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.
[Event "Stockholm Interzonal"]
[Site "Stockholm SWE"]
[Date "1962.03.03"]
[Round "21"]
[White "Robert Fischer"]
[Black "Julio Bolbochan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B90"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 16"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "1962.??.??"]
{B90: Sicilian Najdorf} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 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.}
Nc6 {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. Nde2 h5 8. Bg5 Be6 9. f4 Nbd7
{with equal chances.}) 7. g4 {[%mdl 32]} Nxd4 8. Qxd4 e5 9. Qd3 Be7 {Fischer
correctly claimed that that the immediate 9...Be6 was more accurate.} (9... Be6
10. g5 Nd7 11. f4 exf4 12. Bxf4 Be7 {and eventually Kuzubov,Y (2615)-Korobov,A
(2679) Plovdiv BUL 2012 agreed to a draw.}) 10. g5 {Best.} (10. Nd5 Nxd5 11.
Qxd5 Qc7 12. c4 Be6 13. Qd3 {Tarnowski,A-Drozd,R Katowice 1961. Black's
position is better.}) (10. Bg2 Be6 11. b3 O-O 12. Bb2 b5 13. O-O-O b4 14. Ne2 {
Was played in an old game, Gereben,E-Geller,E Budapest 1952, and black stands
better.}) 10... Nd7 11. Be3 Nc5 (11... Bxg5 {allows white to obtain a
promising game.} 12. Bxg5 Qxg5 13. Qxd6 {and white can rely on his Q-side
P-majority to give him a slight edge.}) 12. Qd2 Be6 13. O-O-O O-O 14. f3 Rc8
15. Kb1 {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!"} Nd7 16. h4 b5 17. Bh3 Bxh3 {
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. Nd5 a5 19. h5 a4 20. Bxe6 fxe6 21. h6 g6 22. Nxe7+ Qxe7 23.
Qxb4) 18. Rxh3 Nb6 19. Bxb6 Qxb6 20. Nd5 {White has a strategically won game;
his N cannot be dislodged. -- Fischer} Qd8 21. f4 {Interesting...Fischer does
not cash in his positional advantage for a difficult ending, but instead plays
for an attack.} (21. Nxe7+ Qxe7 22. Rh2 (22. Qxd6 {loses immediately.} Rfd8)
22... Rc6 23. h5 Rfc8 24. c3 b4 25. cxb4 Rc4 26. a3 Rd4 27. Rc1 Qd7 28. Rxc8+
Qxc8 29. Qc1 {This ending is won, but white still has some work to do.}) 21...
exf4 22. Qxf4 Qd7 23. Qf5 {Black may have expected 23.Nf6+} (23. Nf6+ gxf6 24.
gxf6 Kh8 25. a3 Rg8 (25... Bd8 26. Rg3 Qe6 27. Rxd6 Qe8 28. Qh6 Rg8 29. Rg7 {
wins}) 26. fxe7 Qxe7 27. Rxd6 Rg1+ 28. Ka2 {A result of having played 26.a3}
Rxc2 29. Rhd3 Rc8 30. Rxa6 {White is winning, but, again, he has to work for
it.}) 23... Rcd8 {This is Black's only move.} (23... Qxf5 24. Nxe7+ Kh8 25.
Nxf5 {and white has won a piece.}) 24. Ra3 {[%mdl 32]} (24. Rc3 g6 25. Qf3 Qe6
26. Rc7 Rde8 {is also a win for white, but his text move deflects black's Q to
a remote location.}) 24... Qa7 25. Rc3 g6 (25... Qd7 26. Rc7 Qxf5 27. Nxe7+ {
as before.}) 26. Qg4 Qd7 27. Qf3 (27. Qxd7 Rxd7 {White is clearly better, but
he wants his R on c7} 28. e5 Bd8 (28... dxe5 29. Nf6+) 29. Rc6 {is decisive.})
27... Qe6 28. Rc7 Rde8 29. Nf4 {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.} Qe5 30. Rd5 {The black Q is driven to
oblivion!.Just 6 moves ago is was uselessly sitting on a7.} Qh8 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
Qxh6 33. h5 Bg5 34. hxg6 $1 {The N is bait, but it can't be taken.} fxg6 (34...
Bxf4 35. gxf7+ Rxf7 36. Rxf7 Kxf7 37. Rh5 Qg6 38. Qxf4+ {and white is goping
to win this ending one way or another.} Ke7 39. Rg5 Qf7 40. Rf5 Qe6 41. Qe3 Ra8
42. Qb6 Qc8 43. Rh5 Kf7 44. Qxd6) 35. Qb3 {The coup de grace.--Fischer.} Rxf4 (
35... Kh8 36. Rxg5 Rxf4 37. Qc3+ Kg8 38. Qb3+ Kh8 39. Rd5 Rfxe4 40. Rxd6 Rc4
41. Rxc4 bxc4 42. Qxc4 Qg7 43. Rxa6 {etc.}) 36. Re5+ Kf8 37. Rxe8+ {Black
resigns. It's mate in 3. Pue Fischer genius.} (37. Rxe8+ Kxe8 38. Qe6+ Kf8 39.
Qc8+ Bd8 40. Qxd8#) 1-0
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