The Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Sunday, July 08, 1962 - Page 24
Chess Notebook 08 Jul 1962, Sun The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com
Curacao Candidates' Tournament 1962
Tigran Petrosian, USSR, won the candidates tournament at Curacao by a half point over Ewfim Geller and Paul Keres. Petrosian's play was marked, as usual, by uncanny steadiness. If he can maintain this form, perhaps he'll be able to unseat the aging Botvinnik.
Fate continues to deny Paul Keres what has seemed his due for the past 24 years. As long ago as 1938, Keres won the big AVRO tournament and with it a shot at Alekhine's crown. Alekhine refused to honor the unofficial pre-tournament agreement and later the FIDE de-declared Salo Flohr (the man who came last to AVRO) the official challenger. Flohr didn't get a match, either.
Since the FIDE has come of age and taken over the title and instituted zonals, interzonals, and candidates tournaments, Keres has been the most consistent player in the finals. This is the fourth time he has been runner-up or tied for that spot. The second place man is automatically seeded into the next challengers. Now Keres, even to gain that consolation, must play and defeat Geller in a match. It gets more and more difficult.
Geller was lucky to equal Keres score. In the final round Petrosian exhibited icy calm by drawing with Filip in 14 moves. Apparently he felt certain that Keres could not beat Fischer. He was right; they halved the point and so Keres was just that margin behind. Meantime, Geller took on Benko and at adjournment the Russian was a pawn down and looked to be in a losing position. Upon resuming play Benko won a second pawn and then lost the game on time.
Fischer, after a gruesome start, did well to climb to fourth place, yet his overall performance remains one of the great disappointments of Curacao. He was deemed the only non-Russian with a chance to win. Had he won this would have led to a thing unheard of since before World War II: a world chess match involving a non-Russian. Bobby's relative lack of success is all the harder to take after having watched him dominate things in Sweden, including five of the seven other players involved at Curacao.
The final standings:
