Tomorrow is Tigran Petrosian’s birthday so naturally I wanted to present one of his wins. Normally, I try to present only tournament games that are not available in ChessBase’s Mega Database but ChessBase seems to have gotten all of his tournament games so here’s one from a 1982 simul at the Boylston Chess Club in Boston against local master (since relocated to Arizona) Joel Johnson, who has graciously added some comments (below).

Johnson’s comments: “Yes, a few things, first thoughts about that game – a big misconception – thinking that based on his reputation, he would beat me positionally. Now, after playing many simuls as the higher rated player, I realize it is important to play aggressive, in order to finish off as many opponents as possible, quickly.
Next thing, is the opening has evolved into two different openings – one called the Vanilla Polish and the other, the Polish Attack (my favorite). I play the opening much different as compared to those early games you listed. Both of these are fully described in Attacking 101: Volume 4. Below is a recent example of how I play the opening these days:”

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