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🏆 Stockholm Interzonal (1962)

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
Held from January 27 until March 6, 1962, the Interzonal tournament in Stockholm was a 23-player round robin, with six players qualifying for the ... [more]

Player: Fridrik Olafsson

 page 1 of 1; 22 games  PGN Download 
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Petrosian vs F Olafsson 1-0341962Stockholm InterzonalA46 Queen's Pawn Game
2. F Olafsson vs Geller  ½-½241962Stockholm InterzonalA10 English
3. Korchnoi vs F Olafsson 1-0371962Stockholm InterzonalD71 Neo-Grunfeld
4. F Olafsson vs Filip  ½-½201962Stockholm InterzonalA36 English
5. Bolbochan vs F Olafsson  ½-½211962Stockholm InterzonalA49 King's Indian, Fianchetto without c4
6. F Olafsson vs M Bertok  1-0431962Stockholm InterzonalB93 Sicilian, Najdorf, 6.f4
7. Uhlmann vs F Olafsson  1-0511962Stockholm InterzonalE79 King's Indian, Four Pawns Attack, Main line
8. F Olafsson vs R Teschner  1-0401962Stockholm InterzonalA11 English, Caro-Kann Defensive System
9. Benko vs F Olafsson 0-1261962Stockholm InterzonalA14 English
10. F Olafsson vs M Aaron 1-0201962Stockholm InterzonalB92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation
11. Portisch vs F Olafsson  ½-½461962Stockholm InterzonalE51 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3
12. F Olafsson vs I Bilek  ½-½131962Stockholm InterzonalB43 Sicilian, Kan, 5.Nc3
13. Barcza vs F Olafsson  1-0351962Stockholm InterzonalE63 King's Indian, Fianchetto, Panno Variation
14. F Olafsson vs A Bisguier  ½-½351962Stockholm InterzonalE46 Nimzo-Indian
15. Fischer vs F Olafsson 1-0331962Stockholm InterzonalB88 Sicilian, Fischer-Sozin Attack
16. F Olafsson vs A Pomar  ½-½371962Stockholm InterzonalA04 Reti Opening
17. Gligoric vs F Olafsson  1-0931962Stockholm InterzonalC92 Ruy Lopez, Closed
18. F Olafsson vs S Schweber 1-0401962Stockholm InterzonalB93 Sicilian, Najdorf, 6.f4
19. Yanofsky vs F Olafsson  ½-½411962Stockholm InterzonalB48 Sicilian, Taimanov Variation
20. F Olafsson vs E German  1-0371962Stockholm InterzonalD37 Queen's Gambit Declined
21. M Cuellar Gacharna vs F Olafsson 0-1991962Stockholm InterzonalE54 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Gligoric System
22. F Olafsson vs Stein 1-0321962Stockholm InterzonalB84 Sicilian, Scheveningen
 page 1 of 1; 22 games  PGN Download 
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Olafsson wins | Olafsson loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 1 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Dec-27-12  ozmikey: Small correction to the intro: the Amsterdam interzonal was in 1964.
Sep-09-13  jerseybob: This I.Z. was originally set for 1961, but international tensions(Cuba, Berlin Wall) set it back. The number 2 and 3 American competitors were originally set to be Lombardy and Weinstein, based on their finish in the 1960-61 U.S. Chp. By the time the tourney was finally played, they had been supplanted by Benko and Bisguier. A missed chance there for American chess. Not to downgrade Benko; he did after all qualify for the Candidates, but Lombardy and Weinstein were exciting young players who would never again reach this height.
Sep-09-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: It's noticeable that Geller did better against the top 10 than Fischer did. +4, -1 for Geller, +2 for Fischer.
Sep-09-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Petrosian was unbeaten here and at the following Candidates' Tournament in Curaçao. He only lost 2 games in the march v Botvinnik. He must be one of the toughest men to beat in history.
Feb-18-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Interzonals were strange things. It was not essential to win them. The idea was to qualify; to finish in the top 5. So if a player had enough points to qualify and there were three rounds to go, he might ease up in the last three rounds.

Fischer - as almost ever - played to win and won the tournament by a big margin.

But he then seemed certain that the 1963 World Championship match was going to be between he and Botvinnik.

So when he lost his first two games at Curaçao he was devastated!

May-29-14  Bartacus: It has often been said that Fischer's "weak" performance at Curacao was due to overconfidence from his triumph at the Stockholm Interzonal. I wonder though...I read not too long ago that Fischer missed a connecting flight for the start of the Candidate's Tournament. Perhaps he arrived unsettled and began the tournament in poor form.
May-29-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <offramp: Interzonals were strange things. It was not essential to win them. The idea was to qualify; to finish in the top 5.>

Top six qualified, not top five.

May-30-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: < perfidious: <offramp: Interzonals were strange things. It was not essential to win them. The idea was to qualify; to finish in the top 5.> Top six qualified, not top five.>

What? All of them?

