The third Zonal was held in Praia da Rocha, Portugal. The tournament was originally scheduled for twenty players, but at the last minute the players from Holland and Tunisia canceled.
Praia da Rocha was the weakest of the European zonals and the participants in the other two have complained that it was easier for those in Portugal to attain to the goal of qualifying for the Interzonal. Even so, Gligoric of Yugoslavia, who was considered the prime favorite, had his problems and his qualification was in doubt until the end when he managed to qualify by scoring nine points in the last ten rounds. For the results of all the Zonals that year refer to Mark Weeks post HERE.
The high finish of Dr. Miroslav Filip of Czechoslovakia was something of a surprise and when Dragoljub Minic of Yugoslavia scored six and a half points in the last seven rounds to take first place that was also a surprise.
Italy's Sergio Mariotti, who scored 9 points in the last 10 rounds, could have been a major surprise if he hadn't blundered against the lowly placed Belgian Helmut Schumacher and the South
African Brian Donnelly.
England's William Hartston was also a very serious rival for first until he lost his last four games!
Among other surprises were the showing of Bulgarian GM Milko Bobotsov who collapsed at the very end and Hungarian GM Istvan Bilek who was completly out of form. In the end, in tie break order, the qualifiers were Minic, Filip and Gligoric.
This was the first time Portugal was host to such an important chess event and although Filip thought it was was one of the best organized of tournaments he had played in, some of the other players did a lot of bellyaching.
Gligoric complained about dogs barking all night and the early morning noise, but it was also noted that he spent a lot of late nights analyzing and stuff. Scotland's David Levy complained that the Spaniards and Portuguese were put up in better hotels than the foreigners and that the foreigners held their own special tournament to see who would find the most flies on their plate.
Pre-tournament favorite Gligoric took a gut punch from Italy's champion Mariotti who upset him in sensational style early on. Mariotti's fourth place finish was one place away from Interzonal qualification.
Sergio Mariotti (born August 10, 1946) is the first Italian to achieve the GM title which he was awarded in 1974. Born in Florence, he became the Italian junior champion in 1965 and in 1969 the Italian Champion. After several successes in the early to mid-1970s the British Chess Magazine nicknamed him "The Italian Fury" due to his collection of tournament wins and his enterprising, tactical style. His preferred openings are, with either color, the Sicilian and the Ruy Lopez with an occasional Evans Gambit or Albin Counter Gambit thrown in.
Yugoslav GM Svetozar Gligoric (February 2, 1923 – August 14, 2012) won the championship of Yugoslavia a record twelve times, and is considered the best player ever from Serbia. In the 1950s and 1960s, Gligoric, who was fluent in several languages, was not only one of the top players in the world, but he was also among the world's most popular players.
Although he compiled a superb tournament record he is best known as an openings theorist who made enormous contributions to the theory and practice of the King's Indian Defense, Ruy Lopez and Nimzo-Indian Defense, among others.
Sergio Mariotti - Svetozar Gligoric
Result: 1-0
Site: Praia da Rocha POR
Date: 1969.10
King's Indian: Four Pawns Attack
[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 g6 3.♘c3 ♗g7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 Mariotti was a fearless player and it's hard to say if his decision to play the grandiose Four Ps Attack was courageous or foolhardy because Gligoric was born playing the K-Indian. This formation has never attracted serious interest although Alekhine used it three times at New York 1924 and scored +1-0=2. In his day Bent Larsen occasionally experimented with it. 5...c5 For years this was the standard response. White can now choose between hte Benoni-like 6.d5 with sharp play or the more restrained 6.dxc5 or 6.Nf3 6.d5 On rare occasions white has tried the hyper-aggressive 6.e5 with mixed results. 6...O-O 7.♗e2
7.♘f3 is usually played. 7...e6 8.♗e2 exd5 9.cxd5 ♗g4 10.O-O with a sharp position resembling those of the Benoni.
7...e6 8.dxe6 Black now faces a conundrum. Should he recapture with the P or B? Capturing with the B is more cautious and prevents the complications that arise in the game. 8...fxe6 It's possible Gligoric chose this because it leads to complications and as an experienced GM he may have felt he could outplay his young and inexperienced opponent.
8...♗xe6 This is the most popular choice and it serves black well. 9.♘f3 ♘c6 10.O-O and black is well developed and controls d5 sufficiently so that the weaknes of the P on d6 is of little significance.
9.g4 Talk about courageous and enterprising! Apparently Mariotti was trying to present the old man with new problems in unfamiliar territory.
9.♘f3 ♘c6 10.O-O a6 11.♔h1 b6 12.♗e3 is perfectly even. Fries-Nielsen,J (2454)-Mortensen,E (2441)/Greve DEN 2002
9...♘c6 10.h4
10.g5 looks promising but after 10...♘e8 11.h4 e5 White is pretty much committed to continuing hyper-aggressively and things turn out to be in black's favor after 12.f5 gxf5 13.h5 ♘d4
10...♘d4 11.h5 d5 Mariotti's strategy has brought him success! Gligoric proceeds on the rule that the best defense against a flank attack is the counter attack in the center. But here it's the wrong strategy because after 11...d5? white's Q penetrates on to the opened h-file and gives white some serious play.
