This Week's Free ChessLecture Video, By Yours Truly
Once a week ChessLecture.com offers a free video to anyone with an account there - even a free account - and this week's video (which will be available not just this week but the subsequent week as well, until the next Monday (November 26) is one I recently recorded. Entitled "Nervous Start to a World Championship Match", it aimed to show two things: first, that world championship challengers often started their matches very badly (often due to nerves and the newness of the big stage), but they very often recovered from their bad starts to contend and even win their matches.
Case in point was game 1 of the 1963 match between Tigran Petrosian, the challenger, and long-time champion (less a couple of one-year interruptions) Mikhail Botvinnik. Petrosian played terribly in game 1 (he himself later said that he played the game like a "first category" player) and was beaten in (mostly) impressive style by Botvinnik. But Petrosian subsequently regained his bearings, and went on to break Botvinnik down over the course of the match, eventually winning 12.5-9.5.
Have a look here.
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