least three International Masters or Grandmasters, and must include players from a mix of national federations. There are also several ways the IM title can be awarded directly without going through the usual norm process, provided the player has a rating of at least 2200. From July 2017, these are as follows: After becoming an IM, most professional players set their next goal to becoming

6420-419: The following comment about the tournament contenders: "Real chances of victory, besides Botvinnik and Smyslov, up to round 15, are held by Geller, Spassky and Taimanov. I deliberately exclude Petrosian from the group, since from the very first rounds the latter has made it clear that he is playing for an easier, but also honourable conquest—a place in the interzonal quartet." This period of complacency ended with

6527-543: The following year in Stockholm . He earned the title of Grandmaster by coming in second in the Stockholm tournament, and qualified for the 1953 Candidates Tournament . Petrosian placed fifth in the 1953 Candidates Tournament , a result which marked the beginning of a stagnant period in his career. He seemed content drawing against weaker players and maintaining his title of Grandmaster rather than improving his chess or making an attempt at becoming World Champion. This attitude

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6634-425: The hypothetical Mushki language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language. W. M. Austin (1942) concluded that there was early contact between Armenian and Anatolian languages , based on what he considered common archaisms, such as the lack of a feminine gender and the absence of inherited long vowels. Unlike shared innovations (or synapomorphies ), the common retention of archaisms (or symplesiomorphy )

6741-653: The idea of preventing ...Bb4+. This system received much attention in 1980 when it was used by the young Garry Kasparov to defeat several grandmasters. Today the Petrosian Variation is still considered the most pressing variation, with the greatest score in Master games. Other Petrosian variations can be found in the Grünfeld Defence after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg5, and the French Defence after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Qd7. Some authorities refer to

6848-464: The interests of the population at large were reflected in other literary works as well. Konsdantin Yerzinkatsi and several others took the unusual step of criticizing the ecclesiastic establishment and addressing the social issues of the Armenian homeland. These changes represented the nature of the literary style and syntax, but they did not constitute immense changes to the fundamentals of the grammar or

6955-434: The late 5th to 8th centuries, and "Late Grabar" that of the period covering the 8th to 11th centuries. Later, it was used mainly in religious and specialized literature, with the exception of a revival during the early modern period, when attempts were made to establish it as the language of a literary renaissance, with neoclassical inclinations, through the creation and dissemination of literature in varied genres, especially by

7062-500: The latter move weakens Black's kingside pawn structure . Two of Black's responses to the Petrosian Variation were developed by grandmasters Paul Keres and Leonid Stein . The Keres Variation arises after 7...Nbd7 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Nh5 11.h4, and the Stein Variation begins an immediate queenside offensive with 7...a5. The Queen's Indian Defence also has a variation developed by Petrosian: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3, with

7169-420: The match against Botvinnik with a final score of 5 to 2 with 15 draws, securing the title of World Champion. Upon becoming World Champion, Petrosian campaigned for the publication of a chess newspaper for the entire Soviet Union, rather than just in Moscow. This newspaper became known as 64 . Petrosian studied for a degree of Master of Philosophical Science at Yerevan State University ; his thesis, dated 1968,

7276-560: The morphology of the language. Often, when writers codify a spoken dialect, other language users are then encouraged to imitate that structure through the literary device known as parallelism . In the 19th century, the traditional Armenian homeland was once again divided. This time Eastern Armenia was conquered from Qajar Iran by the Russian Empire , while Western Armenia , containing two thirds of historical Armenia, remained under Ottoman control. The antagonistic relationship between

7383-481: The next candidates cycle, earning a rematch with Petrosian , in 1969. Spassky won the match by 12½–10½. Along with a number of other Soviet chess champions, he signed a petition condemning the actions of the defector Viktor Korchnoi in 1976. It was the continuation of a bitter feud between the two, dating back at least to their 1974 Candidates semifinal match in which Petrosian withdrew after five games while trailing 1½–3½ (+1−3=1). His match with Korchnoi in 1977 saw

7490-479: The nickname "Iron Tigran." He was considered to be the hardest player to beat in the history of chess by the authors of a 2004 book, and future World Champion Vladimir Kramnik called him "the first defender with a capital D". Petrosian preferred to play closed openings that did not commit his pieces to any particular plan . As black, Petrosian enjoyed playing the Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation and

