In order to select a challenger for World Champion Garry Kasparov, this match was played at the Pullman Park Hotel in Antwerp (Antwerpen), Belgium, 31 January - 8 February 1989. It was best of six games, and the first to achieve 3½ points would go to the semifinal. In case of 3-3, two more games would be played. If 4-4, one 1 hour sudden death game, and if 4½-4½, one 30 min game. If 5-5, 15 min games until there was a winner. The other quarterfinal matches were held elsewhere: Karpov - Hjartarson Candidates Quarterfinal (1989), Speelman - Short Candidates Quarterfinal (1988) and Yusupov - Spraggett Candidates Quarterfinal (1989). The draw for pairings had been announced a year ago, on 7 February 1988, by FIDE president Florencio Campomanes at the press conference and awards ceremony following the eighthfinals in Saint John, Canada.
Photo: https://web.archive.org/web/2024022...
An organizer of this match was the Dutch businessman Bessel Kok. Timman had qualified from the Timman - Salov Candidates Eighthfinal (1988), and Portisch from the Portisch - Vaganian Candidates Eighthfinal (1988). Timman's seconds were Vlastimil Hort and Ulf Andersson, and Portisch's sole second was Istvan Csom. The games started at 3 pm local time. Time controls: 2 hours to complete 40 moves and 3 hours to complete 60 moves. The match winner would receive about $20,000, the loser about $12,500. Chief arbiter Svetozar Gligoric was assisted by John van Emmelo.
Antwerp, Belgium, 31 Jan - 8 Feb 1989
Age Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6
Timman 37 2610 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 3½
Portisch 51 2610 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 0 2½
Timman went on to the Timman - Speelman Candidates Semifinal (1989)."''I have played in the world championship candidates' cycle eight times and enough is enough,'' complained Lajos Portisch after losing his quarterfinal match to Jan Timman in Antwerp, Belgium, on Feb. 8. The 51-year-old Hungarian grandmaster had a lot to be irritated about because he practically gave the match away. He was the first one to score and he carried his one-point edge into the fifth game. Here, he brightly created winning chances with a logical exchange sacrifice, but then things went all wrong. He began making mistakes, whether from bad nerves or from thinking the game should have been easier for him than it proved to be, and he lost. That put the match into a tie, but Portisch failed to stand up to the 37-year-old Dutchman's long, stubborn attempts to win and frittered away the sixth and final game, too. As for Timman, in adversity, he never stopped searching for the kind of complex counterplay that his older opponent found so burdensome to put down, as can be seen in this Game 5 ..." (Byrne)
Sources
Mark Weeks' website (https://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/88...)
FIDE rating list January 1989 (https://web.archive.org/web/2022100...)
Norsk Sjakkblad, 2/89, pp. 30-32 (https://dnkjuhc6if10z.cloudfront.ne...)
Het Vrije Volk, 26 Januay 1989, p. 31 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Sakkélet, 25 April 1989, pp. 113-117 (https://adt.arcanum.com/en/view/Sak...)
Jaque 257, 1 March 1989, pp. 98-110, 118 (https://www.olimpbase.org/leagueES/...)
Algemeen Dagblad, 31 January 1989, p. 21 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Tidskrift för Schack, February 1989, pp. 49-54 (https://tfsarkiv.schack.se/pdf/1989...)
Tidskrift för Schack, March 1989, pp. 130-133 (https://tfsarkiv.schack.se/pdf/1989...)
Hans Ree in NRC Handelsblad, 1 February 1989, p. 8 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Hans Ree in NRC Handelsblad, 3 February 1989, p. 11 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Hans Ree in NRC Handelsblad, 9 February 1989, p. 10 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Gert Ligterink in De Volkskrant, 31 January 1989, p. 11 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Bert Regeer in NRC Handelsblad, 7 February 1989, p. 11 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Robert Byrne in The New York Times, 28 February 1989, p. 21 (https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/28/...)
Original collections: Game Collection: WCC Index (Timman-Portisch 1989) by User: Hesam7 and Game Collection: Timman - Portisch Candidates Quarterfinal by User: Tabanus. Game dates (January 31, February 1, 3, 4, 6, 8) are fom Dutch newspapers at https://www.delpher.nl/.
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