Historical riddle: Petrosian vs Tal, Curacao 1962

The historical riddle: Petrosian vs Tal

The famous Candidates Tournament in Curacao 1962 is still surrounded by many mysteries. Did the Soviet players actually collude and "fixed" the tournament as Bobby Fischer claimed in his famous article "The Russians Have Fixed World Chess" that first appeared in the American magazine Sports Illustrated from August 20, 1962 and then made news all over the world?

Did this already start in the first round, when Tal surprisingly lost to Petrosian? This was Petrosian's first step on the road to the World Championship title, which he won one year later by beating Mihail Botvinnik in their World Championship match 1963. Or was the adjourned position objectively lost for Tal or too difficult to hold? Help endgame expert GM Dr Karsten Müller in his search for the chess truth!

The adjourned position of the game Petrosian vs Tal seems to be drawish because rook endings are often drawish. Since 1962 the endgame has been extensively analysed, however, it still contains a lot of open questions and mysteries.

So, here are some questions for you: was the adjourned position already lost for Tal? Or did Tal only later went wrong? And if so: what was Tal's last mistake?

Put your your answers and analyses into the commentary section below!

Links

• The Candidates Tournaments 1959 and 1962
• Solution to the historical puzzle Botvinnik vs Bronstein 1951: Bronstein could have drawn
• The historical puzzle: Botvinnik vs Bronstein 1951
• How sound was the endgame Spielmann-Rubinstein?
• Riddle solved: Spielmann could have drawn!
• Could Petrosian have held against Fischer?
• Petrosian could have held!
• The old riddle of Fischer vs Taimanov
• Riddle solved: Fischer was winning
• The old riddle of Botvinnik vs Fischer
• Riddle solved: Fischer could have won
• Historical riddle: could Kramnik have defeated the computer?
• Kramnik could have defeated Fritz