Russian, American Resume Chess Play

The San Francisco Examiner San Francisco, California Friday, July 29, 1966 - Page 49

Russian, American Resume Chess Play
Santa Monica—(AP)— Russia's Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer of New York resume an adjourned game today that could put Spassky in the lead in the Piatigorsky Cup international chess tournament.
Spassky, with a 4½-2&half record, kept the American youngster on the defensive throughout last night's match, and play adjourned with Fischer in a somewhat inferior position.
Denmark's Bent Larsen, who is 5-3, drew with Sam Reshevsky of New York and is challenging for the lead.
Larsen aggressively offered a pawn advantage for the attack, but couldn't press through for the point, and the match ended in 19 moves.

Other Game
In the only other game played to a conclusion, Jan Donner of Holland and Yugoslavia's Borislav Ivkov drew in 28 moves. Ivkov took the better position, but once all rooks were off the board, he didn't have enough pieces to win.
World champion Tigran Petrosian of Russia and Argentina's Miguel Najdorf adjourned a 43-move contest, with Petrosian a pawn up.
He had bishop, rook and three pawns against Najdorf's knight and rook and two pawns, all on king's side. The Soviet was pressing to win in a position believed to be a potential draw.

42 Moves
Lajos Portisch of Hungary and Wolfgang Unzicker of Germany adjourned after 42 moves when each had four pawns and a position were two white bishops for Portisch were set against Unzicker's king and bishop.
Standings in the eighth of 18 rounds:

How to Lose Wife or Husband: Introduce Chess

Des Moines Tribune Des Moines, Iowa Friday, July 29, 1966 - Page 6

How to Lose Wife or Husband: Introduce Chess
By Ralph Dighton
SANTA MONICA, CALIF. (AP)—Madam, if you want to get rid of your husband, introduce him somehow to chess.
Unless you play the game yourself, the odds are about even you'll seldom see him again.
And, husbands, it works even better in reverse: Some women chess addicts are really out of this world.
Living proofs of the perils of this ancient avenue to separation from reality are on exhibit nightly in a basement banquet room at the oceanfront Miramar Hotel.
Upstairs, balmy breezes tease palm fronds on a torch-lit patio splashed with gay frocks and Polynesian shirts.
Ignoring all this, some 700 men and a scattering of women slip downstairs night after night and take their places on hard chairs.

5-Hour Stare
For five hours, they hypnotize themselves by staring fixedly at projection screens representing the five boards at which 10 masters are battling for a record $13,000 in prizes.
On each of the screens are 64 squares, and arranged at seeming random on the squares are up to 32 pieces called kings, queens, bishops, knights, rooks and pawns.
Every once in a long, long while one of the players moves a piece on his board, and a corresponding piece is moved on the screen.
Small sounds of approval—or wonder—escape from the crowd, then all quiet down and wait for the next move.
The scene is the month-long Piatigorsky Cup Tournament, sponsored by cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and his wife Jacqueline, who is California women's chess champion.
Mrs. Piatigorsky designed the projection screens, an innovation in chess, after the line-score screens in bowling alleys.
“They've increased attendance tremendously,” she says. “Now, for the first time, everybody can see what's going on.”

Players
Seated at the boards are world champion Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky of the U.S.S.R., Lajos Portisch of Hungary, Miguel Najdorf of Argentina, Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia, Jorgen Bent Larsen of Denmark, Jan Donner of the Netherlands, Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany, and Samuel Reshevsky and Robert Fischer of the United States.
Fischer, 23, is the “baby” of the tournament. He became a grand master at 15, the youngest to achieve the title.
Each player has 2½ hours to make 40 moves, or forfeit the game. As each moves, he punches a clock and his opponent's time-to-move starts. At first, the moves come slowly, up to half an hour apart. Later, with time running out, the moves may be only seconds apart.
When this happens, tension mounts. The 700-odd spectators sit on the edges of their chairs. Players squeeze their foreheads and run fingers through their hair.

