World Chess Championship 1960
The 1960 World Chess Championship was played between Mikhail Botvinnik and Mikhail Tal in Moscow from March 15 to May 7, 1960. Botvinnik was the reigning champion, after winning the World Chess Championship 1958, while Tal qualified by winning the Candidates tournamant. Tal won by a margin of 4 points.
1958 Interzonal tournament
An interzonal chess tournament was held in Portorož, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia in August and September 1958. The top six finishers qualified for the Candidates tournament.[1][2]
1958 Interzonal Tournament 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Total Tie break 1 Mikhail Tal (Soviet Union) x ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 13½ 2 Svetozar Gligorić (Yugoslavia) ½ x ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 13 3 Tigran Petrosian (Soviet Union) ½ ½ x ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 1 ½ 1 12½ 117.25 4 Pal Benko (stateless) 0 ½ ½ x ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 12½ 115.25 5 Friðrik Ólafsson (Iceland) ½ 1 ½ ½ x 1 0 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 12 115.75 6 Bobby Fischer (United States) ½ ½ ½ 0 0 x ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 12 106.00 7 David Bronstein (Soviet Union) ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ x ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 11½ 112.75 8 Yuri Averbakh (Soviet Union) ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ x 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 11½ 105.50 9 Aleksandar Matanović (Yugoslavia) 1 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 x 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 11½ 105.50 10 László Szabó (Hungary) 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 0 x ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 11½ 100.75 11 Ludek Pachman (Czechoslovakia) ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ x ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 11½ 99.75 12 Oscar Panno (Argentina) 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ x ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 11 104.25 13 Miroslav Filip (Czechoslovakia) 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ x ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 11 98.00 14 Raúl Sanguineti (Argentina) ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ x 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 10 15 Oleg Neikirch (Bulgaria) ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ 0 0 x 0 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 9½ 16 Bent Larsen (Denmark) 0 0 1 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 x 1 1 ½ 0 1 8½ 17 James Sherwin (United States) ½ 1 0 ½ 1 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 x 1 0 1 1 7½ 18 Héctor Rossetto (Argentina) 0 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 x 1 ½ 1 7 19 Rodolfo Cardoso (Philippines) ½ 0 0 0 0 0 1 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 0 x 1 1 6 20 Boris de Greiff (Colombia) 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 0 ½ 0 x 0 4½ 21 Géza Füster (Canada) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 1 x 2
1959 Candidates tournament
The 1959 Candidates Tournament was held in Yugoslavia in Bled, Zagreb, and Belgrade. The top two players from the previous tournament, Smyslov and Keres, were seeded directly into the tournament and joined by the top six from the interzonal. Mikhail Tal won, becoming the challenger in the 1960 championship match.
The tournament was notable in that the two top finishers, Tal and Keres, scored heavily against the bottom of the field. If only scores between the top 4 are taken into account, the results of the top 4 are quite similar (Tal 5½/12, Keres 6½/12, Petrosian and Smyslov both 6/12). But Tal and Keres scored heavily against the bottom 4, with Tal scoring an incredible 14½/16, including winning all 4 of his games against Fischer.
Future World Champion Bobby Fischer was 16 years old at the time. He was the youngest Candidate in history until Magnus Carlsen qualified for the 2007 Candidates under a different system.
1959 Candidates Tournament 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Score Tie break 1 Mikhail Tal (Soviet Union) xxxx 0 0 1 0 = = = = 0 1 = 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 = 20 2 Paul Keres (Soviet Union) 1 1 0 1 xxxx 0 = = = 1 = = 0 = = 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 18½ 3 Tigran Petrosian (Soviet Union) = = = = 1 = = = xxxx = = 0 = 0 = = 1 1 1 = = 1 0 0 = = 1 1 = 15½ 4 Vasily Smyslov (Soviet Union) 1 0 = 0 0 = = 1 = = 1 = xxxx 0 = 1 0 = = 1 0 = 1 = 1 = 0 1 1 15 5 Svetozar Gligorić (Yugoslavia) 0 = 0 0 = = 0 0 1 = = 0 1 = 0 1 xxxx 0 1 = = = = 1 0 = 1 = = 12½ 162.00 6 Bobby Fischer (United States) 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 = = = = 0 1 1 0 = = xxxx 0 1 = 1 = 1 = 1 12½ 156.50 7 Friðrik Ólafsson (Iceland) 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 = = 0 = 0 = = 0 1 1 0 = 0 xxxx 0 0 = 1 10 8 Pal Benko (stateless) 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 = = 1 0 0 = 0 = = = 0 = 0 1 1 = 0 xxxx 8
1960 Championship match
The best of 24 game match was held in Moscow. In the event of a 12–12 tie, Botvinnik, the title holder, would retain the Championship.
Due to Tal's less impressive results against the very top players, including his 3 losses to Keres in the Candidates, Botvinnik was the favourite.[3] However Tal won the match decisively, by a margin of 4 points.
World Chess Championship Match 1960 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Points Mikhail Tal (Soviet Union) 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 12½ Mikhail Botvinnik (Soviet Union) 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 1 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 8½
Highlights
Game 6 is particularly famous, thanks to a speculative knight sacrifice by Tal on move 21. The audience became so excited that the game was moved to a back room due to the noise.[3]
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See also
Notes
- "World Chess Championship 1958 Interzonal Tournament". mark-weeks.com. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
- "Portoroz Interzonal (1958)". Chessgames Services LLC. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- Clash of Champions: Tal vs. Botvinnik, Bryan Smith, chess.com, September 4 2014
References
- Tal-Botvinnik 1960, by Mikhail Tal, Russell Enterprises, ISBN 978-1-888690-08-8
External links
- 1960 World Chess Championship at the Internet Archive record of Graeme Cree's Chess Pages