We lost a lot of players that year.
One of the leading German players in the 1930s, Ludwid Engels (1905-1967), died in Sao Paulo. The 1933 and 1934 Scottish champion James Creevey (1873-1967) died in Dublin and the 1956 French champion Pierre Rolland (1926-1967) died in a car accident.
The 1957 British champion Dr. Stefan Fazekas (1898-1967) died in England and Swedish GM Gideon Stahlberg (1908-1967) died of liver disease in Leningrad. German master and author Alfred Brinckmann (1891-1967) died in Kiel, Germany. And, finally, the 1928 Hungarian champion Arpad Vajda (1896-1967) died in Budapest as a result of a faulty oven leaking gas.
In April, Bobby Fischer took first place at Monaco. When his trophy was presented to him by Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, being the odious snot that he was, Fischer refused to pose for a photograph with them.
At the Sousse Interzonal in Tunisia in October Yugoslav GM Milan Matulovic took back a losing move against Hungarian GM Istvan Bilek. Matulovic played his move, but then took it back after saying J'adoube, which he should have announced before adjusting the pieces. Bilek protested to the arbiter who allowed the corrected move to stand. The incident earned Matulovic the nickname "J'adoubovic."
Bobby Fischer was playing in the Sousse Interzonal. He had a lot of games to play in succession as a result of the organizers rescheduling his games around his religious holidays and Sabbath. At the time he was a member of the World Wide Church of God
which observed the Jewish holidays and Sabbath.
Because he had so many games to play in a row as a result of the rescheduling, he protested and forfeited his game against Soviet GM Aivars Gipslis. The organizers would not let him replay the forfeited game and so Fischer withdrew.
But, enough of Bobby Fischer! Let's take a look at the international tournament held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia in 1967. The Sarajevo tournaments in the past had a bad reputation because of the large number of draws, but this tournament was different...it was a real battle and until the last move was made it wasn't clear who the winner would be.
Among the GMs was the Soviet Champion Leonid Stein who from the very beginning was in the leading position, but he was closely pursued by Borislav Ivkov, Robert Byrne and Dragoljub Ciric.
In the first half of the tournament Byrne was among the leaders, but he lost to Nikolic in an easily won position and with that loss he dropped out of contention. Ciric also lost an important game against Stein. Ivkov was in the fight when Stein lost to Byrne three rounds before
the end. Stein's loss made it a dramatic race for first.
After his defeat Stein then drew with Tringov and going into the last round it was Ivkov who was leading by half a point.
In the last round Ivkov drew with Ciric while Stein defeated one of the tailenders, Vladimir Kozomara, and so Ivkov and Stein tied for first.
The following game was Byrne's victory over Stein. In order to beat back Byrne's K-side attack, Stein exchanged his Q for two Rs plus a P which theoretically gave him a slight material advantage. However, the lesson to be learned from the game is that in all cases of unbalanced material, positional considerations can nullify a material advantage.
In this game, factors such as black's difficulties in obtaining a safe King position and problems in getting good play for his Rs and minor piece his allowed the white Queen to strut her stuff and show her mobility on the open board. As a result, white won a P and then managed to infiltrate black's position and expose its tactical weakness which culminated with white winning a piece.
Of the two players, Leonid Stein (1934-1973), three time Soviet champion (1963, 1965 and 1966) is better known. He narrowly missed qualifying for the Candidate tournaments in 1962, 1964 and 1967. Tragically, Stein died at the age of 39 of a heart attack in the Rossiya Hotel in Moscow as he prepared to leave for the European championships in Bath, England.
In the late 1960s, college professor Robert Byrne (1928-2013) had become a semi-professional player. He won the 1972 US Championship after tying with Samuel Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek and then winning the playoff.
In 1973 he placed third at the Leningrad Interzonal in 1973 and thereby qualified for the Candidates Tournament. He lost his first-round Candidates' match to former world champion Boris Spassky in 1974.
As a 1974 Candidate, Byrne was seeded directly to the 1976 Biel Interzonal where he performed very well, but missed a playoff spot by half a point, sharing 5th-6th places with 11.5-7.5.
Byrne was known as a cagey, patient player who favored flank attacks and solid structural defense, avoided Pawn weaknesses and was especially strong in the endgame
He died of Parkinson's disease, a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement.
I had an opportunity to meet Byrne at the 1975 US Championship and found him to be quiet, reserved and quite pleasant.
[Event "Sarajevo"]
[Site "Sarajevo YUG"]
[Date "1967.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Robert Byrne"]
[Black "Leonid Stein"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B35"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 14.1"]
[PlyCount "84"]
[EventDate "1967.??.??"]
