Pal Benko and Vastimil Hort tied for 1st in the US Open, held in New York. The first World Cadet (under 16) Championship was won by England’s Jonathan Mestel. Mikhail Tal and Alexander Beliavsky won the Soviet Championship, held in Leningrad. In Chicago, Walter Browne won the first of his six US Championships. Kaissa, a Russina computer, won the first computer world championship that was held in Stockholm.
Convicted murderer Claude F. Bloodgood III (1937-2001) escaped from a chess tournament after he and another fellow inmate player named Lewis Carpenter overpowered their fusrd. They was captured a few days later.
While in the Virginia State Penitentiary Bloodgood gained notoriety for for artificially pumping up his rating to the point that he was rated number two, at Elo 2700, in the US behind Gata Kamsky.
At that time players were complaining of rating deflation...everybody's rating was drifting down, something that’s anathema to chess players! The cause of the deflation was an influx of rapidly improving young players.
The rating system was like a poker game where a player sits down at the table with no money and wins from those already in the game.
In order to “fix” the problem, officials (who were not mathematicians) introduced bonus points, feedback points and fiddle points. You were awarded points just for entering a tournament and in some cases could even gain points with a minus score!
Bloodgood warned the USCF what was happening and pumped up his rating by playing against fellow prisoners. The USCF hurled charges of rating fraud, erased his rating, kicked him out of the USCF and changed the system. In the process the chess program at the Virginia Penitentiary was destroyed.
The really big news happened on May 10th when Anatoly Karpov defeated Boris Spassky in Moscow, eliminating Spassky from the world challengers’ competition. Karpov went on to beat Viktor Korchnoi to become Bobby Fischer’s challenger. Fischer hemmed and hawed, made excuses and chickened out of meeting Karpov who was then awarded the title.
You’ve probably never heard of Ourense, a city in northwestern Spain that’s known for its hot springs; they held an international tournament there in 1974 that was won by Yugoslavia’s Ljubomir Ljubojevic (born 1950).
Ljubojevic was awarded the IM title in 1970 and the GM title in 1971. He was Yugoslav Champion in 1977 (jointly) and 1982.
By the early 1980's he was ranked third in the world, but he never succeeded in reaching the Candidates stage of the World Championship. He was always dangerous, he lack consistency.
His opponent in the following game was IM and International Arbiter Joaquim Durao (1930-2015) who won the Portuguese championship 13 times.
The game was well played by both players and it only took one small slip for Durao to quickly find himself in a hopeless position.
Ljubomir Ljubojevic–Joaquim Durao1–0C64OrenseOurense ESP01.1974Stockfish 16
C64: Ruy Lopez 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.b5 c5 This is the Classical (or
Cordel) Defense which is the oldest defence to the Ruy Lopez, and has been
played occasionally by Boris Spassky and Boris Gulko. 4.0-0 White's most
