|
Tigran Petrosian and
Paul
Keres shared first place honors at the First
Piatigorsky Cup Chess Tournament. Touted as the
biggest tournament on American soil since Dallas 1957,
the tournament took place at the Ambassador Hotel in Los
Angeles, California from July 2nd to July 30th,
1963. The event was organized by Jacqueline
Piatigorsky, the wife of famed cellist and chess
enthusiast Gregor Piatigorsky.
The
original plan for the tournament was to have it every
two years, consist of eight world caliber players (with
no more than two from any single country), and to be
played in a double round-robin format. Soon after
invitations were sent, the Soviet Union announced that Petrosian and Keres would be representing them at the
tournament. This marked the first time in 30 years
that a reigning world champion would be playing in an
American tournament, as Petrosian had dethroned Mikhail
Botvinnik earlier in the year.
Samuel
Reshevsky and Bobby Fischer were sent invitations to
represent the American interests in the
tournament. Fischer declined the invitation for
unknown reasons. It was quietly rumored that he
chose not to participate due to the fact that he did not
receive his requested appearance fee of $2000. Pal Benko ended up taking the second American spot in
Fischer's stead. The remaining four spots were
accepted by Miguel Najdorf and Oscar Panno
of Argentina, Svetozar Gligoric of Yugoslavia,
and Fridrik Olafsson of Iceland.
The
tournament had it's difficulties as Reshevsky and Keres
both came down with the flu in the early stages of the
event. This resulted in some postponed games and a
more strenuous schedule for the players. Keres had
just adjourned two games in winning positions (against
Benko and Panno) when it was announced that he had
fallen ill. In a great act of sportsmanship, both
players immediately resigned their games to
him.
At
the half way point of the tournament there was a
complete log jam for first place, with Gligoric, Najdorf,
Keres, and Olafsson all tied at 4½
points each. Petrosian and Reshevsky were only a
half point behind them, with Benko and Panno bringing up
the rear at 3 points each. Petrosian would have a
strong second half and Keres would overcome his illness
to force a tie for first place with the current world
champion. Panno proved to be the workhorse of the
tournament, playing a tournament high 645 moves.
This included a 111-move marathon game against Petrosian
in the fourth round which ended up being drawn.
Approximately
500 spectators were able to witness each round.
The closing ceremony and awards banquet was held at the
Beverly Hills Hotel on July 30th with a little over 200
people in attendance. Isaac Kashdan was the chief
arbiter of the tournament and later wrote the official
tournament book. |