{Sicilian: Accelerated Dragon} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 {Unlike in the normal Dragon,
black delays playing the move ...d6 for as long as possible, prioritizing
piece development instead. This can have significant ramifications.} 3. d4 Bg7
4. Nc3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nc6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 {Stein played the Accelerated Dragon
several times in this tournament and white tried several different methods of
overcoming it, but none were successful. Byrne commented that although this
was only game Stein lost with the variation the position after the opening is
too unclear to justify any claim of opening advantage and no method of
obtaining the advantage against it was known.} O-O 8. Bb3 {Necessary to guard
against ...Nxe4 and ...d5} Qa5 {Black usually plays 8...d6 or 8...a5 here. One
of the principal points of the Accelerated Dragon is that after this move
white cannot now prepare Q-side castling by 9. f3 without allowing black easy
equality.} 9. O-O (9. f3 d5 10. exd5 Nb4 11. Qd2 Nbxd5 12. Nxd5 Qxd2+ 13. Bxd2
Nxd5 14. Bxd5 Bxd4 15. O-O-O {Black has equalized.}) 9... d6 10. h3 Bd7 11. f4
Rac8 12. Qf3 {In round 5, Janosevic tried 12. P-B5 against Stein but got no
advantage.} Qh5 13. Qf2 (13. Nxc6 {is a satisfactory alternative, but it has
to be followed up correctly} Bxc6 14. g4 {Safer is 14.Nd5} Qa5 15. Rad1 b5 16.
g5 Nd7 17. f5 {Black has the upper hand, but in th egame he erred and lost.
Kamsky,G (2695)-Anand,V (2720)/Sanghi Nagar 1994}) (13. g4 {is a serious
mistake.} Bxg4 {After this white cannot guard against both the threat of mate
and loss of material.} 14. hxg4 Nxg4 15. Qh1 Qxh1+ 16. Kxh1 Bxd4 17. Bxd4 Nxd4)
13... b5 {A surprise and a great improvement over 13....Nxd4. The threat of
course is ...b4 and ...Nxe4. Note that 14.a3 is no help for white because of
14...a5} (13... Nxd4 14. Bxd4 Rxc3 15. bxc3 Nxe4 16. Qe3 Bc6 17. Rae1 a6 18.
Bxg7 Kxg7 19. Qd4+ e5 20. fxe5 dxe5 21. Qb6 Nd2 22. Rf2 Qg5 23. Re3 Ne4 24.
Rfe2 Ng3 25. Rf2 Ne4 {Draw. Ponizil,C (2432)-Rosko,L (2350)/Frydek Mistek 2013}
) 14. Ndxb5 (14. a3 a5 15. Nde2 b4 16. axb4 axb4 17. Ng3 Qh4 18. Nce2 Be6 19.
Bxe6 fxe6 {Black has the initiative. Cooke,E (2266)-Xu,H (2420)/Budapest 2000})
14... Nxe4 15. Nxe4 Qxb5 {As he was successful in doing in all his games with
the Acclerated Dragon in this tournament, Stein has overcome all opening
difficulties. As far as long term prospects go, black has a fine target for
attack in white's Q-side Ps, two of which are backward on half-open files. It
will take some preparation, but he can also threaten the advance of his center
Ps. As Jeremy Silman emphasized in his book Reassess Your Chess, white, who is
at a strategical disadvantage, must use any temporary imbalance that is in his
favore or lose it. In this case, the temporary imbalance is the excellent
placement of white's pieces which are poised for an immediate attack on
black's King.} 16. Ng3 {Taking the a-Pawn would only result in further
weakening of white's Q-side.} a5 (16... Bxb2 {would be a grave error.} 17. Rab1
{loses the B on account of the threat Bxf7+} Na5 18. Rxb2 Nc4) 17. a4 Qb4 18.
f5 Kh8 {While not as bad as on the previous move, taking the b-Pawn is still
not a good idea because white's K-side attack gains momentum.} 19. Rad1 Qh4 {
Black can probably get away with taking the b-Pawn, but in over the board play
the complications stemming would be difficult to fathom.} (19... Bxb2 20. fxg6
hxg6 (20... fxg6 {loses.} 21. Qxf8+ Rxf8 22. Rxf8+ Kg7 23. Rf7+ Kh8 24. Bh6 Qb8
(24... Bd4+ 25. Kh1 Bg7 26. Bxg7+ Kg8 27. Bh6 {mates}) 25. Rdf1 Bf6 26. R1xf6
exf6 27. Ne4 {White's pieces swarming on the K-side deliver mate in 8 moves.}
Qg8 28. Rxd7 Ne5 29. Rc7 d5 30. Nxf6 Nc4 31. Bxc4 dxc4 32. Nxg8 Kxg8 33. c3 g5
34. g4 Kh8 35. Rc8#) 21. Ne2 Qe4 (21... f6 22. Rd4 Qb7 23. Qh4+ {mate next
move.}) 22. Bd5 Qf5 23. Qh4+ Qh5 24. Qxh5+ gxh5 25. Bxf7 Ne5 26. Bb3 Rxf1+ 27.
