Hastings is a seaside town on the south coast of England that is 53 miles south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place 8 miles to the northwest in 1066. Today, Hastings is a fishing port with the UK's largest beach-based fishing fleet and has an estimated population of over 92,000.
In Hastings, the summers are comfortable, the winters are long and cold and it is windy and partly cloudy year round. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 38 degrees F to 69 degrees F.
When it comes to cloud cover, the clearest part of the year begins around the end of March and lasts for a little over six months, ending in early October. On average December 29 is the cloudiest day of the year. Christmas is not a good time to visit.
An interesting weather fact is that Point Roberts, Washington in the United States which lies 4,784 miles away on the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula, south of Vancouver, British Columbia is the most distant foreign place with temperatures most similar to Hastings. As seen in the photo from the Telegraph, it snowed during the 1970 Hastings tournament. 
Looking at the crosstable the first impression is that the tournament had a high percentage of draws which it did, but with few exceptions they were hard fought and exciting draws. According to Robert Byrne many of the draws kept "spectators on the edge of their chairs" and material was "being sacrificed back and forth, for positional reasons as well as for attack" and "the onlookers had great difficulty comprehending the games, not knowing a great part of the
time who was winning." Byrne also mentioned that on a couple of occasions he was congratulated when he was desperately fighting just to stay in the game!
Lajos Portisch, the eventual winner, began with a series of draws and it looked like he was going to finish in the middle of the pack, but late rally enabled him to finish first.
The Czech representative Vastimil Hort had to win in the last round to tie with Portisch, but he took too many chances against England's Peter Markland and ended up losng badly. East Germany's GM Wolfgang Uhlmann also blew his chance at tying for first by losing to England's Robert Wade.
The Yugoslav IM Zvonimir Mestrovic led with three straight wins, but then started playing recklessly and began losing. But, before his decline he won the brilliancy prize for his game against Byrne. In the game (given below) Byrne lost his Queen at move 17 on a simple hallucination when he thought saw a forced mate! Still, Byrne managed to put stiff resistance for another 17 moves.
Many time Hastings winner Svetozar Gligoric of Yugoslavia found himself in bad positions on several occasions, but somehow managed to escape. He also had some luck. In his game against Hort who was playing white in a K-Indian, Hort carefully planned a little trap to snare Gligoric's Queen. But, when the position was reached and the snare of the Queen was at hand, Hort forgot about the trap he had set and soon agreed to a draw!
Robert Byrne (April 20, 1928 – April 12, 2013) learned to play chess at the age of eight, was awarded the IM title in 1952 and the GM title in 1964. The 1972 US Championship was an Interzonal qualifying tournament and Byrne after tying for first place with Samuel Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek, won the three man play off to advance to the Leningrad Interzonal 1973.
Leningrad was probably the highlight of his career as he finished only one point behind tournament winners Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. He lost his 1974 quarter final candidates match against Boris Spassky.
Robert Byrne - Zvonimir Mestrovic
Result: 0-1
Site: Hastings
Date: 1970.12.30
Sicilian: Richter-Rauzer Attack
[...] 1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 ♘f6 5.♘c3 d6 6.♗g5 The Richter-Rauzer Attack used to be very popular during the 20th Century. It is named after Ukrainian Vsevolod Rauzer and the German Kurt Richter. There is an overwhelming amount of theoretical material on it. 6...♗d7 7.♕d2 ♖c8 8.O-O-O ♘xd4 9.♕xd4 ♕a5 10.f4 h6 This is actually a mistake!
13.g3 Byrne's play is uncharacteristically passive. (13.e5 ♘h5 14.g3 gxf4 15.gxf4 ♗c6 16.♘b5 with a double edged position.) 13...♗c6 14.♗h3 O-O Mestrovic is not interested in playing it safe by moving his R away from the B. 15.♗xc8 ♘xe4 16.♘xe4 ♕xa2
10...♖xc3 It's been known for a number of years now that this exchange sacrifice gives black an overwhelming winning percentage. 11.bxc3 e5 12.♕b4 ♕xb4 13.cxb4 ♘xe4 14.♗h4 g5 15.fxg5 ♗e7 16.♗e1 ♗xg5+ 0-1 Van der Sterren, P (2460)-Kristiansen,J (2445)/Plovdiv 1983 and black went on to win.
