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Going down the memory lane. Can you recognize these legends? [Photos from Wikipidea]
The year was 1970. Boris Spassky was the World Champion. The new cycle had begun to find a worthy challenger for him. Back in those days a tournament called the Interzonal was held. Elite players of the world would be playing in it. The top six players of the Interzonal tournament along, with two more (loser of the previous World Championship and runner-up of the previous candidates), would qualify. These eight players would play the Candidates. The winner would then challenge the World Champion. We all know who that guy was!
The 1970 Interzonal tournament was held in Palma de Mallorca and was extremely strong. Along with the American superstar Robert James Fischer there were other big names like Larsen, Geller, Polugaevsky, Smyslov, Portisch, Gligoric, Reshevsky and many more. This fierce tournament was won by Bobby Fischer with a stunning score of 18.5/23. That was 3.5 points ahead of the second placed Larsen, who finished with 15/23.
The cross table for the 1970 Interzonal, generated by ChessBase – click here to enlarge
Number five and six were Mark Taimanov from Soviet Union and Wolfgang Uhlmann from East Germany respectively. Both of them qualified for the 1971 Candidates, along with Viktor Korchnoi, who was the runner-up of the previous candidate’s cycle.
Wolfgang Uhlmann then faced Bent Larsen in the Candidates Quarter Finals and lost by a score of 5.5-3.5, while Mark Taimanov was blanked by the great Bobby with a 6-0 score. Viktor Korchnoi fared a little better, beating Geller in the quarter finals but losing to Petrosian in the Semis. Uhlmann, Taimanov and Korchnoi all fell out of the cycle, but one cannot deny that they had all engraved their names on the pages of chess history. (Of course Korchnoi later went onto scale even greater heights fighting for the highest title not just once but twice against Anatoly Karpov).
So why am I focusing on these three players i.e. Uhlmann, Taimanov and Korchnoi? The reason is: they are not just the three gentlemen in the picture that I have showed you above, but I saw these legends with my own eyes on the 22nd August 2014 in Dresden.
Viktor Korchnoi (83 years), Mark Taimanov (88) and Wolfgang Uhlmann (79)
The Pegasus Chess Summit was held on the 22nd of August 2014. The main intention of the event was to bring together the masters of the past in a discussion match between Germany and Rest of the World. There were three players in each team, and the basic condition was that each of the players had to be 75 years or above. Pegasus is a real estate company which is involved in building beautiful residential houses in one of the most attractive locations of Dresden.
The three players in the German team were:
Hans-Joachim Hecht (left in the picture above) was two time German national champion. He was also quite a popular contributor to Mega Database and has annotated nearly 2000 games in it. Wolfgang Uhlmann (middle) was of course the German hero who qualified for the Candidates in 1970 as mentioned above. He was also one of the leading exponents on the French Defence and exclusively relied on that opening in his chess career. And lastly Klaus Darga (right) shared the first place in World Junior in 1953 with Oscar Panno. His greatest achievement was beating Boris Spassky in 1964 Interzonal.
The German team was great, but the World team did look stronger, at least on paper, thanks to two great legends in their team: Viktor Korchnoi and Mark Taimanov.
Viktor Korchnoi (Elo 2499, 83 years) definitely needs no introduction. I think he is the strongest chess player who has not been able to become a World Champion. He was involved in the fight for the World Championship title in 1978 and 1981 against Anatoly Karpov. Mark Taimanov (Elo 2386, 88 years) has an entire openings variation named after him: the Sicilian Taimanov! Though he is famous for his 0-6 defeat to Bobby Fischer in 1971, very few players have been able to beat six world champions in their life (Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov) as Taimanov has done. Nikola Padevsky (Elo 2355, 81 years) was a top class Bulgarian grandmaster. He has been the Bulgarian national champion four times and also played on board one for his team at the Olympiad on three occasions.
The game was highly interesting and lasted for nearly two hours. The three players had to discuss amongst themselves and come up with the move which they made on the board. This was then communicated to the other team who was sitting around ten metres away.
It began with the German team, who had the White pieces, playing 1.c4. The game went into the Semi Slav territory and then into the Meran. The world team played the relatively unknown 6…Bb4, which I am sure was Korchnoi’s idea, and the game became quite original. After the opening the world team had a clear edge, but a wrong recapture of the queen gave the Germans an advantage. Korchnoi, Taimanov and Padevsky tried to muddy the waters as much as they could. They unleashed a highly tactical sequence. But the team of Uhlmann, Hecht and Darga maintained their cool and kept an advantage. The game was reaching its pinnacle of excitement as the German team was playing some excellent chess. But the organizers were running behind schedule and Dirk Jordan, who was the moderator, asked the players to agree to a draw. All the six players were unhappy to split the point, but according to me the World team should be happy with the result.
The nice part about this game was that the moves that were being made by the players were actually played on a giant chess board with human chess pieces.
The black army gets ready for the game
A very cute five-year-old white pawn [photo by Karsten Wieland]
There was also a small chess ballet before the game. Here you can see
the two queens fighting it out. [photo by Karsten Wieland]
This unique exhibition match was held in one of the most popular areas of Dresden. The Frauenkirche (also known as the church of our lady) is considered as an excellent example of Protestant sacred architecture, featuring one of the largest domes in Europe.
Dresden's famous Frauenkirche
The church has a lot of space in front and many cafes nearby
The town square around the Frauenkirche
People passing by one of the most popular spots in Dresden would stop and have a look at
what was going on. Soon, a substantial crowd had gathered to watch this unique event.
People in the nearby café with magnetic chess sets waited for the next move ...
... and as soon as the move was executed they would get down to business!
That’s what true chess passion is all about: not just making moves on the
mini chess set but also writing them down neatly on a score sheet
The biggest attraction for me was definitely meeting the great Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi
Through the crowd and security, I somehow managed to reach
him and give him my pen along with my autograph book
This page in my autograph will remain a lifetime treasure for me
Korchnoi looked quite frail, sitting in his wheelchair before the game. However, once the game began he was in his element, joking and analyzing and talking with great enthusiasm with his old friend Mark Taimanov.
There were also three other 75+-year-old great players who had come to kibitz the game. On the left is GM Fridrik Olafsson, who was the president of FIDE from 1978-82; in the center IM Andreas Dueckstein, whose biggest achievement was beating Mikhail Botvinnik in 1958 Munich Olympiad; and finally Yuri Kraidman, the man on the right, who is a famous Israeli grandmaster. He was in fact the first sabra to earn a GM title.
Karsten Wieland is a great chess enthusiast. He was one of the main photographers of the event. Karsten has this beautiful book in which he has the pictures of famous players taken by him. Later, when he meets them, he gets their autographs on those images. I was lucky to see the entire book, which had pictures of Carlsen, Topalov, Aronian, Polgar and so many top players.
When I asked him which was his favourite picture, he showed me the one of
Boris Spassky that he is holding in his hands.
On 22nd of August 2014 I not only had a chance to see the legends of this game in action but also was able to get their autographs. Add to that the beautiful chess ballet in one of the most scenic locations of Dresden – what more can a chess lover ask for!
Photos by Amruta Mokal
