💖 Alexander Petrov

🔽🔽🔽

〰 The first major Russian chess master was Alexander Petrov. A popular chess opening (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6) bears his name, as do several variations in other openings (Petrov’s Gambit, Petrov’s Attack, etc.). In Russia, Petrov was unquestionably the strongest player of his time: he won matches against other leading Russian chess players such as Jaenisch, Urusov, and Shumov. Petrov also founded the first chess club in Russia.

He was the author of a fundamental chess manual published in 1824, which, following the fashion of the time, had a long and elegant noscript:
The Game of Chess, Arranged in Systematic Order with the Addition of Philidor’s Games and Annotations Thereon.

After Pushkin’s death, two copies of this book were found in his library — one of them inscribed by Petrov himself. Evidently, before receiving it as gift, Pushkin had bought the other copy on his own.

Petrov also played Russian draughts very well and wrote a guide to that game as well. The Petrov Triangle is a well-known draughts tactic — a method of trapping an opponent’s king using three of one’s own. In 1851, Petrov was invited to participate in the first international chess tournament in London, but unfortunately, he was unable to attend.

In the first half of the 19th century, the era of professional chess players had not yet arrived, and Petrov’s main occupation was government service. From 1840 onward, he lived in Warsaw, where he worked under the Governor-General of the Kingdom of Poland, Ivan Paskevich. Petrov eventually reached the civilian rank of Actual Privy Councillor, which, under the Russian Table of Ranks, corresponded to that of a general in the army.〰

#RussianSport@TCofRus

A very well-known chess problem composed by Petrov goes as follows:

Task: White to move and checkmate in 14 moves.
Solution: 1. Nd2++ Ka2 2. Nc3+ Ka3 3. Ndb1+ Kb4 4. Na2+ Kb5 5. Nbc3(a3)+ Ka6 6. Nb4+ (Qa8×) Ka7 7. Nb5+ Kb8 8. Na6+ Kc8 9. Na7+ Kd7 10. Nb8+ Ke7 11. Nc8+ Kf8 12. Nd7+ Kg8 13. Ne7+ Kh8 14. Kg2(g3)×

〰 This composition symbolized Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow to Paris.

On the diagram, the lower left corner represents Moscow, and the upper right represents Paris. The black king stands for Napoleon, while the white king is Tsar Alexander. The white knights represent the Russian cavalry, driving Napoleon out of Moscow. On the sixth move, the white queen (standing for Chichagov? Kutuzov?) could have checkmated Napoleon but misses the chance. Napoleon crosses the Berezina River (symbolized by the diagonal h1–a8) and continues to flee. But when he finally reaches Paris, the Russian Tsar enters the battle and, with a subtle move to g2, delivers checkmate to Napoleon!♟

#RussianSport@TCofRus