"Once again the annual Grandmaster tournament in Amsterdam, held under the sponsorship of the giant IBM Corporation, boasted a strong field: nine International Grandmasters, six International Masters and one local Candidate-Master (Jongsma). The recent winner of the Czech Championship, L. Kavalek, led the tournament all the way and finished a half-point ahead of the second-place winner, D. Bronstein of the Soviet Union. In their individual game, Kavalek tried too hard for the win, and sacrificed heavy material for a would-be mating attack, only to arrive at a lost endgame. Kavalek's style, as shown by his score of eight wins, two losses and five draws, is the avoidance of drawish tactics - he plays always for the win, and consequently sometimes loses. Bronstein, on the other hand, once known for his aggressive and enterprising (albeit eccentric) play, has recently placed the accent more on the eccentric, and while losing very infrequently, he wins fewer games than he could. It will be remembered that Bronstein, in the 1950s, was a leading contender for the World Championship and drew his title match with Botvinnik." (Chess Life)
"I began my escape from the communist Czechoslovakia 42 years ago, on Sunday, September 1, 1968. According to Wikipedia, I bought several crates of vodka with my winnings at the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in the Polish spa of Polanica Zdroj, bribed the border guards and drove to West Germany. At that time, I was supposed to play the first board on the Czechoslovakian team at the Lugano Olympiad, having won the strongest national championship in history ahead of Smejkal, Hort, Filip, Pachman, Jansa, Janata and others. During the sommer I added a first place finish at the IBM tournament in Amsterdam ahead of David Bronstein and I was just in the middle of the race with the former world champion Vassily Smyslov in Poland, when the Soviet and other Warsaw pact armies invaded my country on August 21. During the next ten days it became clear to me that I had to go west. I played a few simultaneous exhibitions in Poland, the last one in Wroclaw." (Kavalek)
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 16 July - 3 August 1968
Age 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pts
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————
1 Kavalek 24 • 0 1 1 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 10½
2 Bronstein 44 1 • ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 10
=3 Ree 23 0 ½ • ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 8½
=3 Lengyel 35 0 ½ ½ • ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 8½
=3 Langeweg 31 0 ½ ½ ½ • ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 8½
=3 Ciric 32 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ • ½ ½ ½ 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 8½
=3 Shamkovich 45 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ • 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 8½
=8 Ivkov 34 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 • ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 8
=8 Donner 41 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ • ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 8
=10 Kotov 54 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ • 0 1 ½ 1 0 1 7½
=10 Marovic 30 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 • ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 7½
12 Bilek 35 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ • ½ ½ ½ 1 7
13 Bouwmeester 38 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ • ½ ½ ½ 6
14 Jongsma 30 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ • 1 ½ 5
15 Kuijpers 27 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 0 • ½ 4½
16 Zuidema 25 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ • 3½
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————
This was the 8th tournament sponsored by IBM. Fifteen rounds in 19 days, starting on Tuesday 16 July. Rest days 21, 25, 28 July and 2 August. There were eight prizes from ƒ 2,500 (Dutch guilders) to ƒ 1,000, and non-prize winners received ƒ 100 per point. Arbiter: Harry de Graaf. Kavalek won the event with 10.5/15.Photo (Kotov vs Kavalek): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...
Photo (Shamkovich vs Ree): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...
Sources
Dutchbase (https://maxeuwe.nl/files-dutchbase/...)
Eric Delaire website (https://web.archive.org/web/2008042...)
Tidskrift för Schack, 7/1968, p. 197 (https://tfsarkiv.schack.se/pdf/1968...)
Chess Life, 11/1968, pp. 398-399 (https://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/C...)
Magyar Sakkélet, 9/1968, pp. 174, 177 (https://adt.arcanum.com/en/view/Sak...)
Kavalek, Chess Puzzles: A Vodka Escape (https://en.chessbase.com/post/kaval...)
Dutch newspapers (available at https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten)
Previous: Amsterdam IBM (1967). Next: Amsterdam IBM (1969). See also Amsterdam IBM-B (1968)
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