World Chess Championship 1966

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World Chess Championship 1966
 
Defending champion
Challenger
 
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
  Soviet Union Tigran Petrosian Soviet Union Boris Spassky
 
12½Scores11½
  Born 17 June 1929
36 years old
Born 30 January 1937
29 years old
  Winner of the 1963 World Chess Championship Winner of the 1965 Candidates Tournament
← 1963
1969 →
A Soviet stamp dedicated to the World Chess Championship 1966

A World Chess Championship was played between Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky in Moscow from April 9 to June 9, 1966. Petrosian won.

1964 Interzonal Tournament[edit]

Opening of the interzonal tournament in Amsterdam. Left-right: Mikhail Tal, R. van den Bergh (city official), Vasily Smyslov and Max Euwe

An interzonal tournament was held in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in May and June 1964. Six spots in the Candidates tournament were on the line.

1964 Interzonal Tournament
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Total
1  Vasily Smyslov (Soviet Union) ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 17
2  Bent Larsen (Denmark) ½ 1 ½ 0 1 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 17
3  Boris Spassky (Soviet Union) ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 17
4  Mikhail Tal (Soviet Union) ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 17
5  Leonid Stein (Soviet Union) ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 16½
6  David Bronstein (Soviet Union) ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 16
7  Borislav Ivkov (Yugoslavia) ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 15
8  Samuel Reshevsky (United States) ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 14½
9  Lajos Portisch (Hungary) 0 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 14½
10  Svetozar Gligorić (Yugoslavia) 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 0 1 1 1 14
11  Klaus Darga (West Germany) 0 0 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 13½
12  Levente Lengyel (Hungary) 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 13
13  Luděk Pachman (Czechoslovakia) ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 ½ ½ 12½
14  Larry Evans (United States) 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 1 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 10
15  Georgi Tringov (Bulgaria) ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1
16  Pal Benko (United States) ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 9
17  Héctor Rossetto (Argentina) ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 0 1 8
18  Alberto Foguelman (Argentina) ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 1 1 0 1 8
19  István Bilek (Hungary) 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 8
20  Oscar Quiñones (Peru) 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 7
21  Yosef Porat (Israel) 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 1 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 1 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½
22  Francisco José Pérez (Cuba) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 5
23  Béla Berger (Australia) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 0
24  Zvonko Vranesic (Canada) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 4

Since FIDE rules only allowed a maximum of three players from the same nation to qualify from the interzonal, Stein and Bronstein were ineligible. Instead Ivkov qualified. The sixth and final place in the Candidates Tournament was decided in a 4-game playoff in which Portisch beat Reshevsky 2½–½.

Bobby Fischer, the winner of the previous Interzonal in 1962, declined his invitation, despite qualifying by winning the 1963–64 US Championship.[1]

1965 Candidates matches[edit]

After the controversy surrounding the previous Candidates tournament, the 1965 tournament was the first to be played as a knock-out series of matches.

Two players were seeded directly into the tournament: Mikhail Botvinnik (loser of the last championship match) and Paul Keres (2nd place in the 1962 Candidates). Botvinnik declined, and his place was taken by Efim Geller, who finished 3rd in the 1962 Candidates.

QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal
Riga, Apr 1965
Soviet Union Boris Spassky6
Riga, May–June 1965
Soviet Union Paul Keres4
Soviet Union Boris Spassky
Moscow, Apr 1965
Soviet Union Efim Geller
Soviet Union Vasily Smyslov
Tbilisi, Nov 1965
Soviet Union Efim Geller
Soviet Union Boris Spassky7
Bled, June–July 1965
Soviet Union Mikhail Tal4
Denmark Bent Larsen
Bled, July–Aug 1965
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Borislav Ivkov
Denmark Bent LarsenThird place
Bled, June–July 1965
Soviet Union Mikhail Tal
Hungary Lajos Portisch
Denmark Bent Larsen5
Soviet Union Mikhail Tal
Soviet Union Efim Geller4

Spassky won, earning the right to challenge champion Petrosian for the title.

Larsen and Geller played a third place playoff in Copenhagen, Denmark in March 1966. Larsen won 5–4.

1966 Championship match[edit]

The match was played as best of 24 games, with the champion (Petrosian) retaining the title in the event of a 12–12 tie.

While Petrosian retained the title with a 12–10 lead after Game 22, he and Spassky decided to play the final two games anyway.[2]

This was the first World Chess Championship match since 1934 in which the reigning World Chess Champion defeated his opponent.

World Chess Championship Match 1966[3]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Points
 Tigran Petrosian (Soviet Union) ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 0 ½ 12½
 Boris Spassky (Soviet Union) ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 11½

References[edit]

  1. ^ Frank Brady, Profile of a Prodigy (2nd ed.). David McKay. OCLC 724113, pp. 80–81
  2. ^ From Morphy to Fischer (Batsford, 1973), Israel Horowitz, p.231
  3. ^ "Petrosian vs Spassky 1966". Retrieved 1 July 2016.

External links[edit]