Dutch GM Jan Timman was an excellent analyst and his book Curacao 1962 - The Battle of Minds That Shook the Chess World is a great work, but many of the games were lightly annotated, as was this one, and in some cases he did not give any analysis to support his statements. Benko also went over this game in front of an audience ans some of his analysis was also faulty.
The days are long gone when simply having a title was sufficient to intimidate us non-GMs into believing that a move was good or bad just because they said so! That does not to take anything away from their accomplishments though because they are miles ahead of the rest of us in their chess skill! These days though a good engine can see more in a few seconds than they ever could.
In the tournament Benko was involved in a couple of controversies. This was the tournament where he slapped Fischer in an argument over the use of the one second, Arthur Bisguier, that was available to both of the US players. Benko was also involved in a brouhaha involving Paul Keres.
Benko played a decisive role in destroying Keres' chances of winning the tournament. Keres had beaten Benko 4-0 in the 1959 candidates and in Curacao he was on his way to repeating the performance. Then came the 20th round (out of 28).
Keres slipped up and came within a hair of losing, but managed to escape with a win in a mutual time scramble. Benko, right when he had a perpetual check, knocked over a couple of pieces and exceeded the time limit while putting them back. That was the bare bones story, but it wasn't so simple.
Keres had been the hunt for first place for the whole tournament and his slide began with the Benko game. In horrible time pressure Benko incorrectly sacrificed a piece which left him with nothing better than the perpetual check. With only seconds left on his clock, Benko made the move that forced the perpetual, but his piece was sitting slightly off the square. After he made the move and punched his clock, Keres immediately punched it back and told Benko, ”Adjust your pieces!” Surprised, Benko let his clock run a second or two before desperately trying to adjust his pieces, but it was too late; his flag fell and he was forfeited.
Although angry, Benko didn't complain and wrote that he thought to himself that he was going to extract revenge by beating Keres when they met again. Then came their final game. It was one of the most important in Keres' career because he was still in the hunt for first. A draw would allow him to conduct a playoff against Petrosian to see who played Botvinnik for the World Championship; a win would make him the outright challenger.
In that final game between the two, the game was adjourned with Benko a bit better. Benko wrote in Pal Benko: My Life, Games, and Compositions that Petrosian and Geller secretly came to him with an offer to help him win the adjourned game against Keres. Benko claimed that he was disgusted by their actions and told them the game would be a draw with best play and demanded that they leave. However, when play resumed Keres made a mistake and lost. That was Benko's story.
In his book Timman told it a little differently. Timman reported that it was Korchnoi and Averbach (one of the Soviet contingent) who had paid Benko the visit and given him some analysis. Benko didn't really need their analysis because he was already one of the world's foremost endgame experts.
Then came the last round and Petrosian was white against Filip who was mired in last place while Keres was playing Fischer. Everything was in Petrosian's favor and it was generally conceded that he would be the winner, but he could only draw with Filip and Keres yielded a draw to Fischer.
There was one game left, Geller vs. Benko, and if Geller won he would tie with Keres for second place. In trying to win, Geller overreached and adjourned in a lost position. Play resumed the next day and Benko, again in time pressure, had to make three moves before the end of the time control and ended up losing on time.
As a result, Keres had to play a match (which he won) with Geller to determine second place. Later, Keres claimed that Benko had deliberately lost, in Keres's words, "just to screw me.” Benko claimed that he would never had done such a thing.
