Daily Press Newport News, Virginia Sunday, May 20, 1962 - Page 14
Virginia Chess Notes 20 May 1962, Sun Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia) Newspapers.com
Meeting of Titans. In Willemstad on the Dutch tropical island of Curacao off Venezuela eight grandmasters are engaged in battle royal. They have weathered preliminary elimination contests, and the play is close, complex and serious, so much so, that the winner of the 28-round robin will have left no doubt as to his priority to meet Mikhail Botvinnik next year to play for the world's championship.
Tournament roll. Bobby Fischer, 19, youngest of the group, has risen to grandmaster level at spectacular pace. No less spectacular has been the career of Soviet entrant Paul Keres, 46, dubbed in his heyday, “The Estonian Paul Morphy.” Keres often has come near but never reached the pinnacle, and in chess, comic book cartoons notwithstanding, youth has the advantage.
With Fischer from the United States is Pal Benko, Hungarian champion who has made his home in New York. In his middle thirties, Benko shares the prestige and skill of Russian participants in the same age group—USSR champion Tigran Petrosian, Victor Korchnoi and Ewfim Geller. The Soviet's remaining entrant, former world champion Mikhail Tal, 25, of Latvia, has held an edge by virtue of an unorthodox style that often has jolted an opponent accustomed to more conventional play. Last but not least is Miroslav Filip, champion of Czechoslovakia.
Sidelight. The preponderance of Soviet bloc players reflects the results of Moscow's “crash program” of encouraging masters through emoluments, subsidies and pensions. In the Soviet glossary such dividends are referred to by various euphemisms, such as aid to students. That a “student” may be in his thirties apparently is regarded irrelevant. On this score, world champion Botvinnik makes a curious statement in his book, “One Hundred Selected Games,” in a passage on honors won in 1935:
“For combining chess so well with my post-graduate work as an engineer Gregory Konstantinovich (then commissar for heavy industry) presented me with a car.”
One may well ponder to what heights a highly-powered trophy from the Detroit iron works could drive Uncle Sam's chess prowess. Nevertheless, regardless of jesting and carping on the Soviet gladiator system, it is only fair to point out that in Russia chess is considered both sport and art, hence such great emphasis.
Progress report. Without hindsight-inspired commentary, here are the midweek scores from the event:
Korchnoi, 5½; Keres and Petrosian, 5; Geller, 4½; Fischer, 4; Benko, 3½; Filip, 2½, and Tal, 2.
Mood. According to wire dispatches, Curacao is immersed in a veritable chess frenzy. Dutch shops are best with a high demand for sets and chess literature. And citizens stroll through the streets with pocket radio sets tuned in to the latest reports.
Wire dispatch gleanings:
—Fischer arrived before the tournament in a suit of pea green corduroy, hand-made shoes and a panama hat.
—In reply to a reporter's stock how-do-you-like-this-place, genial Tal quipped, “I'm afraid of what it'll do to my chess.”
—On a night off Fischer attended a boxing program at the stadium and was presented to the cheering crowd by the ring announcer.
The Russians are reported to be following a rigid schedule and avoiding the night life of the casinos.
A Keres victory. In a game from the Estonian grand master's earlier days, black to play and mate in three:
