The Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Sunday, April 21, 1963 - Page 35
There have been relatively few international chess tournaments of note held in this country. New York 1889, Cambridge Springs 1904, New York 1924 and 1927, New York 1948-49, and New York 1951. There have been, of course, many other so-called international tournaments but, in most cases, there were either few men of international stature involved or the foreign contingent was weak. Dallas hosted the last big international event here about five years ago.
In July eight international grandmasters will meet in a double round tournament at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, for the Piatigorsky Cup.
The players will be Petrosian, Keres, Reshevsky, Benko, Gligoric, Olafsson, Najdorf, and Panno. A sterling lineup of stars. But, where is Bobby Fischer? World champion Botvinnik is on record as saying Gligoric and Fischer are the only two non-Russians who measure up to world champion standards.
Perhaps the answer to the disappearance of Fischer goes back a couple of years to the ill-fated Fischer-Reshevsky match which ended in forfeiture and a welter of claims and counter-claims that did no good and may have worked much harm. Mrs. Piatigorsky, wife of the world famous cellist and sponsor of the coming tournament, was one of the villains of the piece, according to Fischer.
The Russian chess federation offered to send both Botvinnik and Petrosian if only the Piatigorsky Cup tournament could be postponed until September. Postponement was impossible so the sponsors had to settle for Petrosian and Keres with Korchnoi as reserve. Not a bad deal.
Botvinnik is now engaged in a match for his title with Petrosian. The champion has always favored a period of inactivity after a hard match and, perhaps this custom of his is what led to the request for moving the tournament dates. Too, Botvinnik has curtailed all his chess play lately. There was even some doubt he would defend against Petrosian.
The old champion won the first game of the match (see below) but Petrosian at this point leads 4½ to 3½.
