The year 1973 was filled with events: it saw the birth of the first mobile phone, abortion being declared a constitutional right, and the Battle of the Sexes, the most-watched tennis match of all times, It was a match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, the two greatest tennis players of the day. King won easily.
Vasily Panov (1906-1973) died in the USSR at the age of 66. He was champion of Moscow in 1929. Al Horowitz (1907-1973), a leading US players in the 1930’s and publisher of the great Chess Review magazine, died at the age of 65 in New York. Hans Kmoch (1894-1973) also passed away in New York at the age of 78.
Aleksander Lipenieks (1908-1973) died in Lincoln, Nebraska at the age of 64. He was the city champion 15 times and also published a number of chess books. FIDE President Folk Rogard (1899-1973) died in Stockholm, Sweden at the age of 73.
Three-time USSR Champion Leonid Stein (1934-1973) died of a heart attack at the age of 38 in Moscow. And, two-time Yugoslav champion Braslav Rabar (1919-1973) died in Zagreb, Yugoslavia at the age of 54.
At the beginning of the year the world’s top rated players were: 1) Bobby Fischer (2780), 2) Mikhail Tal (2660), 3) Anatoly Karpov (2660), 4) Boris Spassky (2655), 5) Viktor Korchnoi (2650), 6) Lajos Portisch (2650), 7) Tigran Petrrosian (2640), 8) Mikhail Botvinnik (2630), 9) Lev Polugaevsky (2625), and 10) Bent Larsen (2620).
Walter Browne won the National Open in Las Vegas on tiebreaks over Laszlo Szabo and James Tarjan. He also won the World Open in New York City. Arthur Bisguier won the big Lone Pine tournament in California. Norman Weinstein, age 22, won the US Open, held in Chicago.
Bobby Fischer was making news. He was offered a million dollars to play a match in Las Vegas. According to his lawyer, Paul Marshall, Fischer had over $10 million in offers to or advertise, but he turned them all down...it was beneath his dignity to advertise any product.
He moved to Los Angles to continue his religious studies with the Worldwide Church of God.
In August, he announced his upcoming plans at a press conference in Beverly Hills, California with the chief lawyer for the Worldwide Church of God standing by his side.
In November, 1973, Fischer was the guest of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos against whom he played an exhibition game that was broadcast on television. It lasted 5 minutes and a draw agreed after 8 moves.
Fischer also played Florencio Campomanes, President of the Philippines Chess Federation, a blitz game on television. Fischer won on time.
Ourense is a city in northwestern Spain known for its hot springs; they held an international tournament there in January of 1973.
From the beginning it looked like Romanian GM Florin Gheorghiu was going to win, which he did. The one point margin of victory was mainly due to defeat of Pal Benko in the very first round.
The tournament produce a number of interesting games, especially miniatures. Here is one of the more entertaining games in which Gheorghiu totally destroys De Castro.
Florin Gheorghiu was born in Bucharest on April 6, 1944. He won the World Junior Championship in 1953 and was awarded the IM title. In 1965 he became a Grandmaster. He won the Romanian Championship in 1960 (age 16), 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1977 and 1984. At his peak in November 1980, he was rated No. 10 in the world.
Edgar De Castro was a Filipino player and International Arbiter and from the begin of 1960s to the mid-1970s was one of the leading Filipino players. Other than that nothing is known about him.
Florin Gheorghiu–Edgar de Castro1–0B87Orense, Spain14.01.1973Stockfish 16
Sicilian Defense 1.e4 c5 2.f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 a6 6.c4 e6 7.b3 b5 8.0-0 b7 Risky. Black delays castling and quickly experiences
difficulties on the e-File. Much better was 6...Be7 8...e7 9.f3 c7 10.g3 0-0 11.h6 e8 Black's defenses are adequate. 9.e1 bd7 10.g5 c5
This is a tactical error that allows white ti immediatley gain the advantage.
Forcing white to make a decision with his B with 10...h6 was a reasonable try. 11.d5 Black is already in trouble. b4 11...exd5 12.exd5+ d7 13.b4 a4 14.xa4 bxa4 15.c4 and white is winning. 11...e7
keeps the damage to a minimum. 12.xb7 xb7 13.c6 c7 14.xe7 xe7
White is better, but there is no forced win. 12.xb7 Already white's
position can be declared as won. xb7 There was no better alternative. 12...bxc3 13.c6 c7 14.xa8 cxb2 15.b1 is equally hopeless for black. 13.d5 exd5 13...c8 14.f3 e7 15.xe7 xe7 16.f5 exf5 17.exf5 and wins. 14.exd5+ d7 15.c3 White needs to open more lines. b3 15...bxc3 16.a4+ c8 17.c6+ b8 18.xf6 gxf6 19.e8 16.xb3 c5 17.c4 c8 It's kind of hard to believe but up to here these moves were all
played the previous year! 17...c8 18.c6 h6 19.xf6 gxf6 20.e3 c7 21.b4 g8 Black resigned Tal,M (2625)-Mukhin,M (2420) Baku 1972 18.b4 ce4 19.xa6 xc3 20.ac1 c7 21.d3 It's a moot point but there was a mate in 16
with 21.Rxc3 21.xc3 xc3 22.a4+ c8 23.c6 b6 24.a8+ c7 25.d8+ b7 26.b8+ a6 27.b5+ xb5 28.b1+ c4 29.xb6 xd5 30.b5+ c5 31.d1+ e6 32.d4+ e7 33.e1+ d8 34.e8+ c7 35.b8+ d7 36.d8# 21...c8 22.b5 Black resigned 22.b5 e2+ 23.xe2 xc1 24.xc1 xc1+ 25.xc1 etc. 1–0
No comments:
Post a Comment