Back Nest Day
If a game is not finished in five hours, the players adjourn until the next day. Many times in this tournament, the opponents agree that neither can win and they call a draw.
Now and then, however, the spectators are lucky. A brilliant attack succeeds in 20 to 30 moves: Checkmate! And the game is over.
At the end of five hours the 700 spectators—lawyers, doctors, insurance men, teachers, factory hands—rise slowly and return to reality.
They move up the stairs. The breeze is still playing, sounds of laughter and music drift across the lighted patio, but the addicts do not notice. Many of them have pocket-size chessboards in their hands and they are reconstructing the play.
Still hypnotized? Well, call it chess-nosis.

4 Draws in Sky Cup Chess

Oakland Tribune Oakland, California Monday, July 18, 1966 - Page 6

4 Draws in Sky Cup Chess
SANTA MONICA (AP) — The first round of the Piatigorsky Sky Cup international grandmasters' chess tournament ended in four draws and one adjourned game which is likely to end in a victory for Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia over Bent Larsen of Denmark.
World champion Tigran Petrosian of Russia drew a queen's gambit declined against countryman Boris Spassky in 29 moves yesterday, gradually working out a slight advantage which proved insufficient for a win as Spassky tenaciously defended his black side of the game.
Former United States champion Samuel Reshevsky, contender of the world championship for many years, also drew and halved the point with Bobby Fischer, who has won the United States championship six times in his young career.
Reshevsky managed to hold a slight edge for most of the game. But Fischer finally liquidated the entire queen side and wiped out the potential promotion of a white pawn to a queen by advancing his queen knight's pawn to the seventh rank.
In the Ivkov-Larsen game, the Yugoslav won the exchange by winning a rook for a knight through a check to the king on the 45th move and with adjournment one move later stands much better.

Pair Draw in Chess Match

The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Friday, July 29, 1966 - Page 44

Pair Draw in Chess Match
By Isaac Kashdan, Times Chess Editor
The first game to be completed Thursday night was a draw in 19 moves between Samuel Reshevsky of Spring Valley, N.Y., and Bent Larsen of Denmark in the eighth round of the Piatigorsky Cup International Chess Tournament at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.
Larsen gave up a pawn on the 10th move to open lines on the king side. He did not regain the material, but was able to force a draw by repetition of moves.
Another draw was recorded in 28 moves between Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia and Jan Donner of Holland. The positions were evenly balanced throughout.
Three other games were still being contested at a late hour. The pairings were: Boris Spassky of the USSR versus U.S. chess champion Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn; world chess champion Tigran Petrosian of the USSR versus Miguel Najdorf of Argentina, and Lajos Portisch of Hungary versus Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany.
Unfinished games will be played off at 11 a.m. today at the Miramar.

U.S. Chess Champion Draws in 4th Round

The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Friday, July 22, 1966 - Page 44

U.S. Chess Champion Draws in 4th Round
American chess champion Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn drew with Jan Donner of Holland in the first game to be completed Thursday night in the fourth round of the Piatigorsky Cup chess tournament at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.
The opening was the Marshall variation of the Ruy Lopez, in which black gives up a pawn to obtain a sharp counter attack.
As the game went, Fischer retained the pawn in a strong position. Most of the pieces were exchanged, however, and with opposite-colored bishops on the board, no win was in sight.
The draw was agreed upon after 34 moves.
Draws were also recorded between world chess champion Tigran Petrosian of U.S.S.R. and Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia in 25 moves, and between Samuel Reshevsky of Spring Valley, N.Y., and Lajos Portisch, of Hungary, in 16 moves.
Two other games were still being contested at a late hour, between Boris Spassky, U.S.S.R., and Bent Larsen, Denmark, and between Miguel Najdorf, Argentina, and Wolfgang Unzicker, West Germany.
Unfinished games were scheduled to be played off at 11 a.m. today.
The next regular round will start at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Miramar. Paired then will be Portisch vs. Spassky, Ivkov vs. Reshevsky, Donner vs. Petrosian, Unzicker vs. Fischer, and Larsen vs. Najdorf.

