1) No specific allegations of anything. They even admit they have no evidence of anything.

2) The whole "threat is greater than the execution" argument is, I think their best point. Even if nothing happened (and in light of Kotov-Smyslov, it probably didn't), Reshevsky may have been adversely affected, <wondering if it would>. Imagine if the final round had had Reshevsky tied for first, and drawing, while the guy he was tied with beat a fellow Russian. Even if the result was completely legitimate, nobody would have any confidence that it was. That's why I think that tournaments are a bad way to decide these things in the first place.

3) The idea that a fix would be in, and they'd bother to tell somebody like Ragozin about it seems pretty far-fetched to me. Reasonable suspicions are one thing, but this is getting nutty.

<RUSSIAN LANDSLIDE
Incomplete reports on the interzonal tournament at Saltsjobaden (near Stockholm), Sweden indicate that Soviet chess masters have scored a landslide victory.

Seven players represented the U.S.S.R. in the twenty man field and five of them finished in the top six places!

David Bronstein, 24-year old Moscow master, was first with 13.5-5.5. He had a full point margin over Laszlo Szabo. The Hungarian star was the only non-Soviet entrant to squeeze into the coveted winner's circle. Third place went to Isaac Boleslavsky, 12-7, Alexander Kotov, 11.5-7.5 took fourth and Andre Lilienthal, 11-8, was fifth. A fifth Russian, Igor Bondarevsky, had 10-6 with one game adjourned. A win would give him a tie with Lilienthal.

The rest of the star-studded group in the International Chess Federation's tournament were also rans. In this limbo were such grandmasters as Mendel Najdorf, Gideon Stahlberg and Salo Flohr.

The top five players will join Vassily Smyslov, Samuel Reshevsky Paul Keres, Dr. Max Euwe and possibly Reuben Fine in the "tournament of candidates" to be held next year. The winner of this event will be the official challenger for the world title. He and champion Mikhail Botvinnik will meet in match play sometime during 1960.>

So, there's no mention of collusion here, though maybe it was mentioned at some other time. If so, it won't be easy to find.

One thing to mention. In the early days, the list of candidates was altered a lot. Though the article says that Fine might be playing in the 1949 Candidates Tournament, a) he didn't play, and b) it was played in 1950.

The article says that the top 6 finishers qualified for the "tournament of champions", and that Najdorf, Stahlberg and Flohr were "also rans". No. In actual fact, all three of those players played in the 1950 Candidates Tournament. As for Bondarevsky, he was supposed to play, and they were going to invite Petar Trifunovich of Yugoslavia (the next highest finisher) as well, to keep the numbers even. But Bondarevsky dropped out of the tournament, and as a result, Trifunovich was left out as well (Yes, things really were that loose in the early days).

But no mention at all of the "undeniable" collusion that the 1953 article talked about. The top Western finisher was Najdorf, who DID in fact play in the Candidates. The top Western finisher who did NOT play in the Candidates was the Finish master Eero Book, the guy who invented the book variation (Yuck, yuck, yuck!), who finished with an even score. I doubt any collusion was necessary to keep him out.

Not sure. Possibly yes. I seem to remember someone alluding to a Suetin quote here once, but the source they claimed was either out of print, or in German, or both, and so the quote was never posted. I don't believe Suetin was at Curacao, however. Rook is remembering half right. Suetin did serve as Petrosian's second once, but it was for the 1971 Petrosian-Fischer match, not at Curacao. (Of course just because he wasn't there doesn't make it impossible for him to have any meaningful knowledge).

I'm trying to remember what happened. I believe that Reshevsky, Fine and Euwe were originally supposed to play in the Candidates, but withdrew, and so their places were filled by the next highest people from the Interzonal.

Curacao - at the very least there would have been a drawing pact between Geller & Petrosian

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And play <could> continue 15. Qa3 h6 16. Bh4? Nc4

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17. Qxe7? Qd2+ 18. Kf1 Ne3+

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The could have pre-arranged full games even scoring a win against each other (it was a double-header) and all the fix claims would never have surfaced.

As it was you get the impression:

'we know you know what we are up to and we want you to know what we are up to because we know you can do anything about it.'

It is very possible the players were instructed beforehand not to fight amongst themselves.

Spassky relates a similar instruction coming from the powers that be shortly after winning this game Spassky vs Smyslov, 1953

"Suddenly there came a telegram from Moscow ordering us to stop shedding our own blood and insisting that we should draw all our games between ourselves. "

http://www.kingpinchess.net/2007/11...

Perhaps Geller, Petrosian and Keres did these short draws to show they had been ordered not to fight. This was a protest.

'we know you know what we are up to and we want you to know what we are up to because we know you can do anything about it.'

OOPS!

!'we know you know what we are up to and we want you to know what we are up to because we know you <cannot> do anything about it.'

You knew and I knew that I'd screw that sentence up.

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Jan Timman:

15.Qа3 h6 16.Bf4 Nc4 17.Qb3 Rfc8

1) 18.Rd1 a4! 19.Qb4

(19.Rxd7 axb3 20.axb3 Nxb2 21.Nd1 [21.Nd5 Ra1+ 22. Kd2 Rxh1 23.Nxe7+ Kh7 24.Nxc8 Rd1+ -+])

19... Qe6 20.0-0

(20.Nd5 Nxb2 21.Nxe7+ Kh7 -+)

20... Nxb2 21.Qxb2 Bxc3 22.Qb7 Qa2 -+

2) 18.0-0 a4 19.Qb4 Nxb2 20.Nd5 Nd3! 21.Qxe7 Rd8!

(22.Nf6+ Bxf6 23.Qxf6 Ra6 -+ )