New York Times, New York, New York, Friday, October 01, 1971 - Page 38
Petrosian Defeated by Fischer in First Game of Match
Buenos Aires, Sept. 30—International Grandmaster Bobby Fischer of the United States defeated Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union, a former world champion, in 40 moves tonight in the first game of the final candidates elimination tournament. At the end, with only seconds left on his clock, Petrosian had to lose a knight in a hopeless position.
The opening was a Sicilian Defense, with Petrosian handling the black pieces. This opening is rarely played by Petrosian. He found a new move on his 11th turn that led Fischer to take more than half an hour on his next few moves.
Petrosian had the initiative after giving up a pawn. His pieces commanded the main open lines, and Fischer's king seemed in danger.
Fischer defended carefully, playing to exchange pieces and simplify the game. The players had, in effect, changed their normal styles of play, as Fischer is generally aggressive and Petrosian is at his best on the defensive.
Fischer succeeded in equalizing, leading to a rook-an-knight ending. One difference between the two was that Petrosian began to get short of time, whereas Fischer had no problems in that area.
On his 29th move, Petrosian repeated moves, apparently satisfied with a draw. Fischer evaded this attempt, finding a method of developing winning chances through a passed pawn on the king's rook file.
Petrosian tried for counter play, which proved inadequate. A well-calculated 38th move—R-K 41—was the winning one.
Fischer continued his fantastic winning streak that has now reached 20 games in a row without allowing as much as a draw to any of his opponents.
A total of 12 games are scheduled, with 6½ points required for victory.
The winner will meet the world champion, Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, in a 24-game match for the title next spring.
Shortly after play began at the San Martin Theatre here, the lighting above the playing table, which had been specially installed at Fischer's request, failed.
The blackout lasted 13 minutes, during which time the game was suspended by Lothar Schmidt of West Germany, the match arbiter.
The theatre was completely filled with spectators, except the first three rows, which were kept empty at Fischer's request. Over 1,000 people could not purchase tickets, but could watch the game on special demonstration boards that were set up in the lobby.
