Havana, 1965. The Also Rans Could Also Play!

     In 1965, Henrique Mecking created a sensation by winning the Brazilian championship at age 13. It was also the end of the Botvinnik Era. Botvinnik was seeded into the Candidates tournament, but he was resentful and in a snit because after his 1963 World Championship match loss to Tigran Petrosian FIDE no longer allowed him a return match. Qualifying for the next world championship was too tiring, he said. 

     In February, Vitaly Chekhover (1908-1965) died in Leningrad at the age of 56. He was an IM OTB and in Composition. He was a famous endgame composer and as a professional pianist he was also a music composer. 

     In March, WIM Sonja Graf-Stevenson (1908-1965) died of a liver ailment in New York at the age of 56. She was US Women's champion in 1964. 

     In July, E. Forry Laucks (1898-1965) died of a heart attack in San Juan, Puerto Rico during the US Open at the age of 67. Finally, in November, IM Fyodar Dus-Chotimirsky (1879-1965) died in Moscow at the age of 86. 

     In August 1965, in the Ambassadors’ Hall of the Habana Libre Hotel in Havana a big tournament took place. It was a big event, not because there were 13 GMs and 7 IMs playing, but because Bobby Fischer was playing. 

     After his incredible 11-0 score in January 1964 in the US Championship, Fischer had rejected several tournament invitations, but he did express interest in participating in Havana 1965. 

     The problem was that on May 3, 1965, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Secretary of State could refuse to grant passports to US citizens for travel to Cuba. As a result Fischer participated via teletype from the Marshall Chess Club in New York. The Cuban government paid over $10,000 for the teletype services and the USCF gave a $3,000 appearance fee. 

     With over 200 games being played there were plenty of interesting games to choose from and today's game was between Ratmir Kholmov and Francisco J. Perez. 

     Soviet GM Ratmir Kholmov (1925-2006), a dangerous attacker himself, was known as The Central Defender in Soviet chess circles because of his great skill at repulsing enemy attacks. 

     During his peak years, Kholmov was difficult to defeat, even at the top levels. Between 1949 and 1972 he qualified for 16 Soviet finals and won many international tournaments in Eastern Europe. Kholmov was active in competitive chess right to the end of his life, and maintained a high standard. In the 2000 World Senior Championship he tied for first with Mark Taimanov, Janis Klovans and Alexander Chernikov. Then he placed 2nd–4th in 2001 tied with Klovans and Vladimir Karasev. 

     IM Francisco Perez (1920-1999) was born in Vigo, Spain and was Spanish Champion in 1948, 1954 and 1960. He emigrated to Cuba in 1963.