7597-403: The now-anachronistic Grabar. Numerous dialects existed in the traditional Armenian regions, which, different as they were, had certain morphological and phonetic features in common. On the basis of these features two major standards emerged: Both centers vigorously pursued the promotion of Ashkharhabar. The proliferation of newspapers in both versions (Eastern & Western) and the development of

7704-526: The official status of the Armenian language. Eastern Armenian is the official variant used, making it the prestige variety while other variants have been excluded from national institutions. Indeed, Western Armenian is perceived by some as a mere dialect. Armenian was also official in the Republic of Artsakh . It is recognized as an official language of the Eurasian Economic Union although Russian

7811-632: The older men helped me out. I was a weak boy. And I was ashamed of being a street sweeper—that's natural, I suppose. It wasn't so bad in the early morning when the streets were empty, but when it got light and the crowds came out I really hated it. I got sick and missed a year in school. We had a babushka, a sister of my father, and she really saved me. She gave me bread to eat when I was sick and hungry. That's when this trouble with my hearing started. I don't remember how it all happened. Things aren't very clear from that time. Petrosian used his rations to buy Chess Praxis by Danish grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch ,

7918-619: The oldest surviving Armenian-language writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called Mehenagir . The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the Georgian alphabet and the Caucasian Albanian alphabet . While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that

8025-474: The parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity during the Proto-Indo-European period. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his book Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue latine (1936). Georg Renatus Solta (1960) does not go as far as postulating a Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage, but he concludes that considering both the lexicon and morphology, Greek

8132-407: The path to a new and simplified grammatical structure of the language in the two different cultural spheres. Apart from several morphological, phonetic, and grammatical differences, the largely common vocabulary and generally analogous rules of grammatical fundamentals allows users of one variant to understand the other as long as they are fluent in one of the literary standards. After World War I ,

8239-505: The population. The short-lived First Republic of Armenia declared Armenian its official language. Eastern Armenian was then dominating in institutions and among the population. When Armenia was incorporated into the USSR, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic made Eastern Armenian the language of the courts, government institutions and schools. Armenia was also russified . The current Republic of Armenia upholds

8346-473: The positional exchange sacrifice is from his game against Samuel Reshevsky in Zurich 1953 ( diagram ). Reshevsky, as White, appears to have an advantage due to his strong pawn centre , which may become mobile after Bf3 and d4–d5. Petrosian realized he was in a difficult position because of the passive placement of his pieces, relegated to defensive roles. He further understood that White might also advance on

8453-436: The representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels, and other phonological and morphological peculiarities with Greek. Nevertheless, as Fortson (2004) comments, "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces". Graeco-(Armeno)-Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family , ancestral to

8560-422: The requirements for the similarly named open titles. These titles are sometimes criticized by both male and female players, and some female players elect not to take them. For example, Grandmaster Judit Polgár , in keeping with her policy of playing only open competitions, never took a women's title. FIDE strips trans men of any women's titles they might have earned while competing as women. Woman Grandmaster

8667-483: The rules and format to try to prevent future collusion in the Candidates. Having won the Candidates Tournament, Petrosian earned the right to challenge Mikhail Botvinnik for the title of World Chess Champion in a 24-game match. In addition to practicing his chess, Petrosian also prepared for the match by skiing for several hours each day. He believed that in such a long match, physical fitness and endurance could become

8774-532: The sake of 'quality of position', where the time factor , which is so important in the play of Alekhine and Tal, plays hardly any role. Even today, very few players can operate confidently at the board with such abstract concepts. Before Petrosian no one had studied this. By sacrificing the exchange 'just like that', for certain long term advantages, in positions with disrupted material balance, he discovered latent resources that few were capable of seeing and properly evaluating. One of Petrosian's most famous examples of

8881-463: The similarities between the two languages meant that Armenian belonged to the Iranian language family . The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann (1875) used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian words from the older Armenian vocabulary . He showed that Armenian often had two morphemes for one concept, that the non-Iranian components yielded

8988-512: The terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, but he suggests they were borrowed through Hurrian or Urartian. Given that these borrowings do not undergo sound changes characteristic of the development of Armenian from Proto-Indo-European , he dates their borrowing to a time before the written record but after the Proto-Armenian language stage. Contemporary linguists, such as Hrach Martirosyan , have rejected many of