Dane Defeats Petrosian In Chess Tournament

St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri Thursday, July 28, 1966 - Page 55

Dane Defeats Petrosian In Chess Tournament
Santa Monica, Calif. July 28 (AP)—Denmark's Bent Larsen has defeated world champion Tigran Petrosian of Russia in the seventh round of the Piatigorsky international chess competition. Larsen, shares the lead with Russia's Boris Spassky, each having 4½-2½ record.
Spassky beat Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia.
Argentina's Miguel Najdorf gained a share of third place, defeating Bobby Fischer of New York.
The other matches ended in draws: Wolfgang Unzicker of Germany Samuel Reshevsky of New York; Holland's Jan Donner and Lajos Portisch of Hungary.

Petrosian and Fischer Lose Chess Matches

The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Thursday, July 28, 1966 - Page 24

Petrosian and Fischer Lose Chess Matches
World chess champion Tigran Petrosian of the U.S.S.R. and U.S. champion Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn, N.Y., were both defeated Wednesday in a remarkable exhibition of masterly chess in the seventh round of the Piatigorsky Cup Chess Tournament at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.
Most sensational was the downfall of Petrosian at the hands of Bent Larsen of Denmark. Larsen gave up his queen to capture a pawn which apparently was firmly protected.
The result was a direct attack on the champion's king by Larsen's two rooks and bishops. Their combined power threatened to force a check-mate. Petrosian resigned on the 30th move.
Fischer was defeated in 31 moves by Miguel Najdorf of Argentina. Playing the black pieces, Fischer advanced pawns on both wings, but weakened his center squares in the process.
Najdorf advanced his knights. finding good posts deep in Fischer's territory. Fischer was unable to avoid all the threats, finally losing a piece.
Boris Spassky of the U.S.S.R. outplayed Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia to score a point after 36 moves.
Two games resulted in routine draws, between Jan Donner of Holland and Lajos Portisch of Hungary in 36 moves, and between Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany and Samuel Reshevsky of Spring Valley, N.Y. in 22 moves.
Larsen and Spassky are in the lead with scores of 4½—2½, Najdorf and Portisch follow with 4—3.
Other totals are Reshevsky, 3½—2½; Donner, Fischer and Unzicker, 3—4; Petrosian, 2½—4½; and Ivkov, 2—4.
The eighth round will be played at 6:30 p.m. today at the Miramar. The pairings will be: Spassky vs. Fischer, Petrosian vs. Najdorf, Reshevsky vs. Larsen, Portisch vs. Unzicker, and Ivkov vs. Donner.

Argentine Takes Lead in Chess Tournament

St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri Tuesday, July 19, 1966 - Page 34

Argentine Takes Lead in Chess Tournament
SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 19 (AP) — Miguel Najdorf of Argentina has taken the lead in the second round of the Piatigorsky Cup international chess tournament by beating Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia.
Najdorf won in 26 moves last night. The other four matches were scheduled to be played off today.
The contest between world champion Tigran Petrosian of Russia and United States star Sam Reshevsky went 40 moves in five hours. Also adjourned were the contests between Boris Spassky of Russia and Wolfgang Unzicker of Germany; Bent Larsen of Denmark and Jan Donner of Holland and Bobby Fischer of the U.S. and Lajos Portisch of Hungary.

Chess World Giants Meet For Matches

The Vancouver Sun Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Saturday, July 16, 1966 - Page 2

Chess World Giants Meet For Matches
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — The man who is at the summit of the chess world is a Russian named Tigran Petrosian.
Petrosian, who arrived here Friday night to compete in the second bi-annual Piatigorsky Cup international chess tournament, has already won top position for the first round Sunday.
Positions were determined by a draw for places. Petrosian, who won the first Piatigorsky Cup in 1963, leads off against his fellow countryman, Boris Spassky, whom he recently defeated in a tournament in Moscow for the world title.
The tournament here is sponsored by the Piatigorsky Foundation, founded by Mrs. Gregor Piatigorsky, wife of the famed cellist. The five weeks of play end with the presentation of more than $15,000 in prize money.
To the competition with Petrosian and Spassky will be two famous U.S. grand masters, Samuel Reshevksy and Bobby Fischer. Also, there are Miguel Najdorf of Argentina, Lajos Portisch of Hungary, Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia, Bent Larsen of Denmark, Jan Donner of Holland and Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany.