Rxf1 Nc4 28. Bg5 {This position is very complicated, but in Shootouts white
scored +4 -0 =1 in endings that were long and quite tricky.}) 20. Rd3 Rb8 {
Stein still wisely avoids ...Bxb2} (20... Be5 21. Bf4 gxf5 22. Qd2 Bxf4 23.
Rxf4 $19) 21. Qe1 Bxf5 22. Rf4 Qxf4 {The resulting position is difficult for
black to play, but it's evaluated at 0.00 by Stockfish while Komodo 14 thinks
black is better by about a Pawn.} (22... Qf6 {This is probably his best move.}
23. Rd5 Rb4 24. Rf1 Qe6 (24... Qxb2 25. Nxf5 gxf5 26. Rdxf5 Re4 27. Rxf7 Rxf7
28. Rxf7 Rxe3 29. Qf1 h5 30. Rf8+ Bxf8 31. Qxf8+ Kh7 32. Qf5+ {draws.}) 25.
Nxf5 Rxb3 26. Rb5 (26. cxb3 Qxd5 {black is winning.}) 26... Rxe3 27. Nxe3 Bd4 {
Black is slightly better, but in Shootouts all the games were drawn.}) 23. Bxf4
Bxd3 {The result of black's little demonstration is that he has two Rs plus a
P for his Q. The position is evaluated at 0.00, but from the human perspective,
as Byrne wrote, despite superficial appearances, black's K is still not safe
and his Rs are a long way from developing any activity.} 24. Qd2 Ba6 25. Bh6
Bxh6 26. Qxh6 f6 {White was threatening Ne4-g5} 27. h4 Nd4 {This turns out to
be a serious error. He could have stayed in the game with 27...Ne5} (27... Ne5
28. h5 g5 29. Nf5 Rg8 30. Bxg8 Rxg8 31. Nxe7 Ng4 32. Ng6+ Rxg6 33. Qf8+ Rg8 {
and a draw seems to be a reasonable outcome.}) 28. Bd5 e6 29. Qe3 Nxc2 {
The alternatives were no better.} (29... exd5 30. Qxd4 Rb4 31. Qxd5 Bb7 32.
Qxd6 Kg7 33. h5 Rxb2 34. h6+ Kg8 35. Qe6+ Rf7 36. Ne4 Bxe4 37. Qxe4 {and
white's Q should prevail.}) 30. Qxe6 {White's K-side demonstration has
resulted in the breaking up of black's Ps so that black's position is loose on
both sodes of the board. Stockfish gives white a clear winning evaluation in
this position.} Nb4 31. Bf3 d5 32. h5 Kg7 33. Qe7+ Rf7 34. h6+ Kg8 35. Qc5 f5 {
Stein hopes to advance his d-Pawn and doesn't want to yield e4 to white's N.}
36. Qxa5 {Now the Ps are even but white still has an enormous advantage In
mobility.} Bd3 37. Qc5 {White is not interested in taking the d-Pawn because
it would permit an exchange which would ease black's problems.} (37. Bxd5 Nxd5
38. Qxd5 Be4 39. Nxe4 fxe4 40. Qxe4 Rxb2 41. Qe8+ Rf8 42. Qe7 Rf7 {White has a
tedious win.}) 37... Rd7 38. Ne2 Be4 39. Nd4 Kf7 40. Be2 {Threatening 41.Bb5}
Nd3 41. Qc6 Rbb7 42. Qe6+ Kf8 {Realizing that white wins a piece, Stein
resigned.} (42... Kf8 43. Bxd3 Bxd3 44. Qf6+ Ke8 45. Ne6 {Threatening 46.Qf8
mate} Re7 46. Nc5 Re1+ 47. Kh2 Rf7 48. Qh8+ Ke7 49. Nxd3) 1-0
Robert Byrne was an occasional visitor to Chicago tournaments in the 1960s. He looked exactly like the Philosophy teacher he was, and lent an air of class to every event.
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