9095-505: The time simply as Woman Masters. FIDE's first grandmasters were: The titles were awarded by a vote of the FIDE Congress before the requirements became more formalized. In 1957, FIDE introduced norms (qualifying standards) for FIDE titles. FIDE introduced a higher women only title, that of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 1976. In 1978 the subordinate titles of FIDE Master (FM) and Woman FIDE master (WFM) were introduced, followed in 2002 by

9202-454: The title is to achieve three Grandmaster-level performances (called norms ), along with a FIDE rating of 2500 or more. The precise definition of a GM norm is complex and has frequently been amended, but in general a grandmaster norm is defined as a performance rating of at least 2600 over 9 or more rounds. In addition, the field must have an average rating of at least 2380, must include at least three grandmasters, and must include players from

9309-505: The title of International Master but ahead of Candidate Master. Unlike the Grandmaster and International Master titles, there is no requirement for a player to achieve norms. The usual way for a player to qualify for the FIDE Master title is by achieving an Elo rating of 2300 or more. There are also many ways the title can be gained by players with a rating of at least 2100 but less than 2300; they include: The youngest player to be awarded

9416-454: The title. The U12, U14, U16 Continental and Regional Champions of the women's section are also directly awarded the title. The title can also be acquired by scoring more than 65% points in more than 9 games in the Olympiad. From 2017, direct titles are only awarded as long as a minimum rating of 1900 is achieved. Introduced with CM in 2002, Woman Candidate Master is the lowest-ranking title awarded by FIDE. This title may be achieved by gaining

9523-705: The titles of Candidate Master (CM) and Woman Candidate Master (WCM). Similar titles are awarded by the International Correspondence Chess Federation , and by the World Federation for Chess Composition for both composing and solving chess problems . These bodies work in cooperation with FIDE but are now independent of it. The titles of Grandmaster, International Master, FIDE Master and Candidate Master are available to all over-the-board chess players. The requirements for each title have varied over time, but generally require having demonstrated

9630-470: The two former colleagues refuse to shake hands or speak to each other. They even demanded separate eating and toilet facilities. Petrosian lost the match, and was fired from his position as editor of Russia's largest chess magazine, 64 . His detractors condemned his reluctance to attack, with some attributing this to a lack of courage. At this point Botvinnik spoke on his behalf, stating that Petrosian only attacked when he felt secure, and his greatest strength

9737-542: The usual way for a player to qualify for the Candidate Master title is by achieving an Elo rating of 2200 or more. For players rated over 2000 but under 2200, there are many other ways to gain the title; they include: In case a player achieves the CM title through the Olympiad performance, the minimum required rating of 2000 does not apply, after the title regulations update effective from January 1st, 2024. Prior to 2018, there

9844-470: The women's section are directly awarded the title. From 2017, direct titles are only awarded as long as she can cross the minimum rating of 2000. The current regulations can be found in the FIDE handbook. Introduced with FM in 1978, the WFM title may be achieved by gaining a FIDE rating of 2100 or more. The U14 and U12 World Youth Champions as well as U16 and U18 medalists of the women's section are directly awarded

9951-551: Was a candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions ( 1953 , 1956 , 1959 , 1962 , 1971 , 1974 , 1977 and 1980 ). He won the World Championship in 1963 (against Mikhail Botvinnik ), successfully defended it in 1966 (against Boris Spassky ), and lost it to Spassky in 1969 . Thus he was the defending World Champion or a World Championship Candidate in ten consecutive three-year cycles. He won

10058-412: Was a conservative, cautious, and highly defensive chess player who was strongly influenced by Aron Nimzowitsch 's idea of prophylaxis . He made more effort to prevent his opponent's offensive capabilities than he did to make use of his own, and very rarely went on the offensive unless he felt his position was completely secure. He usually won by playing consistently until an overly aggressive opponent made

10165-434: Was criticized as being dull. Chess enthusiasts saw his "ultraconservative" style as an unwelcome contrast to the popular image of Soviet chess as "daring" and "indomitable". His 1971 Candidates Tournament match with Viktor Korchnoi featured so many monotonous draws that the Russian press began to complain. However, Svetozar Gligorić described Petrosian as being "very impressive in his incomparable ability to foresee danger on

