The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Saturday, July 16, 1966 - Page 33 (★)
Russians to Attend Chess Tourney
YOUR MOVE - Bent Larsen, left, of Denmark, makes move against U.S. champion Bobby Fischer
a, Mr. and Mrs. Gregor Piatigorsky watch action, Payers are here for Piatigorsky Cup competition. Times photo by Mary Frampton
Politics went by the chess board.
The Russians are coming with the word so eagerly anticipated by officials of the U.S.A.- U.S.S.R. track meet and never received.
Coming to cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and his wife was the word that Russian world chess champion Tigran Petrosian and compatriot Boris Spassky were aboard an SAS flight to Los Angeles to compete in the second Piatigorsky Cup International Chess Tournament beginning Sunday at the Miramar.
It was the talk of the party given Friday evening at the Piatigorsky home in honor of the 10 Grand Masters competing and very much on the mind of U.S. chess champion, 23-year-old Robert J. (Bobby) Fischer.
He shrugged when asked if he can beat the Russians and downed three straight orange juices during five minutes of conversation about his prowess on the boards.
Bobby has been called the “enfant terrible” of chess. In 1962 he charged the Russians rigged a tourney by prearranging straws and even throwing games so no outsider could challenge their reigning championship. “The Russians will draw by prearrangement in this tournament,” he said, and that he will compete for the world championship only if proposals he has made to the World Chess Federation are accepted. He declined the last competition.
Vice president of the federation Jerry Spann said chess competition is not political, although there was a great deal of apprehension surrounding this tourney due to the Russian withdrawal from the track encounter.
Before the bombing of Haiphong, which ostensibly was the reason Russians refused to compete in track, the U.S.S.R. said ‘nyet” to chess play. They said yes to the great cellist Piatigorsky, a judge at the recent Tchaikovsky International Music Competition in Moscow.
Then Wednesday when they were due to fly, the two names did not appear on the airline manifest. It was speculated that as the Russian chess players traveled together in the buddy system, that one could not leave without the other. Later on a Voice of America program it was aired that Spassky was out of town.
“This tournament is one of the greatest,” said Spann. “The closest to compare with it was the Avro Tournament in 1938 in Holland when eight world players competed. This one has 10.”
In addition to Messrs. Fischer, Petrosian and Spassky there are Jan Hein Donner of Holland who almost missed the same plane the Russians were on. Also competing are Borislav Ivkov, Yugoslavia; Bent Larsen, Denmark; Miguel Najdorf, Argentina; Lajos Portisch, Hungary; Samuel Reshevsky, U.S.A., and Wolfgang Unzicker, Germany.
Skills Tester
They passed party chit-chat in favor of testing skills on boards set up in the living room and garden. Situations were posed which required difficult maneuvering and the various players gave their opinions and there was good-natured kibitzing.
Enjoying the party themselves were the host and hostess, he puffing on his pipe and she graciously attending her guests. Mrs. Piatigorsky is president of the Piatigorsky Foundation which is sponsoring the tournament including the $20,000 in the cash prizes, travel, entertainment and lodging expenses at the Miramar.
She is a top-ranked woman chess player and the daughter of the late Baron Edouard de Rothschild. She helped design the handsome silver and ebony Piatigorsky Cup trophy placed on the piano with a smaller replica. They were executed by Alan Adler.
Names engraved are those of Petrosian and Paul Keres, who won the first competition in 1963.
Some additional background on withdraw of Soviet athletes from Track Meet with Americans
Daily Press, Newport News, Virginia, Tuesday, July 12, 1966