| Hoogovens (1978) |
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"By winning the strong 40th Hoogovens tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Lajos Portisch proved again that he is one of the best tournament players in the world. This was his fourth victory in this traditional tournament. There is a danger, however, that it may be his last, for Hoogovens, the Dutch steel company which sponsors the event, has lately been plagued with economic difficulties and almost did not organize the tournament at all this year. The tournament which finally was held was an abridged version of events in the past: although there was still a strong grandmaster section and a few sections of more or less amateur competitors, the sections for international masters and women had to be eliminated. The grandmaster tournament was quite strong, a FIDE Category 13 with an average rating of 2564. Portisch was the only representative from Eastern Europe. The Soviet Chess Federation sent no one, perhaps because of Viktor Korchnoi's participation. Korchnoi came to Wijk aan Zee after having had only a week's rest following his victory over Spassky in the Candidates Finals. Many experts nonetheless expected Korchnoi to win this event and he might have but for a loss to the last-place finisher van der Sterren. Korchnoi played well, though he must surely have been tired after his Belgrade battle. Portisch, however, played better, scoring five victories (all with White!) and drawing the rest of his games. Lajos was well rested and well prepared. He had had plenty of time since his match with Spassky to put his game thoroughly together. He was hungry to win it all and did so in a very energetic manner." (Kavalek) Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, 20 January - 2 February 1978 Age Elo* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
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1 GM Portisch 40 2630 • ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 8
2 GM Korchnoi 46 2665 ½ • ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 0 7½
3 GM Andersson 26 2545 ½ ½ • ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 6½
=4 IM Ree 33 2500 ½ ½ ½ • ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 6
=4 GM Timman 26 2585 0 ½ ½ ½ • ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 6
6 GM Panno 42 2580 0 0 ½ ½ ½ • ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 5½
=7 GM Miles 22 2565 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ • 1 0 ½ 1 ½ 5
=7 GM Najdorf 67 2525 0 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 • ½ ½ ½ 1 5
=7 GM Mecking 26 2630 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ • ½ ½ 1 5
10 GM Sosonko 34 2575 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ • ½ ½ 4½
11 GM Kavalek 34 2570 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ • ½ 4
12 V d Sterren 21 2400 0 1 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ • 3
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Eleven rounds in 14 days, starting on Friday 20 January (66 games). Rest days 23, 27 January & 1 February. Portisch won with 8/11. Ree earned his first GM norm.Photo (Portisch & Korchnoi): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe... Sources
Tata Steel website (https://history.tatasteelchess.com/...)
Perpetual Check website (https://www.perpetualcheck.com/show...)
*FIDE rating list January 1978 (https://web.archive.org/web/2022102...)
Chess Life & Review, 5/1978, p. 246 (https://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/C...)
Magyar Sakkélet, 4/1978, pp. 73-75 (https://adt.arcanum.com/en/view/Sak...)
New York Times, 17 April 1978, p. 20 (https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/17/...)
Jaque 75, March 1978, pp. 2-7 (https://www.olimpbase.org/leagueES/...)
Dutch newspapers (available at https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten)
Previous: Hoogovens (1977). Next: Hoogovens (1979). The was no B-group in 1978, 1979 and 1980, but the usual 4-player 'C-group' was held (cf. Hoogovens-C (1978))
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| page 3 of 3; games 51-66 of 66 |
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