Larsen-Petrosian, Santa Monica 1966
The Piatigorsky Cup in Santa Monica 1966 was a double round-robin tournament with 10 Grandmasters. It attracted a lot of spectators, and the media interest was unusually high for a chess event in the US. The reason was not only the participation of world class Grandmasters, such as the reigning World Champion Petrosian, his challenger Boris Spassky, the best Americans Fischer and Reshevsky, but also exceptional financial conditions for the players. All expenses were paid, and every participant had a guaranteed prize. The $20.000 prize fund was the largest ever for chess tournaments at that time.
The tournament was won by Spassky, with Fischer being second and Larsen third. The strongest player ever born in Denmark - Bent Larsen - was arguably the most successful tournament player in years 1965-1973, showing great results in different kinds of competitions, including large Open tournaments.
In the presented game, one single mistake in the opening led Black to an extremely unpleasant position. Larsen, who was known for his great fighting spirit, bravely started a direct attack against the opponent's king and imaginatively sacrificed a pawn on move 20. This was a very daring play against "Iron Tigran", who was nicknamed this way due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style. Petrosian chose a variation, where it looked like Larsen must repeat the moves. But a painful surprise awaited the reigning World Champion...