1970, A Really Big Year

   ChessBase has a brief interview with GM Vlastimil Hort about the USSR vs. Rest of the World match that was played in 1970.  
     Italian chess suffered a loss when on January 6, 1970, IM Vincenzo Castaldi (1916-1970) died in Firenze at the age of 53. He was Italian champion in 1936, 1937, 1947, 1948, 1952 (jointly), 1953 and 1959. He was Italian correspondence champion in 1956. 
     US chess also suffered the loss of Abraham Kupchik, a strong master and many time champion of the Manhattan Chess Club,who died in New York at the age of 78 on November 26th. 
     Kenneth Rogoff won the US Junior Championship and Bent Larsen won the US Open held in Boston. 
     In international play Lajos Portisch started the year off by winning the Hastings tournament and in addition to a trophy he pocketed $480. 
     Bobby Fischer won at Rovinj-Zagreb, scoring 13-4. Fischer’s only loss came when against Vlatko Kovacevic, Fischer had a chance to win if Kovacevic made the obvious move. Petrosian, along with his wife, and Korchnoi were analyzing the position in a different room. Petrosian’s wife went up to Kovacevic and tipped him off. Kovacevic then played a less obvious, but stronger move, and won the game. 
     Fischer also outdistanced a strong field at Buenos Aires when he defeated his three nearest rivals and scored an undefeated 15-2. A distant second with 11.5 was Tukmakov followed by Gheorghiu, Najdorf, Reshevsky, Smyslov, Mecking, Quinteros et al. 
     Anatoly Karpov tied for 4th place at an international tournament in Caracas and in doing so earned another GM norm and was awarded the title at the FIDE Congress in Siegen in September, 1970. He was the world's youngest GM at the age of 19. 
     Korchnoi won the Soviet Championship, held in Riga. He was followed by Tukmakov, Stein, Balashov, Gipslis, Karpov and Savon in the 22 player event.
     On December 13, 1970, Bobby Fischer won the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal.
     Big news in the US came in August when the US team won the World Student Championship for the first time in 10 years. Britain took 2nd and West Germany took 3rd. The event was held in Haifa, Israel. The US team consisted of: Kenneth Rogoff, Andrew Soltis, Michael Sienkiewicz and Richard Verber. Reserves were James Tarjan and Marc Yoffie. 
     The first computer championship was held in New York and won by CHESS 3.0. 
     At the Olympiad in Siegen, Andrew Sherman played for the Virgin Islands at the age of 11, the youngest player in the chess Olympiads. In round two of the preliminaries, Korchnoi overslept and lost his game by default against Spain, his only loss. Jonathan Penrose collapsed from nervous tension. Oscar Panno drew 15 games, the most in an Olympiad. 
     The event reached its capacity of 60 teams, but 64 teams registered. France, Ecuador, and Venezuela were sent home. Panama withdrew which allowed Argentina to play. The Soviet Union (Spassky, Petrosian, Korchnoi, Polugaevsky, Smyslov and Geller) beat out Hungary, Yugoslavia and the United States (Fischer, Reshevsky, Evans, Benko, Lombardy and Mednis). 
     Ludek Pachman went on trial in Prague on charges of anti-government activities. When the Soviets invaded Prague in the spring of 1968, Pachman was a Communist, but his political views changed after the saw the them in action. He became an ardent anticommunist and a Christian. He was imprisoned in 1970 and again in 1972; upon his second release he immigrated to West Germany. 
     Botvinnik, at the age 59, retired from tournament play in order to concentrate on the development of a computer chess program called Pioneer. He tried to develop a program that would think like a human Grandmaster rather than using brute force. 
     Before he gave up tournament chess, in April he played in a tournament almost no one has ever heard of and his mediocre result may have been a motivating factor to retire. That tournament was Oegstgeest, a small town (population about 24,000) in the western Netherlands. A glance at the crosstable shows why, with so few decisive games, the tournament was one worthy of being forgotten.
     In order to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Leiden Chess Club, an attempt was made to stage a match between Botvinnik, the former world champion and honorary member of the Club and Bobby Fischer. As usual, dealing with Fischer proved impossible so instead a match-tournament was organized. 

     Besides Botvinnik, Spassky was World Champion and Bent Larsen was the best tournament player in the world. The Dutch representative, Donner, was supposed to cannon fodder, but surprise (!), he held his own.

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[Event "Oegstgeest"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1970.4.19"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Boris Spassky"]
[Black "J.H. Donner"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{French Defense, Burn Variation} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxe4 {
This is the Burn variation and is the most popular reply. Black gives up the
center, but aims for free development and a counterattack against d4. In some
variations. On the plus side black has freer play than in many French lines
and he sometimes ends up with the two Bs. On the other hand, white has a
space advantage and he has good attacking chances.} 5. Nxe4 Be7 6. Bxf6 Bxf6
7. Nf3 Bd7 8. Qd2 Bc6 9. Nxf6+ Qxf6 10. Ne5 O-O 11. O-O-O Rd8 {In Bernasek,J
(2476)-Votava,J (2538)/Kouty nad Desnou CZE 2012 black played the better 11...
Nd7 and traded off white's well placed N leaving white with very little and
the game was eventually drawn.} 12. Qe3 Be8 13. g3 {In Koch,J (2450)-Elbilia,J
(2310)/France 1993 white played the interesting idea of 13.g4 Nd7 14.g5 and in
that game it worked out well.} 13... Nd7 14. Bg2 c6 15. f4 {Taking white's
well placed N may look like a good idea, but after 15...Nxe5 16.fxe5! white
has excellent prospects on the K-side and black's pieces are cut off from
reaching the Ks defense.} 15... Qe7 16. h4 f6 {Not a move he wants to play,
but the N is just too well placed on e5.} 17. Nf3 Bh5 {Even though it leaves
his e-Pawn without support, Donner is anxious to get rid of white's
potentially active N before it can do any damage. This turns out to be a very
bad idea. 17...Bf7 then ... Nb6 was better though white still has a
considerable advantage.} 18. Bh3 Bxf3 19. Qxf3 Nf8 {Shoring up the e-Pawn, In
almost no time at all black has managed to get himself into a very passive
position.} 20. Rhe1 Qf7 21. Bf1 { Repositioning the B to attack the e-Pawn yet
again.} 21... Rd6 22. Bc4 Rad8 23. f5 { Attacking the e-Pawn one more time.}
23... Rxd4 24. fxe6 {Now no matter what black plays it's not going to work out
well for him. If 24...Qe7 (looks logical) 25. Qa3! and black's Q-side Ps are
going to fall.} 24... Rxd1+ 25. Rxd1 Rxd1+ 26. Qxd1 { Leaving Donner no choice
but to resign. He can't play 26...Qe7 27.Qd8 and the P quuens. And if
26...Nxe6 Qd6 wins the N.} 1-0