11.♗h4 g5 12.♗e1 This is far too passive a move to play aganst black's aggressive setup.
12.e5 Fights for the initiative. 12...gxh4 13.exf6 e6 14.♗e2 ♖g8 15.♗f3 ♗c6 16.♖he1 ♗xf3 17.gxf3 with a sharp position where both sides have chances. Socko,B (2641) -Dreev,A (2633)/ Lugo 2007
12.fxg5 is possible. After 12...hxg5 13.♗f2 b6 14.e5 An interesting P sacrifice. 14...dxe5 15.♕e3 ♗h6 16.♔b1 ♗e6 But here black is doing quite well.
12...♗g7 There were better ways to keep up the pressure
12...gxf4 Black has a very slight advantage after this. 13.♘d5 ♕xa2 14.♘xf6+ exf6 15.♗c3
15.♕xf6 ♖g8 16.♗c3 ♖g6 17.♕h8 ♔e7 18.♕d4 and black is winning. Preethi,R (2115) -Danilyuk, O (2075)/ Tashkent 2007
15...♖g8 16.♕d5 ♕xd5 17.exd5 ♗e7 and a draw was agrees. Dely,P-Pietrusiak,B/Polanica Zdroj 1965 16...♗xd4 17.♗xa5 ♗e3+ 18.♗d2 ♗xe4 19.♗xb7 ♗xd2+ 20.♖xd2 ♗xb7 (20...♗xh1 21.♗xh1 is winning for white.) 21.♖e1 with a winning position.
17.♕xg7+ 17.Qb4 kept the chances even, but somehow Byrne thought he saw a forced mate. 17...♔xg7 18.♗c3+ ♔g6
18...♔h7 19.♗f5+ ♔g8 20.fxg5 ♗xe4 21.♗xe4 and while there is no mate white has enough compensation for the Q that he can boast of what should be a winning advantage...Stockfish won 7 Shootouts from this position.
19.♘xd6
19.♗xb7 was somewhat better. 19...♗xb7 20.♖he1 but here, too, black is better.
19...exd6 20.♖xd6+ f6 White's B is unfefended plus his R is threatened by ...Qa8+ so he has to lose something. 21.♖e1 ♖xc8 22.♖xf6+ ♔h5 An odd square but the K fonds a safe haven here. 23.h3 ♖e8
23...♕a1+ 24.♔d2 ♖d8+ 25.♔e2 ♕a4 and there's no way to meet ...Qxc2 26.♖c1 ♕e4+ mates in 3.
24.g4+ ♔h4 25.♖xh6+ ♔g3 26.♖xe8 ♗xe8 27.fxg5 I might appear that white has succeeded in at least equalizing, but Mestrovic has everything under control. Looking at this position, I wonder how many non-masters would fail to win as white? 27...♕a1+ 28.♔d2 ♕g1 29.♖e6 ♗f7 30.♖f6 ♗d5 31.g6 How big a threat is this P?! 31...♕g2+ 32.♔d3 ♕xh3 33.g7 ♕xg4 34.♗d4 The P is no threat at all, but of course it can't be taken. 34...b5 (34...♕xg7 35.♗e5+ ♔g4 36.♖f4+ ♔g5 37.♗xg7 ♔xf4 draw.) 35.b4
35.g8=♕ ♗xg8 36.♗e5+ ♔h3 37.♔e3 (37.♖f8 ♗h7+ 38.♔e3 ♕e4+) 37...♕g5+ 38.♔e4 ♕d2 wins another P.
35...♕d1+ 36.♔c3 ♕a1+ Black actually mates a couple of moves quicker with 36...Qe1+, but realizing he was quite lost Byrne resigned here. A very nice finish by Mestrovic.
36...♕a1+ 37.♔d3 ♕d1+ 38.♔c3 ♕e1+ 39.♔b2 ♕xb4+ 40.♔c1 ♕xd4 41.♖f5 ♗c4 42.g8=♕+ ♗xg8 43.♖xb5 ♗c4 44.♖b7 ♕c3 45.♔b1 ♕a3 46.♖b3+ ♗xb3 47.cxb3 ♕xb3+ 48.♔a1 ♕c3+ 49.♔b1 a5 50.♔a2 a4 51.♔b1 a3 52.♔a2 ♕b2#
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