AThe Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Sunday, July 05, 1964 - Page 42
Four-Way Tie in First Place in the Sixth Interzonal Tournament
Bent Larsen, Denmark, and three Russians, Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky, posted identical scores for a four-way tie for first place in the sixth interzonal tournament.
This penultimate stage in the search for a world championship challenger has usually been dominated by one player. Last time it was Bobby Fischer; before it had been Kotov, or Bronstein, or Szabo. And now, a jam.
The leaders had 17 points each. They were followed by two more Russians, Leonid Stein (16½), and David Bronstein (16). Then came Boris Ivkov, Yugoslavia, 15; Sam Reshevsky. U.S.A., and Lajos Portisch, Hungary, 14½: and Svetozar Gligoric, Yugoslavia, 14. Pal Benko and Larry Evans, the other American representatives finished far back in the field with minus scores.
F.I.D.E. rules qualify the top six in the interzonal for the challengers tournament, but the rules also state that no more than three players from the same country can make the grade. Thus, Stein and Bronstein have been eliminated and Ivkov will move into one of the vacated posts. Reshevsky and Portisch will play a match for the last position.
After this has been settled the six men from the interzonal will join former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik and Paul Keres in the final phase, the candidates tournament. This will have a new format: a series of elimination matches. The king of the hill will meet Petrosian for the title.
Eleven years ago Reshevsky made his strongest bid for a world championship match in the marathon Zurich candidates tournament. In that event he finished in a triple tie for second behind Smyslov. After the tournament Reshevsky vowed he wouldn't waste his time in these contests because, as the rules were set up, no one but a Russian could win.
Unlike Fischer, Reshevsky did not accuse the Russians of collusion or cheating; he just felt the odds were overwhelming. There were nine Russians in the Zurich tournament; Reshevsky, strongest of the West, was the only American.
Reshevsky is proud of his match record (he has never lost a match) and, if he gets by Portisch, cares not how many Russians he is called upon to face mano a mano.
Larsen was Fischer's second in the Curacao tournament. Since the Dane's performance at Amsterdam is the best of his career there has been some amused speculation as to whether he was responsible for Fischer's failure at Curacao or Fischer was responsible for Larsen's success at Amsterdam.
Here the game was drawn by agreement. Al Horowitz (N.Y. Times) said: “Tal lost a piece, since he was unable to make the last recapture with-out being mated. Tal, however, had won three pawns. Thus, with material relatively even and the situation extremely unclear, neither side wished to jeopardize his standing in the tournament. The point was divided.”