Fischer Drops 3rd Chess Match

The Central New Jersey Home News New Brunswick, New Jersey Wednesday, July 27, 1966 - Page 29

Fischer Drops 3rd Chess Match
SANTA MONICA. Calif, (AP) — Bent Larsen of Denmark has moved into a tie for second place in the sixth round of the Piatigorsky Cup international chess tournament.
Larsen won his fifth-round match yesterday by defeating Miguel Najdorf of Argentina and then beat 23-year-old Bobby Fischer of New York.
With a 3½-2½ record, Larsen is tied with Boris Spassky of Russia and Hungary's Lajos Portisch.
America's Samuel Reshevsky, who has completed only five matches in the 18-round competition, holds a slight lead with a 3-2 record.
Fischer and Najdorf are 3-3, while Holland's Jan Donner, Wolfgang Unzicker of Germany and world champion Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union are 2½-3½. Yugoslavia's Borislav Ivkov is last with a 2-3 mark.

Three Tied for Lead in Chess Play

The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Wednesday, July 27, 1966 - Page 50

Three Tied for Lead in Chess Play
Bent Larsen of Denmark, Lajos Portisch of Hungary and Boris Spassky of the U.S.S R. were tied for the lead with scores of 3½-2½ after six rounds of play in the Piatigorsky Cup International Chess Tournament at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.
Larsen moved up by defeating Miguel Najdorf of Argentina in 69 moves in a game adjourned from the fifth round and completed Tuesday afternoon.
Starting the session a pawn ahead, but finding it difficult to make progress, Larsen returned the pawn to get his pieces free. The strategy was successful and a number of moves later Larsen won two knights for a rook.
It was Larsen's second win in succession, following his defeat of U.S. champion Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn.

Draw Game
An adjourned game from the sixth round was drawn in 43 moves between Portisch and Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia. Only one move was made in the second session, when the players agreed to split the point.
Also drawn was the game between Fischer and Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany, which went to 78 moves. Fischer had a decided positional advantage when the session started, but could find nothing decisive.
The only remaining adjourned game was between Ivkov and Samuel Reshevsky of Spring Valley, N.Y., which will be played off Friday morning.
Reshevsky is the only player other than the leaders to have a plus score, 3-2. Fischer and Najdorf are tied with 3-3.
World chess champion Tigran Petrosian of the U.S.S.R., who has clearly not played in his best form, is tied with Unzicker and Jan Donner of Holland, with scores of 2½-3½. Ivkov has 2-3.
The seventh round will be contested at 6:30 p.m. today at the Miramar. The pairings are: Ivkov vs. Spassky, Donner vs. Portisch, Unzicker vs. Reshevsky, Larsen vs. Petrosian and Najdorf vs. Fischer.
Following are the details of two decisive games from the sixth round:

Piatigorsky Tourney

The Gazette Montreal, Quebec, Canada Saturday, July 30, 1966 - Page 28

Peace On Two Fronts
At the USA championship at New York. American champion Bobby Fischer and veteran champion, Samuel Reshevsky, were seen to shake hands and to chat amicably. They had been on the ‘outs’ ever since the unhappy finish of their match a few years ago, when Fischer withdrew before its completion, due to a defaulted game registered against him for failure to show at a re-scheduled hour. The quarrel was primarily with the committee but Fischer threatened to sue Reshevsky for his share of the purse. Nothing more has been heard of that.
Fischer has also expressed regret over his attack on Russian players for their alleged collaboration to assure a Russian victory. This was the reason for his withdrawal from the world series.

Champion Trailing In Piatigorsky Tourney
Boris Spassky, USSR, leads the Piatigorsky Cup tourney at Santa Monica, Cal., 3½-2½ pts., ahead of M. Najdorf, Argentina, S. Reshevsky, USA, and L. Portisch, Hungary, 3-2 each; R. J. Fischer, USA, and B. Larsen, Denmark, 2½-2½ each; world champion Tigran Petrosian, USSR, and J. H. Donner, Holland, 2½-3½ each; W. Unzicker, W. Germany, 2-3. and B. Ivkov, Yugoslavia, 1½-2½. Unexpected results were Petrosian's loss to Portisch, and Fischer's to Larsen in 29 moves. Larsen lost earlier to Ivkov, Reshevsky brilliantly defeated Donner in moves.

