Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and 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.
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
The Giuoco Piano is a chess opening beginning with the moves:
The Pirc Defence is a chess opening characterised by the response of Black to 1.e4 with 1...d6 and 2...Nf6, followed by ...g6 and ...Bg7, while allowing White to establish a centre with pawns on d4 and e4. It is named after the Slovenian grandmaster Vasja Pirc.
The King's Indian Defence is a common chess opening. It is defined by the following moves:
The World Chess Championship 1972 was a match for the World Chess Championship between challenger Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. The match took place in the Laugardalshöll arena in Reykjavík, Iceland, and has been dubbed the Match of the Century. Fischer became the first American born in the United States to win the world title, and the second American overall. Fischer's win also ended, for a short time, 24 years of Soviet domination of the World Championship.
The Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defence is one of the most popular, reputable, and deeply studied of all chess openings. Modern Chess Openings calls it the "Cadillac" or "Rolls-Royce" of chess openings. The opening is named after the Polish-Argentine grandmaster Miguel Najdorf, although he was not the first strong player to play the variation. Many players have relied on the Najdorf.
The Hippopotamus Defence is a chess opening system employed by Black, consisting of a double fianchetto structure and a small pawn centre. The knights are typically developed to e7 and d7 and the rook's pawns to a6 and h6. This structure can be obtained by a wide variety of move orders but it occurs most frequently via the Modern Defence or Owen's Defence. The Hippopotamus can also be played against queen's pawn openings or flank openings and is thus a genuinely universal system. The same structure is also occasionally utilized by White.
The Catalan Opening is a chess opening where White plays d4 and c4 and fianchettoes the white bishop on g2. A common opening sequence is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3, although various other openings can transpose into the Catalan. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO) lists codes E01–E09 for lines with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2; other lines are part of E00.
The St. George Defence is an unorthodox chess opening for Black. The opening begins with the moves:
The Semi-Slav Defense is a variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined chess opening defined by the position reached after the moves:
In chess, prophylaxis consists of a move or series of moves done by a player to prevent their opponent from taking some action. Such preventative moves, or prophylactic moves, aim not only to improve one's position but also to restrict the opponent in improving their own.
Lev Osipovich Alburt is a chess Grandmaster, writer and coach. He was born in Orenburg, Russia, and became three-time Ukrainian Champion. After defecting to the United States in 1979, he became three-time U.S. Champion.
The Polish Defense is the name commonly given to one of several sequences of chess opening moves characterized by an early ...b5 by Black. The name "Polish Defense" is given by analogy to the Polish Opening, 1.b4. The original line was
In chess, the Scheveningen Variation of the Sicilian Defence is an opening that is a line of the Open Sicilian characterised by Black setting up a "small centre" with pawns on d6 and e6. There are numerous move orders that reach the Scheveningen; a common one is:
A pawn storm, sometimes called a pawn avalanche, is a chess tactic in which several pawns are moved in rapid succession toward the opponent's defenses. A pawn storm usually involves adjacent pawns on the flank of the board, such as the queenside or the kingside. A pawn storm can also happen on the center of the board.
The Sämisch Variation of the King's Indian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The 1992 Fischer–Spassky match between former world chess champions Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky was billed as a World Chess Championship, though it was an unofficial rematch of their 1972 World Championship match. Fischer won 10–5, with 15 draws.
