The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Sunday, March 04, 1962 - Page 80
Chess by Isaac Kashdan 04 Mar 1962, Sun The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com
Fischer Still Leads Interzonal Field
Though more than half the games were unfinished after the first session of both the 17th and 18th round, Bobby Fischer still has a clear lead in the interzonal tournament in Stockholm, according to a New York Times report.
Fischer, the 19-year-old Brooklynite, adjourned his games with Soviet grandmasters Tigran Petrosian and Ewfim Geller. Earlier in the week he had defeated Fridrik Olafsson of Iceland and drawn with Leonid Stein of Russia. Fischer has won 10 games and drawn five for a score of 12½-2½.
Geller, who had been in third place last week, moved up to contending position by victories against Istvan Bilek of Hungary and Arthur S. Bisguier of New York. Geller has an adjourned game with Gideon Barcza of Hungary as well as the one with Fischer.
Geller started inauspiciously by losing to Miguel Cuellar of Colombia and picking up only two wins in the first nine rounds. In a sudden reversal of form he scored seven points in succession.
Three of the favorites for top honors are tied for third place with 10-5 scores. They are Miroslav Filip of Czechoslovakia, Svetozar Gligoric of Yugoslavia and Petrosian.
Pal Benko of New York gained some ground in the week's play, defeating Mario Bertok of Yugoslavia and drawing with Julio Bolbochan of Argentina and Rudolph Teschner of West Germany. He has an adjourned game with Wolfgang Uhlmann of East Germany.
Bisguier had a bad time with three of the Russians as opponents, dropping points to Leonid Stein and Geller, and drawing with Petrosian.
Five rounds remain to be completed in the tournament. The six leaders will earn the right to play in the candidates' tournament, which is to take place May and June in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles.
They will be joined in that event by former world champion Mikhail Tal of Latvia and Paul Keres of Estonia. The candidates' tournament will be a quadruple round-robin, with the winner to challenge world champion Mikhail Botvinnik to a match sometime in 1963.
Following are the Stockholm standings after 18 rounds, and some of the games.
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MAR DEL PLATA TOURNEY
The 25th annual masters tournament will be staged at Mar del Plata, Argentina, from March 21 to April 13. Eight outstanding international masters are being invited along with as many Argentines.
On the list are Bobby Fischer, United States; Mikhail Botvinnik and Mikhail Tal, Soviet Union; Ludek Pachman, Czechoslovakia; Laszlo Szabo, Hungary; Jonathan Penrose, England; J.H. Donner, the Netherlands, and Wolfgang Unzicker, West Germany.
Miguel Najdorf will head the local contingent, along with Oscar Panno, Carlos E. Guimard. Hector Rossetto, Herman Pilnik, Eric Eliskases, Julio Bolbochan and Raul Sanguinetti.
