Asztalos Memorial, Gyula 1965

     While browsing through Chess is My Life by Korchnoi the other day I came across his mention of Gyula, 1965. I say ‘mention’ because that’s all it was; he noted it was a ‘success’ and said nothing more. I remember this tournament being reported in Chess Review with also with only a brief mention, but it should have gotten more attention because of Korchnoi’s remarkable feat…he scored 14 wins and ONE draw. Korchnoi was not a happy man after the tournament because he failed to make a perfect score, claiming his opponent was lucky! All the games can be found at 365chess.
     There is a great tribute to Korchnoi on Chess Diagonals, but as far as I know there no tribute to Lengyel on the Internet.  However, you can read about him HERE.
     The standings were:
1)Korchnoi 14.5
2-3) Lengyel and Honfi 9.0
4-5) Csom and Haag 8.5
6-7) Flesch and Kolarov
8-10) Kluger, Borisenko and Gasztnyi
11) Florian 6.5
12-14) Pirc, Sliwa and Gunsberger
15) Forintos
16) Paoli

Here’s his game against Lengyel who’s solid play never gave Korchnoi a chance at winning. In fact, I did not even find a point where he could have safely complicated things in order to create winning chances.