Robert Fischer–Pal Benko1–0C11Curacao Candidates22Willemstad CUW14.06.1962Stockfish 16
C11: French Defense 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.c3 f6 4.e5 Fischer always had
trouble against the French defense. In fact, he suffered his first loss in a
US Championship when Edmar Mednis created a sensation by defeating Fischer and
he used the French to do it. Earlier in this tournament Fischer had played the
classical 4. Bg5 against Petrosian and Benko, but didn’t get any advantage,
so here he tries something different. fd7 5.f4 Steinitz introduced this
move with the idea of supporting the e5 Pawn. c5 6.dxc5 Nobody plays this
any more. The preferred move is 6.Nf3 xc5 7.g4 This move used to be
played by Tarrasch and Janowski back in their day. The fact that it is still
considered best shows that they understood something about chess. 7.f3
Looks good, but it does mot worl out well after c6 8.d3 a6 and it’s
hard to suggest a good plan for white. 7...0-0 8.d3 f5 8...e7 9.f3 f6 10.h4 g6 11.exf6 xf6 White stands slightly better. Gulamali,K
(2307)-Kaufman,L (2360) Internet Chess Club INT 2012 9.h3 xg1 What’s
with this rather surprising move?! You have to back to Monte Carlo, 1901 where
Alapin played it against Janowski. Black’s move seemingly makes no sense
because he trades a developed piece for an undeveloped one. The idea is that
black will get very active piece play. 9...c6 10.f3 e7 11.e3 c5 12.d4 xd3+ 13.cxd3 is equal. Ovetchkin,R (2485)-Baranyai,S (2270) Rotterdam
1998 10.xg1 c5 11.d2 One annotator claimed that Fischer
was likely familiar with the Janowski - Alapin game and since white didn’t
get anything special with 11.g4 Fischer had prepared this as an improvement.
Fischer had a lot of knowledge of old games, but it might be a stretch to say
he was familiar with that game. A more logical explanation might be that
Fischer simply understood the position and realized that a sudden unsupported
attack won’t lead to anything, so he stuck with the basics...develop your
pieces. 11.g4 Aggressive and quite playable. xd3+ 12.cxd3 c6 13.gxf5 xf5 14.d2 a6 15.0-0-0 with equal chances. Janowski,D-Alapin,S Monte Carlo
1901 11...c6 There is nothing wrong with 11...Nxd3+ White could choose
either 12. Qxd3 or 12.cxd3 and again, neither side has much to work with. Also,
because the idea of black’s 9th move is active piece play he does not want
to exchange his only developed piece. 12.b5 This move was soundly
criticized for being too optimistic and 12.O-O-O with equality was recommended
instead. Is that a correct assessment? Stockfish does, indeed, recommend 12.
O-O-O and evaluates the position as ever so slightly in white’s favor and
after 12. Nb5 the evaluation drops a couple of hundredths, so you would think
there just can’t be that much difference in the two moves. Besides, Fischer
gets his N on the excellent square d6. Sometimes GMs take into account nuances
that engines don’t! b6 13.0-0-0 d7 Threatens 14...Nxe5 14.d6
One commentator observed that this looks like an ideal square for the N, but
it’s not because on d6 it has no effect on the game whereas if it was back
on c3 it could be used to defend against black’s attack that is now probably
near decisive. Engines think the position is almostr deafd equal. 14.b1
A pass to demonstrate the threat. xe5 15.fxe5 xb5 14...a4 It was
suggested that the point to this is that white can’t play the natural
defense 15.b3...or so it was thought before engines. GM Jan Timman called it
"vicious." While it is the best move, it’s hardly vicious. 15.b5 15.b3 is a perfectly satisfactory defense. For example... d4 As per the great
Dutch GM Timman who claimed white gets annihilated after this, but he didn’t
give any followup. 16.c3 xc3 17.xc3 xc3+ 18.b1 b4 ...and here is why
there is nothing wrong with 15.b3... 19.xf5 xh3 20.xh3 xf4 21.xb7
Black's attack is at and end and the position offers equal chances. 15...d4 This is interesting. Forty years later at an Open tournament in
Curacao, no less, Benko was showing this game to an audience and claimed he
could have gotten a huge advantage with 15.. .Nxb2, but in the game he decided
to launch an even sharper attack. The fact is, had he played 15...Nxb2 he
might very well have lost! 15...xb2 16.xb2 a6 16...xe5 This loses
after 17.fxe5 xb5 18.b3 a6 19.e3 17.g4 White must counterattack as
quickly as possible. axb5 18.gxf5 c5 19.a3 exf5 20.c3 Black has no
attacvk and white has the better position. 16.e3 e2+ The point of his
previous move...the attack on b2 is intensified. 17.xe2 Is
this forced? It's not and it's bad enough to merit teo question marks! 17.b1 No. This is the crucial defense. Black is now at a crossroads. Take the
exchange or complicate the issue with 17...d4. d4 The right choice. 18.xa4 xa4 19.f2 ac8 with a strong attack. 17...xb2+ To quote Fritz 17's
commentary, Black is clearly winning. To quote the legendary New York Yankee
catcher Yogi Berra, It ain't over til it's over. 18.d2 b4+ 19.c1
Benko could have taken a draw here, but of course, here he has a winning
advantage; over four Ps according to Stockfish. The problem is, time pressure
is looming. c3 Attacking the q-Pawn, R and B. 20.de1 xa2+ 21.d1 c3+ 22.c1 d4 One annotator mistakenly gave this move a question mark and
recommended the somewhat weaker 22...a5. Actually, black has several ways to
win. Black has to play this move at some point anyway. 23.f2 23.xd4
was a stronger defense. a2+ 24.d1 xd4+ 25.d3 xf4 26.f3 but even
here black has a decisive advantage. 23...fc8 A fine concept.