Larsen, Best in the West
Bent Larsen, young Danish grandmaster, defeated Ewfim Geller, USSR, 5.4 pts., in a match at Copenhagen. This play-off match decides third place in the Challengers tourney of the last world series, and earns him a seeded place in the 1967 Inter-Zonal of the new series.
Larsen's string of successes in the last few years has surprised the chess world, and on his record many regard him as the leading player outside the USSR, ahead of Fischer, Ivkov and Portisch. The current Piatigorsky Cup tourney, in which all four are competing, will throw more light on this. Fischer, of course, is trying to regain his place after an absence of several years from the international field.

Questions Arise: Did D.M. LeDain actually write this piece, or an intern??

“Fischer has also expressed regret over his attack on Russian players for their alleged collaboration to assure a Russian victory. This was the reason for his withdrawal from the world series.”
—NOTE: Source not cited. Questionable, since Fischer continued to allege the same suspicions for years after. Later, the same accusations corroborated by Soviet players themselves. But if so, in what actual context?

“Fischer, of course, is trying to regain his place after an absence of several years from the international field”
— Fischer was not absent from international chess for “years”, his presence in the Cuban Capablanca Memorial, was noted the prior year, 1965.

Reshevsky Conquers His Foe In 36 Moves

Tucson Daily Citizen Tucson, Arizona Tuesday, July 26, 1966 - Page 15

Reshevsky Conquers His Foe In 36 Moves
Santa Monica, Calif. New York's one-time child prodigy of chess, Samuel Reshevsky, turned in one of the most brilliant games of the Piatigorsky Cup International Chess Tournament when he beat Holland's Jan Donner in 36 moves.
Reshevsky, strong from the opening, moved in on his opponent forcefully and displayed excellent strategy before Donner was forced to resign last night.
The Reshevsky-Donner encounter was but one of the exciting matches in a round that produced five interesting games. The other American in the tournament, Bobby Fischer of New York, lost his game in 29 moves to Bent Larsen of Denmark as he tried desperately to save himself after falling into a poor position.
Two other games — between Russia's Boris Spassky and Argentina's Miguel Najdorf, and Russian world champion Tigran Petrosian and West Germany's Wolfgang Unzicker — ended in draws.
Petrosian played below his usual form, and the game was ended at 38 moves. Spassky drew in 31 moves with Najdorf in a king's Indian defense after both sides were without enough material to win.
The game between Lajos Portisch of Hungary and Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia was adjourned, with Ivkov slightly ahead. Their forces were so reduced the game probably will end in a draw.
The standings: Spassky 3½-2½; Reshevsky, Portisch and Najdorf 3-2; Larsen and Fischer 2½-2½; Petrosian and Donner 2½-3½; Unzicker 2-3, and Ivkov 1½-2½.

Ex-U.S. Chess Champ Wins in Tourney

The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Tuesday, July 26, 1966 - Page 46

Ex-U.S. Chess Champ Wins in Tourney
Former U.S. chess champion Samuel Reshevsky of Spring Valley, N.Y., played brilliantly Monday to defeat Jan Donner of Holland in 36 moves in the 6th round of the Piatigorsky Cup International Chess Tournament at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.
Reshevsky started by giving up a pawn to open a key diagonal bearing on Donner's king. He then sacrificed a bishop to draw the king into the open. The finale was the offer of a rook which forced a checkmate whether Donner took it or not.
It was Reshevsky's first win of the tournament and the first loss for Donner, who had drawn five games in succession.

Fischer Resigns
U.S. champion Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn fared much worse at the hands of Bent Larsen of Denmark, resigning after 30 moves.
Fischer had come out of the opening with two strong bishops and what appeared to be good attacking chances. A couple of inconsistent moves gave Larsen an opportunity.
The Dane captured a pawn, and when Fischer's attack was halted, there was no way to prevent the pawn advancing to queen without the loss of at least a piece.
World chess champion Tigran Petrosian of the U.S.S.R., who has still to win a game in the tournament, drew in 37 moves with Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany.
Also evenly matched were Boris Spassky of the U.S.S.R. and Miguel Najdorf of Argentina, who drew their game after 36 moves.