10272-554: Was eventually drawn on move 41. Petrosian was an expert against the King's Indian Defence , and he often played what is now known as the Petrosian System: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.d5. This variation closes the centre early in the game. One of the tactical ideas for White is to play Bg5, pinning Black's knight to his queen. Black can respond by either moving his queen (usually ...Qe8) or by playing ...h6, though

10379-460: Was here that he played his last famous victory, a miraculous escape against the young Garry Kasparov . Petrosian lived in Moscow from 1949. In the 1960s and 1970s, he lived at 59 Pyatnitskaya Street . When asked by Anthony Saidy whether he is Russian, Petrosian replied: "Abroad, they call us all Russians. I am a Soviet Armenian." In 1952, Petrosian married Rona Yakovlevna (née Avinezer, 1923–2005),

10486-413: Was illustrated by his result in the 1955 USSR Championship: out of 19 games played, Petrosian was undefeated, but won only four games and drew the rest, with each of the draws lasting twenty moves or less. Although his consistent playing ensured decent tournament results, it was looked down upon by the public and by Soviet chess media and authorities. Near the end of the event, journalist Vasily Panov wrote

10593-569: Was in defence. Some of his late successes included victories at Lone Pine 1976 and in the 1979 Paul Keres Memorial tournament in Tallinn (12/16 without a loss, ahead of Tal , Bronstein , and others). He shared first place (with Lajos Portisch and Robert Hübner ) in the Rio de Janeiro Interzonal the same year, and won second place in Tilburg in 1981, half a point behind the winner Alexander Beliavsky . It

10700-469: Was later found that he switched off his hearing aid, and did not hear when Gligorić re-offered the draw. In 1971, he played a Candidates match against Robert Hübner in a noisy area in Seville , which did not disturb him but frustrated Hübner so much that he withdrew from the match. Despite his poor hearing, he was a great lover of classical music and enjoyed attending concerts. At the time of his death, Petrosian

10807-432: Was no minimum rating requirement, and coming in the top three of an U8 continental tournament was acceptable. As a result, there are a number of CMs with far lower ratings than 2000. Though the open FIDE titles are not gender-segregated, the following four titles given by FIDE are exclusive to women and may be held simultaneously with an open title. The requirements for these titles are about 200 Elo rating points lower than

10914-487: Was not selected for the Soviet Olympiad team until 1958; though he had already been a Candidate twice by that time. From that point, however, he made ten straight Soviet Olympiad teams from 1958 to 1978, won nine team gold medals, one team silver medal, and six individual gold medals. His overall performance in Olympiad play is impressive: +78−1=50 (only one game lost, to Robert Hübner, out of 129 played), or 79.8 percent,

11021-405: Was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to Balto-Slavic languages . The Armenian language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Another text translated into Armenian early on, and also in the 5th-century,

11128-666: Was the Armenian Alexander Romance . The vocabulary of the language has historically been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages , particularly Parthian ; its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by language contact with Parthian, but to a lesser extent. Contact with Greek, Persian , and Syriac also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian (spoken mainly in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken originally mainly in modern-day Turkey and, since

11235-513: Was titled "Chess Logic, Some Problems of the Logic of Chess Thought". In 1966 , three years after Petrosian had earned the title of World Chess Champion, he was challenged by Boris Spassky . Petrosian defended his title by winning rather than drawing the match, a feat that had not been accomplished since Alexander Alekhine defeated Efim Bogoljubov in the 1934 World Championship. However, Spassky defeated Efim Geller, Bent Larsen, and Viktor Korchnoi in

11342-477: Was unlikely to bring his son any success as a career. Petrosian was orphaned during World War II and was forced to sweep streets to earn a living. Around this time, his hearing began to deteriorate, a problem that continued to affect him throughout his life. In a 1969 interview with Time magazine, he recalled: I started sweeping streets in the middle of the winter and it was horrible. Of course there were no machines then, so we had to do everything by hand. Some of

11449-492: Was working on a set of chess-related lectures and articles to be compiled in a book. These were edited by his wife Rona and published posthumously, in Russian under the title Шахматные лекции Петросяна (1989) and in English as Petrosian's Legacy (1990). In 1987, World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov unveiled a memorial at Petrosian's grave which depicts the laurel wreath awarded to Chess World Champion and an image contained within

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