Times Colonist Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Saturday, January 23, 1971 - Page 28
Relaxed Champion Talks About Chess
At Palma de Mallorca, shortly after the Inter-Zonals began, I came across Lajos Portisch, the Hungarian champion, enjoying the afternoon sun on the terrace of the Hotel Victoria. He was carrying a copy of the daily chess bulletin and a Hungarian translation of one of Earle Stanley Gardner's mysteries.
“How do you think the tournament is going?” I asked.
“Very well,” he answered.
“We have many talented players here this year.”
“Who do you think will win?”
“There are many fine players … The Americans seem especially good. One of them (guess who?—Ed.) is the most talented I have ever seen, and I think he has a chance to win the world title.”
“How is chess in Hungary?”
“Interest is constantly growing. We have many experts, tournaments and chess clubs. We had our own Chess Olympics in Budapest this year.”
“What is the great attraction of the game to you?”
“It is a sport as well as a science. It demands knowledge, psychology, intuition—without intuition you cannot play chess! It is very important to start very young. I didn't—I began at 12, and it should have been at the age of six or seven. It's exactly like music: You have literally to build chess into your fingers! And still, you cannot learn everything, but you can develop a great knowledge and an individual style. But you must feel it, just like music.
“My parents wanted me to be a violinist, and I did study when I was younger. Then chess came into my life, and it became more important. I made it my life, and now music is my hobby.”
“And the detective stories?”
“Just a relaxation …”
“Do you think you will be among the first six?”
“Who knows? I hope so, but win or lose, I'll enjoy myself. I love the game.”
As it happened, Lajos almost made the first six—but not quite. Here are the final standings in the Inter-Zonals at Palma de Mallorca:
Robert Fischer, U.S.A., 18½. Robert Huebner, West Germany, Efim Geller, U.S.S.R., Bent Larsen, Denmark, 15 points each. Mark Taimanov, U.S.S.R., and Wolfgang Uhlmann, East Germany, 14. Lajos Portisch, Hungary, and Vassily Smyslov, U.S.S.R., 13½. Lev Polugajevsky, U.S.S.R., and Svetozar Gligoric, Yugoslavia, 13. Oscar Panno, Argentina, and Henrique Mecking, Brazil, 12½. Vlastimil Hort, Czechoslovakia, 11½. Boris Ivkov, Yugoslavia, 10½. Dragoljub Minic, Yugoslavia, and Duncan Suttles, Canada, 10. Sammy Reshevsky, U.S.A., 9½. William Addison, U.S.A., and Milan Matulovic, Yugoslavia, 9. Renato Naranja, Philippines, Miroslav Filip, Czechoslovakia, and Tadev Uituman, Mongolia, 8½. Jorge Rubinetti, Argentina, 6. Eleazar Jimenez, Cuba, 5½. The matches for 1971 are: Tigran Petrosian-Huebner: Korchnoi-Geller; Fischer-Taimanov, and Larsen-Uhlmann.
Here's a game between two of the U.S. masters Portisch praised:
Robert Fischer (white) vs. William Addison (black).
