Bobby Fischer sweeps aside all opposition in the
World ChampionshipCandidates Matches. Beginning with a 6-0 quarter-final win against
Mark Taimanov in
Vancouver, the American is in rampant form. Unbelievably, the score is repeated against
Bent Larsen in the
Denver semi-final. Former World Champion
Tigran Petrosian makes a fight of it in the final, held in
Buenos Aires and appears to be containing Fischer for the first half of the match, but then loses four games in a row to suffer a demoralising 2½-6½ defeat.[1] Other Candidates' match scores are; quarter-finalRobert Hübner 3-4 Petrosian (
Seville, match resigned by Hübner as a protest over playing conditions); quarter-final Larsen 5½-3½
Wolfgang Uhlmann (
Las Palmas); quarter-finalViktor Korchnoi 5½-2½
Efim Geller (Moscow); semi-final Petrosian 5½-4½ Korchnoi (Moscow). Fischer therefore qualifies to play
Boris Spassky in a match for the World Championship in 1972. Commencing with his final seven games at the 1970
Palma de MallorcaInterzonal and finishing with his first match game with Petrosian,
Fischer's run of twenty consecutive wins is the longest in first class chess since
Wilhelm Steinitz established the record of twenty-five, between 1873 and 1882.
The winner of the 39th
Soviet Championship is
Vladimir Savon with 15/21. In finishing ahead of such colossi as Smyslov, Tal, Karpov, Bronstein, Taimanov, Polugaevsky, Vaganian, Stein, Balashov and others, the little-known Ukrainian delivers a surprising result, described by commentators as the least plausible for decades. The contest coincides with the final stages of Fischer's match with Petrosian, and there is speculation that this unsettling distraction in the Soviet camp has affected their play.[4]
Larry Evans is the winner of the Statham Masters. The first edition of a series of tournaments, it is officially named after chess benefactor Louis D. Statham (1908–1983), who is primarily an engineer and inventor of medical instruments. Later, the event becomes more commonly known as the
Lone Pine International, in association with its Californian venue.
The 1971/72 edition of the Niemeyer junior tournament, held every year since 1962/63 in
Groningen, is formally adopted by
FIDE as the 1st
European Junior Chess Championship. The winner is the young Hungarian
Gyula Sax, who follows in the footsteps of compatriots
Andras Adorjan and
Zoltán Ribli, the winners of the previous two Niemeyer tournaments.
Computer scientists at The Institute of Control Science, Moscow, create the chess-playing program
KAISSA and run it on a British computer.
Ken Thompson, an American chess enthusiast and pioneer of computing, writes his first chess-playing program called "chess" for the earliest version of his
Unix operating system.[8]
Births
Michael Adams, English GM, world elite player, former World Championship finalist - November 17
Vladimir Akopian, Armenian GM, former World Junior Champion and highly rated - December 7
Victor Bologan, Moldovan GM, a winner of the strong Dortmund Sparkassen event - December 14
Vasil Spasov, Bulgarian GM, former World Junior Champion with multiple national titles - February 17
Alexander Delchev, Bulgarian GM, former European Junior Champion and national champion - July 15
Christopher Lutz, German GM, renowned theoretician and former national champion - February 24
Konstantin Lerner, Soviet-Ukrainian GM, former national champion of the Ukraine - February 28
Vitali Golod, Ukrainian-Israeli GM, former champion of Ukraine before his move to Israel - June 23
Martin Mrva, Slovakian GM, former national champion - December 12
Vasik Rajlich, Czech-American IM, author of the powerful playing program Rybka - ?
