The year 1962 started off with Mikhail Botvinnik winning the Hastings Congress and Viktor Korchnoi winning the Soviet Championship, held in Yerevan. Larry Evans won the US Championship; Bobby Fischer did not play.
For some players, it was just a plain bad year. On March 11, 1962, Soviet GM Vyacheslav Ragozin (1908-1962) died in Moscow at the age of 53. On April 3, 1962, Ernst Grünfeld (1893-1962) died in Vienna at the age of 68. On May 4, 1962, the strong Czech master Josef Rejfir (1909-1962) died at the age of 52. On October 9, 1962, Dr. Milan Vidmar (1885-1962) died in Ljubljuna, Yugoslavia at the age of 77. On November 30, 1962, Ossip Bernstein (1882-1962) died in France at the age of 80.
On October 25, 36-year-old strong coffeehouse player, Senior Master Abe Turner (1924-1962), who had been employed by Al Horowitz at Chess Review for two weeks, was murdered. He was stabbed in the back 9 times and beaten with a hammer and his 280 pound body stuffed in a large safe in the basement.
He and another employee had been taking the trash out of the Chess Review office. Turner’s body was found by the building superintendent that afternoon after he followed a trail of blood.
The murderer was a fellow employee who had been as a handyman at Chess Review for six months. His name was Theodore Smith, an ex-mental patient who had not long before been released from an insane asylum.
Smith was arrested that night and he led police to the murder weapon, a hunting knife, he had buried in Central Park. He told police that Turner was a Communist spy and had to be killed on orders from the Secret Service. Smith was sent to Bellvue Mental Hospital and from there the trail goes cold.
For Bobby Fischer the results were mixed. In April, 1962, the 18-year old Fischer dominated the Stockholm Interzonal, finishing 2.5 points ahead of the field.
But, it was Tigran Petrosian who won the Curacao Candidates while Fischer finished in 4th place. He later accused the Russians of cheating by pre-arranging the results of games among themselves.
In the following game from Interzonal Fischer’s opponent was Julio Bolbochan (1920-1996), of Argentina. He was born in Buenos Aires and was Argentine Champion in 1946 and 1948. He was awarded the IM title in 1955 and an honorary GM title in 1977. At Stockholm 1962 he finished in 13th place and although he was slated to play at Sousse 1967, illness prevented him from participating. Other than this, most of his chess was in South America. He was the younger brother of Jacobo Bolbochan.
The game features a rare sideline against the Sicilian that Fischer had obviously prepared and it won him a brilliancy prize.
Robert Fischer–Julio Bolbochan1–0B90Stockholm Interzonal21Stockholm SWE03.03.1962Stockfish 16
B90: Sicilian Najdorf 1.e4 c5 2.f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 a6 6.h3 In a previous game from the same event against
Sam Schweber Fischer chose the usual 5.Be3, but here he plays a rare sideline. c6 At the time the recommended continuation was 6...e5 7.Nde2 which was
believed would give black an edge. But then later it was discovered that very
much the opposite was true and white obtained a distinct advantage. Since then
though it's known that the position is equal. So, based on the theory at the
time Bolbochan tried something else/ 6...e5 7.de2 h5 8.g5 e6 9.f4 bd7 with equal chances. 7.g4 xd4 8.xd4 e5 9.d3 e7 Fischer
correctly claimed that that the immediate 9...Be6 was more accurate. 9...e6 10.g5 d7 11.f4 exf4 12.xf4 e7 and eventually Kuzubov,Y (2615)-Korobov,A
(2679) Plovdiv BUL 2012 agreed to a draw. 10.g5 Best. 10.d5 xd5 11.xd5 c7 12.c4 e6 13.d3 Tarnowski,A-Drozd,R Katowice 1961. Black's
position is better. 10.g2 e6 11.b3 0-0 12.b2 b5 13.0-0-0 b4 14.e2
Was played in an old game, Gereben,E-Geller,E Budapest 1952, and black stands
better. 10...d7 11.e3 c5 11...xg5 allows white to obtain a
promising game. 12.xg5 xg5 13.xd6 and white can rely on his Q-side
P-majority to give him a slight edge. 12.d2 e6 13.0-0-0 0-0 14.f3 c8 15.b1 Fischer explained this move by saying that amateurs are often puzzled
by this apparently needless move, but it's a handy defensive move, getting out
of the pin on the c-file which could become annoying after ...b5-b4. He assed,
"One never knows when lightning will strike!" d7 16.h4 b5 17.h3 xh3
Unfortunately for black there is no way he can escape trading off his good B.
In any case, he is in serious positional trouble. He possibly had hopes of
abandon his d-Pawn hoping to put up stiff resistance in a R endgame. 17...b4 falls short. 18.d5 a5 19.h5 a4 20.xe6 fxe6 21.h6 g6 22.xe7+ xe7 23.xb4 18.xh3 b6 19.xb6 xb6 20.d5 White has a strategically won game;
his N cannot be dislodged. -- Fischer d8 21.f4 Interesting...Fischer does
not cash in his positional advantage for a difficult ending, but instead plays
for an attack. 21.xe7+ xe7 22.h2 22.xd6 loses immediately. fd8 22...c6 23.h5 fc8 24.c3 b4 25.cxb4 c4 26.a3 d4 27.c1 d7 28.xc8+ xc8 29.c1 This ending is won, but white still has some work to do. 21...exf4 22.xf4 d7 23.f5 Black may have expected 23.Nf6+ 23.f6+ gxf6 24.gxf6 h8 25.a3 g8 25...d8 26.g3 e6 27.xd6 e8 28.h6 g8 29.g7
wins 26.fxe7 xe7 27.xd6 g1+ 28.a2 A result of having played 26.a3 xc2 29.hd3 c8 30.xa6 White is winning, but, again, he has to work for
it. 23...cd8 This is Black's only move. 23...xf5 24.xe7+ h8 25.xf5 and white has won a piece. 24.a3 24.c3 g6 25.f3 e6 26.c7 de8 is also a win for white, but his text move deflects black's Q to
a remote location. 24...a7 25.c3 g6 25...d7 26.c7 xf5 27.xe7+
as before. 26.g4 d7 27.f3 27.xd7 xd7 White is clearly better, but
he wants his R on c7 28.e5 d8 28...dxe5 29.f6+ 29.c6 is decisive. 27...e6 28.c7 de8 29.f4 An excellent move! The N abandons its fine
post on d5 and goes to a square where it stays for the rest of the game. What
the move does is clear d5 for the R. e5 30.d5 The black Q is driven to
oblivion!.Just 6 moves ago is was uselessly sitting on a7. h8 31.a3
White pauses to avoid lightening striking on the first rank. Also, it's up to
black to try and come up with a useful move, but there isn't one. h6 32.gxh6 xh6 33.h5 g5 34.hxg6! The N is bait, but it can't be taken. fxg6 34...xf4 35.gxf7+ xf7 36.xf7 xf7 37.h5 g6 38.xf4+ and white is goping
to win this ending one way or another. e7 39.g5 f7 40.f5 e6 41.e3 a8 42.b6 c8 43.h5 f7 44.xd6 35.b3 The coup de grace.--Fischer. xf4 35...h8 36.xg5 xf4 37.c3+ g8 38.b3+ h8 39.d5 fxe4 40.xd6 c4 41.xc4 bxc4 42.xc4 g7 43.xa6 etc. 36.e5+ f8 37.xe8+ Black
resigns. It's mate in 3. Pue Fischer genius. 37.xe8+ xe8 38.e6+ f8 39.c8+ d8 40.xd8# 1–0
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