Just take a look at the some of the players scoring 5 points: DiFirmian, Biyiasis, Miles, Sigurjonsson, Helgi Olafsson, Brown and Benko. Or, some of the four-and-a-half-pointers: Fedorowicz, Murray Chandler, van Sterren, Quinterois, Ostojic, Christiansen, Janosevic and Norman Weinstein.
Even the bottom had some pretty strong players: Lawrence Day (4.0), John Watson (4,0), Kamran Shirazi (3.5), Arnold Denker (3.0) and Rosendo Balinas (2.5).
Soviet GMs Oleg Romanishin and Vitaly Tseshkovsky were supposed to play, but when Soviet authorities discovered Viktor Korchnoi would be playing, Viktor Baturinsky, Secretary of the USSR Chess Federation, sent a telegram to TD Isaac Kashdan advising him that no Soviet players would be participating. Likewise, World Correspondence Champion Yakov Estrin had previously written to Kashdan stating that he wished to play, but would not be able to do so if Korchnoi would be entered.
Prior to Lone Pine, there had been a very strong ten-player double round tournament in Montreal that included Soviet players Karpov, Tal and Spassky and Kashdan stated that it was fairly obvious that Korchnoi was the object of a Soviet boycott and he had not been invited to the Montreal tournament even though organizers had boasted about the inclusion of the world's best players.
It was noted that Korchnoi did not look well when he arrived in Lone Pine and he seemed not to have fully recovered from his grueling 1978 world championship match against Karpov that took place in Baguio, Philippines from July 18 to October 18, 1978. Additionally, Korchnoi had been playing in other tournaments and giving simultaneous exhibitions since then.
The lead changed hands a number of times, but in the end four players; Liberzon, Gheorghiu, Gligoric and Hort shared top honors, each receiving $8,875 which amounts to $35,145.98 in today's dollars.
The prize fund was $45,000 (that's $178,204.96 today) of which $2,700 ($10,692.30 today) was set aside for special game prizes of $200 (792.02 today) and $100 ($396.01 today) in each round, which were awarded to the winners of the "most interesting games (or equally divided between the players if a drawn game was chosen).
Below is the winner from the first round.
The free-spirited John Grefe was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on September 6, 1947, and passed away from cancer at the age of 66 on December 22, 2013.
Grefe was an IM (title award in 1975) and in the 1973 US Championship he tied for first with GM Lubomir Kavalek in the 1973 U.S. Championship. Grefe and Stuart Rachels are the only players since 1948 to have won or shared the US Championship without already having, or later achieving, the GM title.
Grefe, who lived in Berkeley, California, and was a follower of the Guru Maharaj Ji and because of his hippie-like appearance he was often called "Gandalf." IM Jeremy Silman has an interesting article on Grefe on Chess.com HERE.
The accomplishments of Arnold Denker (February 21, 1914 – January 2, 2005), the Dean of American and US Chess Hall of Fame are too numerous to mention.
[Event "Lone Pine"]
[Site "Lone Pine, CA USA"]
[Date "1979.03.25"]
[Round "?"]
[White "John Grefe"]
[Black "Arnold Denker"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B10"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "1979.03.25"]
{Caro-Kann} 1. e4 c6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 Qc7 {An unusual, but interesting move
instead of the usual 3...e5.} 4. f4 {Already at move 4 Grefe has taken the
game into uncharted waters.} (4. g3 Nf6 5. Ngf3 dxe4 (5... Bg4 6. h3 Bxf3 7.
Qxf3 e6 8. Qe2 Nbd7 9. Bg2 Bc5 10. Nb3 Bb6 11. Bf4 e5 12. Bd2 O-O 13. O-O dxe4
14. dxe4 Nc5 15. Nxc5 Bxc5 16. b4 Bb6 17. Bg5 Qe7 18. Rab1 h6 {Draw agreed.
Ciocaltea,V (2460)-Meduna,E (2490) Baile Herculane 1982}) 6. dxe4 e5 7. Bg2 Bg4
8. h3 Bxf3 9. Qxf3 {with equal chances. Ciocaltea,V (2445)-Marovic,D (2445)
Malaga 1981 0-1 (35)}) (4. Ngf3 Bg4 5. c3 e6 6. Qa4 Bh5 7. Be2 Nf6 8. exd5 Nxd5
9. Ne4 {Black is slightly better. Kristiansen,J (2445)-Miles,A (2565) Esbjerg
1984}) (4. exd5 cxd5 5. d4 Nf6 6. Ngf3 Bg4 7. Bd3 e6 8. O-O {Blick is only
very slightly better. Hegarty,S (1892)-Pafura,G (2105) Hastings 2006}) 4...
Qxf4 {Obviously black is going to have to lose time retreating the Q, but he
has a P and white's compensation is vague.} 5. Ngf3 Nf6 6. Nb3 Qc7 7. e5 {
Black can't be allowed to play ...e5} Ng4 {More solid would have been 7...Nfd7,
but in that case black's pieces would be in each other's way.} 8. d4 {White is
better here...he is getting ahead of black in development and we can already
anticipate a K-side attack.} Bf5 9. Nh4 Bd7 {After this black's game goes
downhill...fast!} (9... Bg6 {would be a disaster.} 10. Nxg6 {and white wins a
piece.}) (9... g6 {is unsightly, but it offers the best defense.} 10. Nxf5 gxf5
11. h3 Nxe5 12. dxe5 Qxe5+ {with three Ps for a B and an unclear position.})
10. Be2 Nh6 (10... Nxe5 11. dxe5 Qxe5 {Here black has 5 Ps for a N, but his
position is lost. In Shootouts white scored +5 -0 =0. While white's advantage
may not be readily apparent to the untrained eye, white won those five games
because of better development and the fact that black's was caught in the
center. The result was white had a vigorous attack.}) 11. Bxh6 gxh6 12. O-O {
This may look dangerous because of a potential black attack down the g-file,
but Grefe has rightly concluded there is no danger.} Na6 {Both of black's Ns
have ended up facing the same fate. How odd!} 13. Bxa6 bxa6 14. Nc5 e6 15. Qh5
{White's attention is now focused on f7.} Bc8 (15... O-O-O {looks safer than
it is.} 16. b4 Be8 17. Rab1 Rg8 18. Qe2 {Headed for the Q-side.} Qb6 19. Nf3 {
There's no future on h4 so the N seeks more verdant pastures.} Qb5 20. Qe3 Kb8
21. Nd2 Rc8 {Black is reduced to just shifting pieces.} 22. a4 Qb6 23. Ndb3 {
White is slowly building up a winning attack.}) 16. Rf6 Bxc5 17. dxc5 Rb8 18.
Raf1 {[%cal Rf6f7]} Rf8 19. Qxh6 Qxe5 20. Qxh7 {[%cal Rf6f7]} Rxb2 21. Rxf7
Rxf7 22. Qg8+ {Facing mate in 2, Denker resigned. In this game Grefe played
like Denker did in the old days! What did Stockfish think of Grefe's play?
Weighted Error Value: White=0.08 (flawless) /Black=1.00} 1-0
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