common reply is 4.c3, 4.xe5 This old fork trick does ot offer white amy
advantage. xe5 5.d4 c6 6.e2 d6 6...xd4 is inferior... 7.xd4 d6 8.f4 with the advantage. 7.dxe5 xe5 4...d4 5.xd4 xd4 6.c3 b6 7.d4 c6 8.a4 d6 9.a3 c7 10.d5 10.c2 f6 11.e2 d7 12.e3 0-0 13.dxe5 dxe5 14.f5 xf5 15.exf5 is equal. Shirov,A (2719)-Fedorchuk,S (2619)
Khanty-Mansiysk RUS 2009 10...d7 10...e7 was preferrable. 11.g5 d7 12.dxc6 bxc6 13.c4 equals. Volokitin,A (2627)-Musat,A (2398)
Calimanesti-Caciulata ROU 2014 11.dxc6 bxc6 12.c4 e7 13.f4 f6 14.fxe5 dxe5 15.b3 b6+ 15...xe4 at once was better. 16.a3 is adequately met
by e6 17.f3 f5 18.ad1 0-0-0 Black is at least equal. 16.h1 16.xb6 axb6 The B on a4 in danger so... 17.b4 xe4 Black is ever so slightly
better. 16...xe4 17.a3 White has strong initiative. e6 18.d3 Prevents ...Ng3+. It also sets a trap which Durao does not fall for. 18.b2 A pass to demonstrate the threat. g3+ 19.hxg3 h6+ 20.h5 xh5# 18...f5 18...f2+ This juicy looing check loses. 19.xf2! xf2 20.d6+ d8 21.a6 f6 21...c5 22.xd7 xd7 23.f1 e3 24.xf7 wins 22.f1 b6 22...e3 23.xc6 xc6 24.xc6 b8 25.d1 is fatal for black. 23.b7 c8 24.xc8 xc8 25.d1+ d4 26.b4 e8 27.cxd4 White is winning. 19.ae1 c7 A measure against Nd6+ 19...d8 is actually a better defense. White's
best continuation is then 20.xe4 fxe4 21.xe4 c7 22.d6+ b7 and it's
going to be nearly impossible to get at black's K. 20.xf5 Although this
works out well in the end, it actually allows black equality. 20.xe4
leaves white slightly better after fxe4 21.e3 21.xe4 0-0-0 and it's
black that is better. 21...c5 21...0-0-0 22.xa7 wins for white 22.xe4 d8 22...0-0-0 23.a8+ b8 24.xc5 White is winning. 23.xd7+ xd7 24.xc5 White is better. 20...xf5 20...f6 21.fxe5 xe5 22.xe5 20...g3+ might have been worth a try, but with best play it leads to a lost
ending. 21.hxg3 xf5 22.xf5 xf5 23.xc6+ f7 24.xa8 xa8 25.d6 xd6 26.xd6+ f6 27.f1 g6 28.g4 e6 29.xf5 gxf5 30.xf5 21.xe4 Black's
position looks precarious (and it is), but he has an aderquate defense in 21...
Rf8 0-0-0 Whereas this move was satisfactory in the past, at
this time it loses quickly. 21...f8!= 22.xf8 xf8 23.f3 xf3 24.gxf3 with equal chances. e8 22.d6+ xd6 23.a6+ Obviously overlloed by
Durao, this move wins. 23.xd6 This is probably what Durao expected. Then
after e8 24.a6+ d7 25.c5 25.xc6+ loses e6 26.c4+ xd6 Black is
winning. 25...xe4 26.xa7+ c8 26...e6 27.e7+ f5 28.xd8 e1+ 29.g1 with an unclear position. Shootouts from this position resulted in white
scoring +2 -0 =3 h5 27.a8+ White is forced to take the draw byu repeating
moves. 23...c7 23...b8 24.xd6+ a8 25.xc6+ xc6 26.xc6# 24.xa7+ c8 25.b5 Black resigned. Stockfish inforns us that it's mate in
32. 25.b5 df8 25...f1+ 26.xf1 df8 27.a6+ d8 28.xd6 f1+ 29.xf1 e8 30.xe5+ f7 31.xd7+ g6 32.e6# 26.a8+ b8 27.a6+ c7 28.b7+ d8 29.xb8+ c8 30.c5 f1+ 31.xf1 xf1+ 32.g1 e7 33.xe5+ f7 34.c7+ g6 35.xc6+ f6 36.e4+ f5 37.xf5 xf5 38.g4+ f6 39.d4+ e6 40.e4+ d6 41.xf5 e8 42.c5+ e6 43.e5+ f7 44.xg7+ e6 45.e5+ d7 46.b5+ e7 47.c5+ d8 48.b8+ d7 49.b7+ e6 50.c6+ f7 51.d7+ f6 52.xe8 g7 53.d4+ h6 54.e6+ h5 55.e3 h6 56.xh6+ g4 57.g5# 1–0
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