NIC Podcast #26 - The Main Thing is Happiness

June 28, 2024
Categories: Podcast

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko.

In this episode, Sosonko draws up a portrait of the ninth World Champion, Tigran Petrosian. Lauded by the Armenian populus as a national hero, Tigran often found himself accompanied by fans wherever he went.

Petrosian made prophylaxis a trademark of his playing style, which earned him the nickname “Iron Tigran” and several tribute books. He refined many defensive and prophylactic ideas and elevated the positional Exchange sacrifice into an art form.

"The Main Thing Is Happiness" focuses on Petrosian's personal background. Born in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, to parents from Armenia, he lived in Moscow for most of his life. This begs the question as to Petrosian's nationality, especially now that the Soviet Union as an entity no longer exists.

Enjoy this week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast! 

Remember, you can find us on popular platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, making it convenient for you to browse the chapters and listen to your favourite parts.

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:17 Petrosian was celebrated as an Armenian hero
06:33 The reception by the people when Petrosian became World Chess Champion
10:35 "Our Tigran": Petrosian did not belong to just one country
12:31 Petrosian the Polyglot
13:56 AD BREAK
14:29 Petrosian's friendship with composer Arno Babajanian
15:46 The Armenian-Jewish combination
17:02 Khrushchev's joke and Mikoyan's warning
19:31 How Petrosian's life might have been if he had still been alive today
22:35 Petrosian in anticipation of his demise

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Related Products
The Essential Sosonko
The Essential Sosonko Collected Portraits and Tales of a Bygone Chess Era
€59.95
3 Comments
Tim Gluckman on Mar 28, 2025 00:07
Sosonko 's podcasts are nearly always excellent. This one provides extraordinary insights into the importance of chess in the USSR, and contrasts with board games widely popular in the USA. We learned about the latter at a 2025 talk (at the German Historical Institute London) on pre-1991 board games with Cold War themes; USA ones often marked by brutality and crude images of the then enemy.
Sarterus Rowe on Jul 04, 2024 20:14
Absolutely love this series, PLEASE do the whole book! This makes chess come to life. These are the Grimms' Fairy Tales of the chess world.
Ulrich Schmidt on Jul 01, 2024 14:27
Unfortunately, the name of the protagonist is mispronounced. (For some strange reason, the only English-speaking person, who can pronounce Russian names correctly, seems to be Ben Finegold... Though even he sometimes uses the utterly wrong "English" pronunciation of world champions' names -- maybe to "confuse the audience"?!)
It's three syllables like this: Peh - tross - yan
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