The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Sunday, April 01, 1962 - Page 94
Benko Qualifies For Candidates 01 Apr 1962, Sun The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com
Benko Qualifies For Candidates
Pal Benko of New York outscored Svetozar Gligoric of Yugoslavia in a play-off to become the sixth qualifier for the candidates' tournament, according to a report in the New York Times.
Benko tied for sixth place in the Stockholm Interzonal Tournament with Gligoric and Leonid Stein of the Soviet Union. The latter was not eligible as three of his compatriots had already qualified.
Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn, who won the Stockholm tournament in brilliant style, and Benko will be the two Americans in the candidates' event. The other qualifiers were Ewfim Geller, Tigran Petrosian and Victor Korchnoi of the Soviet Union, and Dr. Miroslav Filip of Czechoslovakia.
Also in the tournament are former world champion Mikhail Tal of Latvia and Paul Keres of Estonia, who were seeded because of their performances in the prior interzonal tournament.
Though the exact dates have not been set, the candidates' tournament will take up most of May and June in Curacao, Netherlands, Antilles. It will be a quadruple round-robin with the winner to play a match with world champion Mikhail Botvinnik of Moscow.
This will be the first time that the tournament has been held out of Europe. It will be the most important chess event in the Western Hemisphere in many years. Of greatest interest will be the rivalry between Fischer and Tal, the two youngest competitors and the outstanding favorites.