Deaths
Olaf Barda, Norwegian IM, six times the national champion and a correspondence grandmaster - May 2
Alexander Zaitsev, Soviet GM, tied first for the 1968/69 USSR Championship, died at thirty-six - November 8
Hans Müller, Austrian IM, divided career between chess, skiing, fencing etc. Also a chess writer - February 28
Victor Kahn, Russian-born master, later settled in France and won the national championship - October 6
José Araiza, Mexico's best player prior to the arrival of Carlos Torre - September 27
Iosif Pogrebyssky, Ukrainian master, active as a tournament player in the 1920s and 1930s - May 20
Luis Palau, Argentinian master, represented his country at three Olympiads in the 1920s - February 8
Bobby Fischer sweeps aside all opposition in the
World ChampionshipCandidates Matches. Beginning with a 6-0 quarter-final win against
Mark Taimanov in
Vancouver, the American is in rampant form. Unbelievably, the score is repeated against
Bent Larsen in the
Denver semi-final. Former World Champion
Tigran Petrosian makes a fight of it in the final, held in
Buenos Aires and appears to be containing Fischer for the first half of the match, but then loses four games in a row to suffer a demoralising 2½-6½ defeat.[1] Other Candidates' match scores are; quarter-finalRobert Hübner 3-4 Petrosian (
Seville, match resigned by Hübner as a protest over playing conditions); quarter-final Larsen 5½-3½
Wolfgang Uhlmann (
Las Palmas); quarter-finalViktor Korchnoi 5½-2½
Efim Geller (Moscow); semi-final Petrosian 5½-4½ Korchnoi (Moscow). Fischer therefore qualifies to play
Boris Spassky in a match for the World Championship in 1972. Commencing with his final seven games at the 1970
Palma de MallorcaInterzonal and finishing with his first match game with Petrosian,
Fischer's run of twenty consecutive wins is the longest in first class chess since
Wilhelm Steinitz established the record of twenty-five, between 1873 and 1882.
The winner of the 39th
Soviet Championship is
Vladimir Savon with 15/21. In finishing ahead of such colossi as Smyslov, Tal, Karpov, Bronstein, Taimanov, Polugaevsky, Vaganian, Stein, Balashov and others, the little-known Ukrainian delivers a surprising result, described by commentators as the least plausible for decades. The contest coincides with the final stages of Fischer's match with Petrosian, and there is speculation that this unsettling distraction in the Soviet camp has affected their play.[4]
Larry Evans is the winner of the Statham Masters. The first edition of a series of tournaments, it is officially named after chess benefactor Louis D. Statham (1908–1983), who is primarily an engineer and inventor of medical instruments. Later, the event becomes more commonly known as the
Lone Pine International, in association with its Californian venue.
The 1971/72 edition of the Niemeyer junior tournament, held every year since 1962/63 in
Groningen, is formally adopted by
FIDE as the 1st
European Junior Chess Championship. The winner is the young Hungarian
Gyula Sax, who follows in the footsteps of compatriots
Andras Adorjan and
Zoltán Ribli, the winners of the previous two Niemeyer tournaments.
Computer scientists at The Institute of Control Science, Moscow, create the chess-playing program
KAISSA and run it on a British computer.
Ken Thompson, an American chess enthusiast and pioneer of computing, writes his first chess-playing program called "chess" for the earliest version of his
Unix operating system.[8]
Births
Michael Adams, English GM, world elite player, former World Championship finalist - November 17
Vladimir Akopian, Armenian GM, former World Junior Champion and highly rated - December 7
Victor Bologan, Moldovan GM, a winner of the strong Dortmund Sparkassen event - December 14
Vasil Spasov, Bulgarian GM, former World Junior Champion with multiple national titles - February 17
Alexander Delchev, Bulgarian GM, former European Junior Champion and national champion - July 15
Christopher Lutz, German GM, renowned theoretician and former national champion - February 24
Konstantin Lerner, Soviet-Ukrainian GM, former national champion of the Ukraine - February 28
Vitali Golod, Ukrainian-Israeli GM, former champion of Ukraine before his move to Israel - June 23
Martin Mrva, Slovakian GM, former national champion - December 12
Vasik Rajlich, Czech-American IM, author of the powerful playing program Rybka - ?
Deaths
Olaf Barda, Norwegian IM, six times the national champion and a correspondence grandmaster - May 2
Alexander Zaitsev, Soviet GM, tied first for the 1968/69 USSR Championship, died at thirty-six - November 8
Hans Müller, Austrian IM, divided career between chess, skiing, fencing etc. Also a chess writer - February 28
Victor Kahn, Russian-born master, later settled in France and won the national championship - October 6
José Araiza, Mexico's best player prior to the arrival of Carlos Torre - September 27
Iosif Pogrebyssky, Ukrainian master, active as a tournament player in the 1920s and 1930s - May 20
Luis Palau, Argentinian master, represented his country at three Olympiads in the 1920s - February 8