Curaçao Candidates Tournament 1962

The candidates ' tournament for the 1963 World Chess Championship took place from May 2 to June 28, 1962 in Willemstad , the capital of Curaçao (then the Netherlands Antilles ). As in the 1959 Candidates Tournament in Yugoslavia, eight players played a four-round tournament. The winner was allowed to challenge world champion Mikhail Botvinnik .

Attendees

Five of the eight participants had qualified at the interzonal tournament in Stockholm , which was held from the end of January to the beginning of March of the same year: Bobby Fischer , Efim Geller , Tigran Petrosjan , Viktor Korchnoi and Miroslav Filip . The sixth qualification place had to be stung. Leonid Stein won here ahead of Pál Benkő and Svetozar Gligorić . However, since only three players from one nation were allowed to qualify and with Geller, Petrosjan and Kortschnoi already three Soviet players had priority, Stein had to resign in favor of Benkős. Michail Tal was runner-up in the previous World Cup cycle , and Paul Keres was second in the Candidates Tournament in Yugoslavia .

Tournament course

Both the 1960 world champion , Michail Tal, and the teenage boy Bobby Fischer, who was future world champion after his outstanding performance at the interzonal tournament, started the tournament with two defeats. After three rounds of the tournament, Mikhail Tal had to be hospitalized because of renal colic and ultimately stopped the tournament on urgent medical advice. Fischer was reportedly the only player who visited Tal in the hospital.

The remaining Soviet players agreed in their games in the first two rounds each quickly draws and led the field after the first half of the tournament. In the second half of the tournament Viktor Korchnoi broke in and lost one after the other to Geller, Keres and Petrosyan. These three players did not fight their games among themselves.

Finally, Tigran Petrosyan qualified undefeated for the competition with Mikhail Botvinnik. The Armenian won eight of the 28 games.

During the tournament there was a heated argument between Fischer and Benkő. Both players had to analyze hanging games and at the same time claimed the help of Arthur Bisguier , who was officially on site as the second fisherman.

Table and results

	Surname	1				2				3				4th				5				6th				7th				8th				Points
1	Tigran Petrosian					½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	½	1	1	½	½	1	½	1	1	½	-	½	1	1	½	17½
2	Paul Keres	½	½	½	½					½	½	½	½	0	½	1	½	½	½	1	½	1	1	1	0	1	½	1	-	½	1	1	½	17th
3	Efim Geller	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½					1	1	½	0	½	½	1	½	½	½	½	1	½	1	1	-	½	1	1	½	17th
4th	Bobby Fischer	½	0	½	½	1	½	0	½	0	0	½	1					0	1	0	½	0	1	½	1	½	1	½	-	1	½	1	½	14th
5	Viktor Korchnoi	½	½	0	0	½	½	0	½	½	½	0	½	1	0	1	½					½	½	½	0	1	0	½	-	1	1	1	1	13½
6th	Pál Benkő	½	½	0	½	0	0	0	1	½	½	½	0	1	0	½	0	½	½	½	1					1	0	½	-	0	1	1	½	12
7th	Mikhail Tal	0	0	½	-	0	½	0	-	½	0	0	-	½	0	½	-	0	1	½	-	0	1	½	-					1	0	½	-	7th
8th	Miroslav Filip	½	0	0	½	½	0	0	½	½	0	0	½	0	½	0	½	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	½	0	1	½	-					7th

In the jump-off for second place (which meant automatic qualification for the next candidate tournament) Keres won against Geller. That was the fourth time in a row that Keres narrowly missed the world championship duel, finishing second in the Candidates' tournament.

Criticism and consequences

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Keres - Petrosjan, position after Black's 14th move, draw

After the tournament, Bobby Fischer announced that he would never again take part in a World Cup qualification, as the Soviet players would openly work together and therefore no western player would have a chance of winning the candidates tournament.

In an article in Sports Illustrated , Fischer alleged that his Soviet opponents had consulted with each other during the games against him.

It was undisputed that the short draws agreed between the Soviet players benefited the Soviets. Criticism was sparked particularly in the game between Keres and Petrosyan from the 25th round, in which Keres was significantly worse at the time of the draw agreement. While Fischer had to fight on the board six days a week, the Soviet players got two additional days off by avoiding hanging games . The agreements also made it possible to keep the lead over the poorly started fisherman. To do this, however, in the second half of the tournament it was necessary for one player to lose to the other.

At the FIDE congress in Saltsjöbaden near Stockholm, which met from August 25 to September 5, 1962, the criticism that a draw before move 30 had to be approved by the tournament director in the future and the candidates tournament in the future in the form of Duels would be fought. Ten games were planned for the quarter-finals and semi-finals and twelve games for the final. The rest of the cycle remained unchanged. The rule that only three players from one association were allowed to qualify for the candidates tournament remained in place.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Deutsche Schachzeitung 6/1962, p. 167.
2. ↑ Hanon W. Russell: The Fischer-Benko Slapping Incident ( Memento from November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Bobby Fischer : Chess in chess. The staged game of the Russians . In: Der Spiegel , 41/1962, pp. 94–97.
4. ^ The Russians have fixed world chess ( Memento from July 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Sports Illustrated, August 20, 1962
5. ↑ Deutsche Schachzeitung 10/1962, pp. 307 and 368.

literature

• Jan Timman : Curaçao 1962. The battle of minds that shook the chess world . New in Chess, Alkmaar 2005. ISBN 90-5691-139-2 .

Web links

• Individual rounds and final table on schachchronik.de ( Memento from June 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Highlights on mark-weeks.com