The other day I was browsing some chess magazines from 1970. That’s 55 years ago which for many readers is more than a lifetime ago, but for some of us it doesn’t seem that long.
The US top ten players were Bobby Fischer, Samuel Reshevsky, Pal Benko, Larry Evans, Lubosh Kavalek, William Lonbardy, Robert Byrne, William Addison, Arthur Bisguier and Walter Browne. They are all gone now.
The top junior players were Ken Rogoff, Greg DeFotis, Camille Coudari (Canada), James Tarjan, Norman Weinstein, Eugene Meyer, Charles Koplik, Sal Matera, Charles Irvine and Steven Spencer.
Greg DeFotis passed away in Illinois at the age of 65 in 2017. I am not sure, but Charles Irvine may have passed away in Alabama in 2021. Steven Spencer died of lung cancer in San Diego in 2008.
The Match of the Century yook place when a four-round, ten-board contest was played between teams of the USSR and the Rest of the World was held at the Trades Union House in Belgrade.
Two thousand spectators made up the audience. Based on ratings Bobby Fischer was to Board 1, but in what might be called the Surprise of the Century agreed to step down to Board 2 when Bent Larsen argued that recent performances should put him first and he refuses to yield on the point.
The USSR won the match by a score of 20.5-19.5. By the way, Larsen scored 2.5-1.5 against Spassky and Fischer scored 3-1 against Petrosian.
Fischer won big (by a 3.5 point margin) at Buenos Aires ahead of Vladimir Tukmakov.He also won at Rovinj/Zagreb ahead of Hort, Smyslov, Gligorić and Korchnoi (all tied).
The Siegen Olympiad was won ny the USSR ahead of Hungary and Yugoslavia. FIDE formally adopts the Elo rating system.
Viktor Korchnoi won the Soviet Championship. Bent Larsen won the US Open Chess Championship in Boston. Mikhail Botvinnik announced his retirement from competitive play. FIDE President Folke Rogard retired and Max Euwe replaced him.
Here is an enjoyable little correspondence gem by a couple of amateurs that I discovered buried in the back pages of one of the magazines.
J. Cardena–E.O. Anders1–0B09Correspondence1970Stockfish 17.1
B09: Pirc Defense: Austrian Attack 1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.f4 In the Austrian
Attack white wants to start an attack against black’s King.The idea of f4 is
to develop Nf3 with the N behind the P and eventually conduct a P-storm. g7 4.c4 It soon becomes evident that white is playing for a mate. f6 5.c3
Reasonable tries are 5...Nxe4, 5.d6 or 5...c5 a6 This is a poor novelty that
ignores any threats white has. 5...xe4 is met by 6.xf7+ xf7 7.xe4 f8 8.f3 g8 is equal 6.e5 Seizing the initiative and never letting go. dxe5 7.fxe5 fd7 Black is already in trouble. 7...g4 is not any better. 8.h3 h6 9.f4 0-0 10.f3 b5 11.d3 f5 12.d2 f7 13.h4 Black has a
difficult defensive task. 8.f3 Black should now try 8...Nb6 or 8...O-O
when in either case white is better/ Instead, in an effort to stop the advance
of white's e-Pawn, he makes a tactical error. e6 9.xe6 9.g5 This is
also very strong. f6 10.h4 e7 11.0-0 0-0 12.e4 9...0-0 ...and loses! 9...fxe6 is out of the question. 10.g5 f6 11.0-0 followed by Ne4
which leaves black helpless. 9...xe5 A miserable ove, but it's the best
availab;e. At least after 10.xc8 xf3+ 11.xf3 xc8 12.d5 c6 13.e4+ f8 Black has a miserable position, but there is no forced win. 10.b3 10.g5 First was much stronger. After e8 11.b3 white will castle and play
Re1 plus he has an overwhelming position with good moves like Nd5 or Ne4
available. 10...b6 Counterring in the center with 10...c5 was better. 10...c5 11.g5 a5 12.0-0 cxd4 13.d5 Even here though white has a very
favorable position. 11.0-0 c6 12.g5 e8 13.d2 a5 14.e4 The focal
point of white's attack is f6. xb3 15.axb3 d7 16.f6 Bkack is dead lost. h6 16...xf6 17.xf6+ xf6 18.exf6 e6 18...e6 19.h6 This mating
pattern is known as Lolli's Mate 19.e5 h8 20.h6 g8 21.ae1 etc. 17.d5 Nice! This prevents 17...Qe6 and clears the 4th rank. Note that ranks can
be just as important as files. xf6 18.xf6+ xf6 19.exf6 h7 20.a4
A key move. Threatening mate with Qxh6+! h8 Black was lost in any case, but
this allows a mate in 2. 20...h5 21.e4 b5 21...xe4 22.g5+ 22.e7 b6+ 23.h1 d6 24.g5+ g8 25.e6 all roads lead to mate. The longest
being xe7 26.fxe7 xe6 27.exf8+ xf8 28.dxe6 fxe6 29.xf8+ xf8 30.d7 c5 31.g1 c4 32.f2 cxb3 33.cxb3 h4 34.e3 h3 35.gxh3 a5 36.f4 a4 37.e5 axb3 38.f6 e5 39.f7# 21.xh6+ xh6 22.h4# 1–0
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