11...a6 12.hxg6 hxg6 13.g5 ♘h7 14.♗d3 and now with 14...b5 black has equalized. Instead he played the inferior 14... e4 and got a losing game. Bleis,C-Kabisch,T (2285)/Niedersachsen 1989
11...b5 Is the correct strategy. Then after 12.hxg6 ♗b7 13.gxh7+ ♔h8 with the upper hand because white has no good way of meeting the attack on e4. 14.♗d3 b4 15.♘ce2 ♘xe4
12.e5 After this white has a really nice game. 12...♘e4 The strength of black's Ps and Ns in the center are an illusion because white has a powerful attack against black's K. 13.hxg6 hxg6 14.♕d3 Also good was 14. Bd3. 14...b5 This move may be typical in similar positions, but here it leads to problems.
14...♗d7 leads to equality after 15.cxd5 exd5 16.♘xe4 dxe4 17.♕xe4 ♘xe2 18.♕xe2 ♗c6 Black is a P down but he has sufficient play because white's K is precariously placed int he center.
15.♘xe4 This is the correct reply. (15.♘xb5 ♘xb5 16.cxb5 c4 with a dangerous initiative.)
15.cxb5 is successfully met by 15...♕a5 16.♘f3 ♘xe2 17.♕xe2 ♘xc3
15...bxc4 16.♕h3 dxe4 17.♕h7+ ♔f7 18.f5 White doesn't care about material. He is interested in attacking black's exposed K. 18...exf5 19.♖h6
19.♗xc4+ was even more forceful. Then if 19...♗e6 20.♗xe6+ ♘xe6 21.♖h6 f4 22.♕xg6+ ♔g8 23.♕h7+ ♔f7 24.♘h3 ♕e7 25.♘xf4 ♘xf4 26.♗xf4 ♖h8 27.♕g6+ ♔g8 28.♖xh8+ ♔xh8 29.O-O-O and even with the reduced material white has a winning attack.
(19.♗xc4+ ♘e6 20.♗h6 is fatal for black.) 19...♘c2+ 20.♔f1 fxg4
20...♘xa1 21.♕xg6+ leads to mate after 21...♔e7 22.♕xg7+ ♔e8 23.♕g6+ ♔d7 24.♖h7+ mates in 3.
21.♔g2 ♘e1+
21...♕d5 offered more resistance. 22.♕xg6+ ♔g8 23.♕h7+ ♔f7 24.♖d6 ♘e1+ 25.♔h1 ♖h8 26.♕xh8 ♗xh8 27.♖xd5 ♗e6 28.♖xc5 ♗xe5 29.♖xe5 ♖h8+ 30.♘h3 ♖xh3+ 31.♔g1 ♘f3+ 32.♗xf3 exf3 33.♗f4 g3 34.♖g5 and in this position white is winning.
22.♔h1 ♘d3 Black has prevented the deadly B check Bxc4+, but new threats are present and kill all hope. (22...♗f5 is still a small chance 23.♗xc4+ ♔e8+−) 23.♕xg6+ ♔g8 24.♕h7+ ♔f7 25.♗e3 ♕e7 26.♖f1+ ♔e8 27.♕g6+ ♖f7 28.♕c6+ ♕d7 29.♖e6+
29.♕xa8 is no so effective as after 29...♗xh6 30.♗xh6 ♘xb2 black has some fight left in him.
29...♔f8 30.♗xc5+ ♘xc5
30...♔g8 what else? 31.♖e8+ ♔h7 32.♕xe4+ ♖f5 33.♖xc8 ♖xc8 34.♖xf5 ♕c6 35.♕xc6 ♖xc6+−
31.♕xc5+ ♔g8 32.♖d6 ♕b7
32...♕c7 a last effort to resist the inevitable 33.♖c6 ♕xe5 34.♗xc4 ♕xc5 35.♖xc5 ♗a6 36.♗xf7+ ♔f8 37.♗c4+ ♔e7 38.♗xa6 ♗xb2+−
33.♖xf7 ♔xf7 34.♗xc4+ ♔e8 35.♗d5 ♕e7 36.♕c6+ ♔f8 37.♕xa8 ♕h4+ 38.♔g2
38.♔g2 ♕g3+ 39.♔xg3 ♗xe5+ 40.♔g2 ♗xd6 41.♕xc8+ ♔g7 42.♕xg4+ ♔f6 43.♕e6+ ♔g7 44.♕f7+ ♔h6 45.♗xe4 ♔g5 46.♕f5+ ♔h6 47.♕g6#
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Great post, but I have a small clarification. Re 'In 1969 there were three zonal tournaments', in fact there were ten zonal tournaments, of which three were *European* zonals for zones 1, 2, & 3. The rest of the post seems to assume that, but some visitors might not read that far. I'll link to your post from my page...
ReplyDeleteZonals 1969-1972
mark-weeks.com/chess/zonals/1969-72.htm
...It's always a pleasure to get details on the zonals. - Thanks, Mark Weeks
Correct, I should have specified that. I added the clarification and your link to the post.
ReplyDelete