YEREVAN, JUNE 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The 80th anniversary of the 9th World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosian's birth will be on June 17. He was many times champion of Armenia, Moscow and the USSR and two times world champion. Competing for the title of the world chess champion, he defeated Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963 and Boris Spassky in 1966. As a member of the USSR chess team Tigran Petrosian became many times winner of World Chess Olympiads and many times champion of Europe. He was an Honored Worker of Sports and Physical Culture of Armenia, a USSR Honored Master of Sport, a candidate of philosophical sciences, and the editor-in-chief of "64" weekly. He was awarded a Sign of Honor order. Monuments to Tigran Petrosian were erected in Yerevan, a street and the Central House of Chess Players in the city were named after him. Tigran Petrosian died on August 13, 1984, in Moscow.

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