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Following Peter Clarke's enduring bestseller Petrosian's Best Games of Chess 1946-1963, this book fills in important gaps from Petrosian's early career - which have never been seen in print before - and takes the story to the end of his playing activities in 1983. Significantly, there are no games duplicated here from Clarke's pioneering work.

Tigran Petrosian is acquiring a reputation as one of the most sophisticated World Champions and also one of the most successful. The victim of a hostile press during his lifetime, Petrosian's exploits were brought into sharp focus during the official Petrosian year - 2004, the 75th anniversary of his birth. A whole series of Petrosian memorial tournaments, combined with a re-evaluation of his games and results, revealed that his legacy had been seriously underestimated. Indeed, his record includes:

• Victories in two World Championship matches against Botvinnik and Spassky
• First prize in the World Championship Candidates tournament
• Four Soviet Championship titles
• Two individual and team gold medals on top board for the USSR team in the international Olympiads of Havana 1966 and Lugano 1968
• Numerous first prizes in important tournaments
• Match and game victories against Kasparov, Fischer, Karpov, Hübner, Portisch, Korchnoi, Polugayevsky, Smyslov, Tal, Euwe, Reshevsky, Keres and many others