The purpose is not to put pressure on the c-Pawn, but to transfer the R to the
a-file. 24.d3 24.xc8 a3+ 25.d2 e4+ 26.d1 a1# 24...a2+ 25.d1 c3+ 26.c1 c5 More controversy between annotators! One gave this move a
questions mark claiming it wasn’t his best option. Timman gave it a ! saying
Benko breathes new life into his attack. What does Stockfish say? Benko’s
move is perfectly good. 27.h4 Timman wrote that despite his awkward
situation Fischer defends as stubbornly as possible. This move provides extra
cover for his B on f2 and allows his K to escape via d2 without running the
risk of being mated at once. That said, Benko is clearly winning, 27.g4
was the only other plausible try, but after a5 28.xd4 a1+ 29.d2 e4+ 30.e2 d2+ 31.f3 xe1 the game is over. 27...a5 28.d2 Oddly, black has
no effective discovered check because doing so would allow the K to slip away
to safety. h6 With this terrible move, probably as a result of
time pressure, Benko turns the tables on himself! His plan was to play 29...
Ne4 and 30...g5, but this is way too slow. There’s no direct mate here, so
the positional move 28...Bc6! keeps Fischer’s K in the center of the board
where it remains in grave danger. 28...e4+ 29.e2 a3 30.f1 and white
is suddenly in a position to start a counterattack on the K-side. xd6
results in head whirling complications that should eventually favor white. but
that evaluation is theoretical. 31.exd6 xd6 32.g4 28...a2 Black has
no forced win, but by keeping up the pressure he can continue to make white's
life very difficult. 29.g4 c6 30.xd4 b5+ 30...xd4 would lose. 31.gxf5 e4+ 32.xe4 xe4 33.xg7+ xg7 34.e7+ h8 35.f6+ g8 36.xe6+ f8 37.f6+ e8 38.h8+ e7 39.xh7+ e8 40.h8+ e7 41.h4+ d7 42.xe4 d5 43.h7+ c6 44.g6+ White wins. 31.e2 xd4+ 32.f1 f3 wins for black.
29.g4 This sudden counterattack leaves black busted. fxg4 29...e4+ comes up short, The complications are enorrnous and in the end
white is left with a theoretically won position, but practically speaking it's
probably black's best chance. 30.e2 d2+ 31.f1 xf4 32.gxf5 d2+ 33.e2 xe5+ 34.d1 xe1+ 35.xe1 xd6 36.xd2 30.xg4 30.xg4 is a self mate.
e4+ 31.e2 d2+ 32.f3 xf2+ 33.xe4 c6# 30...h8 30...f8 31.xg7 b1+ 31...xg7 32.g1+ mate next move. 32.e2 d2+ 33.f3 Black can
delay, but not prevent mater. xd3+ 34.cxd3 c6+ 35.g4 xg7 36.e7+ h8 37.h5 xe5+ 38.xe5 e8+ 39.xh6 f7 40.xf7 mate next move. 31.xh6+ Black resigned. 31.xh6+ gxh6 32.f7# 1–0
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