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Curaçao 1962 The Battle of Minds That Shook the Chess World Reviewed by Michael Jeffreys
Imagine a chess tournament consisting of these superstars: Fischer, Petrosian, Tal, Keres, Kortchnoi, and Geller. And just for fun, we’ll throw in two other tough GMs: Benko and Filip. Now imagine you were able to sit in the front row and watch every move of every game as these eight gladiators go at it for 28 rounds. And to give the players something to shoot for, let’s give the winner a crack at the current world champion, Mikhail Botvinnik! Of course, I’m talking about the historic candidates’ tournament from 1962. And while you can’t literally go back in time and watch the games played live, you can do the next best thing: pull out your best wooden chess set, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and spend several hours going through the games and player profiles in Jan Timman’s latest book, Curaçao 1962 (The Battle of Minds that Shook the Chess World). Where is Curaçao? Well, if you drew a straight line from the tip of Florida directly over Cuba and stopped just 35 miles before you ran into Venezuela, you would come across several tropical islands (the so called “ABC islands,” as they include Aruba and Bonaire), in the Caribbean sea, one of which (the largest) is Curaçao.
The island is 38 miles long and from 2 to 7.5 miles wide. The warm climate and beautiful beaches attract tourists year round and I suspect most chess players would be more than happy to play here. Well, except Petrosian, who upset the native people of Curaçao by complaining in a Polish magazine (Sport-press International) interview: “The climatic conditions were terrible and the hall where we played was poorly prepared...” Jeeze, and this from the tournament winner! …go figure. I say that the conditions couldn’t have been that bad, or we surely would have heard from Mr. Fischer! Of course, Bobby did have plenty of other things to complain about, like how the Russians were out to screw him by agreeing to short, prearranged draws, so as to conserve energy. He even wrote an article about it a few months after the tournament in Sports Illustrated called, “How the Russians Fixed World Chess.” Only Tal escapes Fischer’s wrath. [Editor's Note: See also: Did the Soviets Collude?: A Statistical Analysis of Championship ...] Other events that made this tournament famous include: 1. Benko punching out Fischer for not letting him use his second, GM Bisguier. (Apparently the US Chess Federation couldn't afford to send a second for both players and Bobby didn’t want to share.) 2. Fischer being the only player to visit Tal in the hospital when he had to withdraw in round 22 due to illness. (The book has a great photo on pg. 201 of Fischer analyzing with Tal in his hospital bed!) 3. Ironically, because of Fischer’s complaints, no more candidates tournaments were played. (Well, actually FIDE did briefly reinstate the candidates tournament for one year: Montpellier 1985. Thank you to Prof. Havanur for pointing this out.) Now let’s take a brief look at each chapter: Preface
Prelude Next Timman gives a short history of the world championship cycle, starting with Alekhine’s death in 1946. He ends by stating that Fischer and Tal were considered the favorites going into the 1962 Candidates tournament. The Players This section contains a short profile, along with a b&w photo, of each of the participants. Here is a brief excerpt from each:
Combine After giving this very nice “snap-shot” of each of the eight players and their expected chances in the tournament, Timman uses a strange word as the title for his next chapter: “Combine.” He uses this word to connote the “combined” team of Russians who were accused by some (most notably Fischer) of agreeing to prearranged draws with each other in order to save energy. Specifically, the three “Russians” who were accused were Petrosian, Geller, and Keres (although, as Timman points out, technically they are not Russian as they are from Armenia, the Ukraine, and Estonia respectively, and thus should more accurately be referred to at that time as “Soviets.”) Anyway, Timman gives a breakdown of the number of moves played in each of their individual encounters, and it does appear as if their games are quite short thus giving some credence to Fischer’s claim that “the fix” was in. This is followed by several fascinating b&w photos of the players arriving at the airport, and several shots of the tournament playing hall and press room, complete with typewriters (no portable computers and no internet back then!) Rounds 1-28 The rest of the book contains all the games from the 28 rounds, most of which are annotated. There are also brief recaps and other interesting bits of “color” and news given by Timman between rounds. All this, plus many more interesting b&w photos, such as the players taking day trips with their wives as well as analyzing games together. There is even a snapshot of Fischer’s messy score sheet from Rd. 9 against Geller (Fischer lost). Now I will give one game from the book, an epic battle in round 11 between two world champions (one former and one to be in another 10 years!), Fischer versus Tal. Tal hits Fischer’s “1.e4 best by test” with the Lowenthal variation of the Sicilian and quickly gains a slight plus in the position. He then manages to win a pawn, however Fischer doggedly fights back and soon Tal’s knight is no match for Fischer’s bishop. Eventually Fischer’s king march deep into Tal’s position and tricky endgame play brings home the full point.
Fischer, Robert James - Tal, Mikhail (Notes by Timman)
Now let’s finish up the review by taking a quick look at the material in the back of the book: Cross Table Here’s how the players finished the tournament: 1 Petrosian 17 ½ 2 Geller 17 3 Keres 17 4 Fischer 14 5 Kortchnoi 13 ½ 6 Benko 12 7 Tal 7 * 8 Filip 7
* Tal dropped out in Rd. 22 due to illness. Epilogue A short recap of the tournament and Timman’s comments about Petrosian’s criticism of the playing conditions that was published in the Polish magazine article. Index of Games Very helpful; tells you who played who and what round. Index of Openings Page numbers of all the openings. The Sicilian defense was by far the most played opening, with the Ruy Lopez coming in second, followed by the Queen’s Gambit Declined, KID, and English all tied for third. Index of Names Numbers to pages where players are mentioned in the book.
While this book could have used a better editing job to catch the mistakes, it is still an extremely important book, as it gives you a close-up look at one of the most prestigious tournaments in chess history. All who were involved in putting it together should be quite proud of their effort. You not only get games between such heavyweights as Fischer, Tal, Petrosian and Keres, but also Timman’s notes in most of the key match-ups. What’s more, you will also enjoy looking at the rare and fascinating b&w photographs, all printed on high quality paper. Suffice it to say that this book is a must have for any serious chess player. On a scale of 1-10, Curacao 1962 gets a 9.
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