Game Adjourned
Lajos Portisch of Hungary and Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia adjourned their game in 42 moves after 5 hours of play.
Spassky is in the lead with a score of 3½-2½ but he may be overtaken when the adjourned games are completed. Other totals are: Najdorf, Portisch and Reshevsky, 3-2; Larsen and Fischer 2½-2½; Donner and Petrosian, 2½-3½; Unzicker, 2-3, and Ivkov, 1½-2½.
Adjourned games from the 5th and 6th rounds will be continued at 11 a.m. today at the Miramar.

Chess Cup: Dane Goes Into Lead

The Vancouver Sun Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Friday, July 29, 1966 - Page 19

Chess Cup: Dane Goes Into Lead
Santa Monica, Calif. (CP) — Denmark's Bent Larsen took over first place in the Piatigorsky Cup international chess tournament Thursday night when he drew with Samuel Reshevsky of the United States in 19 moves.
Larsen has five out of a possible eight points after eight rounds of play in the 10-man, 18-round, double round-robin tournament.
Russia's Boris Spassky kept Bobby Fischer of the U.S. on the defensive throughout their match and play was adjourned with Fischer in a somewhat inferior position. Spassky is second with 4½ points.
In the only other game decided, Jan Donner of The Netherlands and Yugoslavia's Borislav Ivkov drew in 28 moves.
World champion Tigran Petrosian of Russia and Argentina's Miguel Najdorf adjourned a 43-move contest, with Petrosian a pawn up.

Russians to Attend Chess Tourney

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

An 8-Hour Chess Battle To a Draw

The San Francisco Examiner San Francisco, California Saturday, July 23, 1966 - Page 4

An 8-Hour Chess Battle To a Draw
SANTA MONICA — (AP) — A spectacular, tense duel in the fourth round of the Piatigorsky Cup international chess tournament ended after eight hours of play with Russia's Boris Spassky tying with Denmark's Bent Larsen.
The draw, giving each a half point, kept the Russian in a four-way tie yesterday for first place with Bobby Fischer of the United States. Miguel Najdorf of Argentina, and Lajos Portisch of Hungary.
Each has 2½ games to his credit against 1½ in the loss column.
Larsen—who occupied a rather poor position through the first 40 moves of the long game—ended up with a one-pawn advantage over Spassky after five hours.
Two more sessions failed to produce a winner, so the match was called a draw. Other standings are: America's Samuel Reshevsky and Jan Donner of Holland, 2-2; world chess champ Tigran Petrosian of Russia, Borislav lvkov of Yugoslavia. Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany and Larsen, 1½-2½.
Pairings for the fifth round tomorrow are Portish-Spassky, Ivkov-Reshevsky, Donner-Petrosian, Unzicker-Fischer and Larsen-Najdorf.

Chess Champ Struggling In Grandmaster Tourney

Sunday Gazette-Mail Charleston, West Virginia Sunday, July 31, 1966 - Page 35

Chess Champ Struggling In Grandmaster Tourney
The Piatigorsky International All-Grandmaster Tournament at Santa Monica, Calif.—one of the outstanding chess events of this decade—is producing some startling results.
World champion Tigran Petrosian of Russia has fallen to next-to-last place among the 10 famed players who are competing. He was beaten in only 30 moves by Bent Larsen of Denmark in the seventh round and dropped to a feeble score of 2½-4½.
Larsen, with 4½-2½, is tied with Boris Spassky of Russia for first place. Miguel Najdorf of Argentina and Lajos Portisch of Hungary are close behind with 4-3.
America's bright young star, Bobby Fischer, also is making a poor showing. He has a minus score of 3-4—a half-point behind the other American entry, Samuel Reshevsky.
But the 18-round tourney is not yet half over, so there's plenty of time for the standings to change.