May-30-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Yes--except when they didn't.
Jun-21-14  jerseybob: Bartacus: I'd never heard that story. If true, Fischer hadn't yet mastered the art of recovering from a poor start, as he did 4 years later at Santa Monica. But even so, his games in this tourney are very spotty: some good, some bad. And that goes for the openings he played too, which didn't yet have the laser sharpness of his championship drive.
Jun-21-14  jerseybob: Bartacus: When I say "this tourney" I meant Curacao.
Sep-30-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Fischer had been apparently sponsored by an American Millionaire to go and play in this event. The sponsor went with him - Isaac Turover
Sep-30-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isador...
Sep-30-14  Petrosianic: <If true, Fischer hadn't yet mastered the art of recovering from a poor start, as he did 4 years later at Santa Monica.>

He sort of did. He "won" the final cycle, with a +2 score. His problem wasn't shellshock so much as not being quite ready to beat the best of the best yet. And overconfidence. He didn't quite grasp that he was the only one trying to win Stockholm, while the others were just trying to qualify, and save energy for the Candidates.

Sep-30-14  TheFocus: Also remember that at Curacao, Fischer was facing seven of the strongest GMs in the world. At Stockholm, there were some weak players. Some were probably IMs.

Does anyone have the breakdown on the number of GMs vs. number of IMs at Stockholm?

Sep-30-14  Petrosianic: Not offhand, but remember that in addition to GM's and IM's, there were also untitled players at Stockholm. Offhand, I believe there were 13 GM's at Stockholm, or about half the field, but I'm not certain, and may have missed some. Some of them, like Bisguier and Barcza were not front line GM's, of course.

According to Chessmetrics, Fischer's opposition at Stockholm averaged 2615, while his Curacao opposition averaged 2727. That's the difference in a nutshell.

Sep-30-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Thirteen GMs sounds right, for Bilek and Pomar were only awarded their titles at the FIDE Congress held later that year and Yanofsky in 1964.
Jan-02-15  SpiritedReposte: Fischer wins the tournament without a single loss...like a boss.
May-08-15  Karne: Fischer was 18 when he won this tournament.
May-08-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  AylerKupp: <<Petrosianic> According to Chessmetrics, Fischer's opposition at Stockholm averaged 2615, while his Curacao opposition averaged 2727. That's the difference in a nutshell.> I don’t agree. After all, 6 of the 8 players at Curacao 1962 were also at Stockholm 1962 and were playing the same opposition. If a lower average rating in Stockholm vs. Curacao was the difference in Fischer winning the tournament, then the other 5 players that were both in Stockholm and Curacao would have also scored higher in Stockholm than they actually did. Of course, these are just 2 tournaments consisting of 22 games per player (Stockholm) and 28 games per player (Curacao, except for those who did not play Tal in the 4th round because of Tal's withdrawal) so the difference in player results are probably not statistically significant.

I think that overconfidence (which the bad luck of losing his first 2 games should have cured) was more of a factor. Because of his relative inexperience he just didn't figure out the difference in effort that the other players would put out in Curacao given that at Stockholm it was sufficient to finish only in the top 6 to advance and in Curacao you had to come in 1st. But maybe the loss of those first 2 games had more of an impact on his confidence that he cared to admit or even realize.

Oct-09-15  Marmot PFL: Fischer plays his best but should have drawn a few more games and saved his best lines for the candidates.
Oct-09-15  diceman: <offramp: It's noticeable that Geller did better against the top 10 than Fischer did. +4, -1 for Geller, +2 for Fischer.>

What's noticeable is he was the only one.

Jul-28-16  todicav23: While most of the people do not agree with me, I think Fischer was strong enough around 1962-1963 to become world champion. And this tournament shows that.

A few things happened in Curacao. It is clear that the soviet players prearranged their games among themselves. Fischer was probably over-confident that he will win, based on the victory in this tournament. Unfortunately for him he had a bad start and he realized what the soviet players are doing.

That was too much for him and he was not able to fight for the first place. People can say "well, if he was strong enough, he should have won all or most of his games and there was nothing the soviets could do". I don't think people realize that it was a big disadvantage for Fischer. Fischer had to fight in every game while Petrosian had 8 draws in 22 moves or less against Keres and Geller!

I'm not saying that Fischer was the best player in the world at that time. He was part of the elite, along with Botvinnik, Petrosian, Tal, Keres or Geller. At that time there was no player clearly superior. Fischer also had the chess knowledge, the skills, the energy and even the experience to become world champion.

Jul-28-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <todicav>

This again? Sorry, but Fischer lost the first two games and was never in contention. Not the Soviets' fault.

And he didn't have to win all or most of his games, or anything like that. He had to do better than +8 out of 27 games. He managed +1.

Incidentally, Petrosian didn't just play short draws against Keres and Geller. He also played 25- and 23-move draws with...Bobby Fischer.

Petrosian vs Fischer, 1962

Petrosian vs Fischer, 1962

Way to fight in every game, Bobby!

Petrosian also played a couple of 14-move draws with Filip and a number of short games against other opponents. Fischer played (by his standards) a number of short games.

Bottom line, which I cannot stress strongly enough: it was a terrible tournament, and we're wasting our time arguing about it.

Jul-28-16  TheFocus: Just sour grapes on Bobby's part. Curacao just wasn't Bobby's time.
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