The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle Milwaukee, Wisconsin Friday, April 06, 1962 - Page 7
Sports World 06 Apr 1962, Fri The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com
Chess Moves
Mikhail Botvinnik is the chess champion of the world and he defends his crown every other year or so against the top challenger. But who is the number one man entitled to meet the grandmaster of all grandmasters? Well, chess is a complicated game, and so is the manner in which a challenger is named.
There is set up a world challengers tournament, but before you qualify for that tournament, you have to survive some earlier ones, and that, too, is by no means easy. Follow this series of turns, for example. Bobby Fischer played and did well in a tourney in Yugoslavia. Good; he qualified for the next round. Now he has just completed his performance in Stockholm. He did very well, and I shall, in a moment, outline his achievements. But first to the system. Before Bobby could play in Stockholm, he had to qualify to compete there, and he did so by doing well in Curacao, Dutch West Indies. Twenty-three players met in Stockholm and only six could make the grade for the final challenger's tournament, which will include Mikhail Tal of Latvia (and, really, the Soviet Union, and a former world champion) and Paul Keres of Estonia (also part of the Soviet Union). The other six are those who ranked highest in Stockholm.
It isn't easy to face the champion, is it?
Fischer Came Out First
In Stockholm, Bobby Fischer came out first. He took first place by 2½ points. He—and Tigran Petrosian, a former Soviet champion — were the only two players to emerge without a single defeat. Bobby won 13 and drew 9, while Petrosian, who came in third, won 8 and drew 14. Ewfim Geller, the runner-up to Fischer, won 10, drew 10 and lost two.
Here is the line-up for the final meeting which will determine who will be the challenger for Botvinnik's crown: Bobby Fischer, U.S.; Ewfim Geller, Tigran Petrosian and Victor Korchnoi, Soviet Union; Dr. Miroslav Filip, Czechoslovakia; Mikhail Tal, Latvia; Paul Keres, Estonia. There is room for one more and it will be Pal Benko, U.S.
If Bobby Fischer manages to come up first in this narrowed listing of masters, he surely will have earned his top spot. But chess, marvelous game that it is, has its upsets and no one really can predict how matters will turn out. I, for example, do not believe that Fischer is superior to Tal, and Tal is only one of many masters in this final tourney.