Spassky Leads Chess Championship Tourney

The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Sunday, July 31, 1966 - Page 41

Spassky Leads Chess Championship Tourney
Russian Master Tops Field After 8th Round of Play in International Games
Boris Spassky of the U.S.S.R., recent challenger for the world chess championship, led with a score of 5½-2½ after eight completed rounds of the Piatigorsky Cup International Chess Tournament at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.
Spassky moved ahead of the field of 10 grand masters by winning two sharp games in succession, against Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia in the seventh round and U.S. champion Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn, N.Y. in the eighth.
His total includes five wins and two draws.
In second place at this stage is Bent Larsen of Denmark. with 5-3. Larsen lost his first game to Ivkov, but has been undefeated since with three victories and four draws.
The feature of Larsen's record is his sensational victory over world chess champion Tigran Petrosian of the U.S.S.R., easily the most brilliant game of the tournament to date.
Tied for third with scores of 4½-3½ are Lajos Portisch of Hungary and Samuel Reshevsky of Spring Valley, N. Y. They have identical results, one win and seven draws. Following is Miguel Najdorf of Argentina, with 4-4.
Most surprising are the low standings of Petrosian and Fischer who were prime favorites to capture the top prizes.
Petrosian won for the first time in the eighth round against Najdorf. He is tied with Jan Donner of Holland and Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany, all with 3½-4½.
Fischer shares the bottom of the list with Ivkov, each having lost three games, won one and drawn four, with a point score of 3-5.
Fischer was doing reasonably well, but has dropped three games in succession, to Larsen, Najdorf and Spassky.
The ninth round will be played from 1 to 6 p.m. today at the Miramar. Despite their setbacks, the pairing that will arouse the most interest is Fischer vs. Petrosian, with the American having the white pieces.
The other pairings are Donner vs. Spassky, Unzicker vs. Ivkov. Larsen vs. Portisch, and Najdorf vs. Reshevsky.
Following are the recent results and the moves of the instructive games between Larsen and Petrosian, and between Spassky and Fischer.

Players Equal In Piatigorsky Cup

The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Sunday, July 31, 1966 - Page 92 (★)

Players Equal In Piatigorsky Cup
One of the surprise, in the early rounds of the Piatigorsky Cup Tournament is that all 10 competitors seem almost exactly on a par.
All are grandmasters of wide experience, invited as the best chess players in the world. Yet even in grandmaster tournaments someone usually takes command easily, another performs poorly.
As this is written, after the sixth round, there is only one point difference between first and last places in the standings. The top score is 3½-2½, and the bottom 2½-3½.
One factor that accounts for the closeness of the scores is the high percentage of draws. Only eight games were won of the first 30 played. In the first Piatigorsky Cup competition three years ago, half the games were drawn, 28 of 56.
Yet most of the games, including those drawn, were fine specimens of chess. Many brilliant examples of strategy and tactics of a high order can be found.
In some cases of seemingly placid, uneventful games, there were ideas beneath the surface that both players were aware of, traps that they avoided, perhaps opportunities missed.
Two of the players counted upon to add excitement to the tournament have not as yet displayed their full prowess.
First is world champion Tigran Petrosian of the USSR, fresh from his successful defense of the title in match play against his compatriot Boris Spassky.
It is not merely that Petrosian had not won a game at this writing, with one loss and five draws, but that he had not shown the forcefulness, the accuracy expected of him.
The other disappointing performer is our own champion, 23-year-old Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn. At least twice he had games that seemed made to order for his vigorous attacking_style, and he did not or could not follow through.
The only winner of two games was Bent Larsen of Denmark, who defeated in successive rounds Miguel Najdorf of Argentina and Fischer. The only two-game loser was Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia, curiously to the aforementioned Najdorf and Fischer.
The halfway point of the tournament will be reached today with the playing of the ninth round starting at 1 p.m. at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.
Paired together are Fischer and Petrosian, with The American ace having the white pieces. This is undoubtedly the most eagerly awaited encounter of the tournament, and if both are in good form, real chess will be seen.
The other pairings are: Jan Donner of Holland vs. Spassky; Wolfgang Unzicker of West Germany vs. Ivkov: Larsen vs. Lajos Portisch of Hungary, and Najdorf vs. Samuel Reshevsky of Spring Valley, N.Y.
Nine more rounds are on the schedule, with pairings as in the first nine, except that colors are reversed. Playing dates are Sunday afternoons and Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, through Aug. 15. Tuesdays and Fridays are devoted to adjourned games.
Following are details through the sixth round. See the news section of The Times for more current results and standings.