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Tal
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Shiyanovsky
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Baku, a large rail junction and port terminal, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea. It is also famous for oil refineries, petrochemical, chemical, food, engineering branches of industry, oil equipment production, building materials, instrumentation, electrical engineering and radio electronics and shipbuilding.
1961 was an eventful year. Electric toothbrushes were introduced and the first lasers were developed. Barbie got her boyfriend Ken. The top rated television shows were Westerns...Wagon Train, Bonanza and Gunsmoke.
Outgoing President Eisenhower warned us about the dangers of the developing military industrial complex...close links between defense contractors, the Pentagon and politicians. I think it mostly went unheeded.
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| During the televised debate Nixon was sweating like a pig |
Incidentally, most people are probably unaware of Richard Nixon's considerable military experience.
With Vietnam in full swing, in 1966 the Harvard Crimson opined that, "Two year service in the domestic or foreign peace corps should count as a complete and legitimate alternative to military service." And, in 1967, then-Peace Corps director, Jack Vaughn, began making a case against drafting volunteers. He claimed, "Pulling a volunteer off a productive job at mid-tour is unfair to the nation, to the host country, the Peace Corps and the individual."
In 1961 one of the first things the new President John F. Kennedy did was doublecross Cuban exiles during thier failed attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
In other news, the Soviets built a wall dividing East and West Berlin and Nazi Adolf Eichmann was tried in Israel, found guilty and hung. By the way, if you come across The House on Garibaldi Street, it's a good read. I wouldn't pay the ridiculous Amazon prices though...it's not THAT good!
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was first human in space during a single-orbit flight and Commander Alan Shephard Jr. Was the first American in space in a suborbital flight. Virgil Grissom followed in similar fashion two months later. The Soviets were also involved in another first when their space probe Venera 1 became the first man-made vehicle to reach another planet when it arrived at Venus.
In 1961 there were two Soviet Championships. The 28th was played in Moscow from January 11 to February 11, 1961. It served as the Soviet Zonal from which four players for the Stockholm Interzonal to be played in 1962.
Petrosian finished first a half point ahead of Korchnoi. Newcomer Leonid Stein scored a sixth round win over Petrosian who then went on to score 9 points in his next 11 games, taking a 1.5 point lead with two rounds to go and coasting from there.
Korchnoi also had a spectacular fininsh winning his last four games. Geller, who also qualified, was near the top for the entire tournament. The last spot was taken by Stein as a result of his last-round win against Spassky who tied with Smyslov for fifth and sixth a point behind Geller and Stein.
The 29th Championship was the second of two and was held Baku from November 16th to December 20th. Twenty one of Russia's strongest players were there, including many who played in the previous championship earlier in the year.
Boris Spassky and Vasily Smyslov had both just barely missed qualifying for the Stockholm Interzonal were entered and hoped to do better. The tournament turned out to be a disaster for Smyslov who lost four games and tied for 8th place with three others, one of whom was Paul Keres. Keres only lost two games, but had too many draws. Of the other big names, Tal might have been expected to finish higher, but he lost three games (Spassky, Bronstein and Nezhmetdinov).
Spassky and Smyslov started off with 3.5 in the first four rounds, but after Spassky defeated Smyslov in the 5th round, they went their separate ways. Spassky lead the rest of the tournament and Smyslov went on to lose more games: Taimanov, Gipslis and Vladimirov.
Polugaevsky scored an incredible 7 out of 8 in the final rounds, but it wasn't enough. Spassky’s result was attributed to the fact that not long before the tournament he had split with his long-term coach and mentor, Aleksandr Tolush, and had begun to work with Igor Bondarevsky.
There are some interesting photos of the type of sets that were used in this tournament posted in the forum at at Chess,com HERE. Chessbazaar sells a reproduction of the set.
1) Spassky 14.5
2) Polugaevsky 14.0
3) Bronstein 12.5
4-5) Vasiukov and Tal 12.0
6-7) Averbakh and Taimanov 11.5
8-11) Gipslis, Keres, Smyslov and Kholmov 11.0
12) Shamkovich 10.5
13) Khasin 9.5
14-16) Vladimirov, Kots and Shiyanovsky 8.0
17-18) Lein and Savon 7.5
19) Nezhmetdinov 7.0
20-21) Bagirov and Gurgenidze 6.0
About all you can say about Taimanov’s play in the following game is, "What a debacle for a player who at the time was among the top dozen or so players in the world!" Ten years later he was to face another debacle when he lost 6-0 to Bobby Fischer.
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