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TOURNAMENT STANDINGS
Moscow Tournament
Vasily Smyslov11.5/15(+8 -0 =7)[games]
Mikhail Tal10.5/15(+7 -1 =7)[games]
Svetozar Gligoric10/15(+8 -3 =4)[games]
Vladimir Antoshin9.5/15(+5 -1 =9)[games]
Boris Vladimirov9/15(+7 -4 =4)[games]
Vladimir Liberzon8.5/15(+6 -4 =5)[games]
Paul Keres8.5/15(+5 -3 =7)[games]
Vladimir Simagin8/15(+6 -5 =4)[games]
Laszlo Szabo8/15(+5 -4 =6)[games]
Vlastimil Hort7.5/15(+3 -3 =9)[games]
Aleksandar Matanovic7.5/15(+3 -3 =9)[games]
Wolfgang Pietzsch6/15(+2 -5 =8)[games]
Nikola Padevsky5.5/15(+2 -6 =7)[games]
Eleazar Jimenez Zerquera4.5/15(+2 -8 =5)[games]
Frans Kuijpers3/15(+1 -10 =4)[games]
Witold Balcerowski2.5/15(+0 -10 =5)[games]
*

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
Moscow (1963)

This tournament was played at the Moscow Central Chess Club. (1)

Moscow, Soviet Union (Russia), 29 October - 20 November 1963 (2, 3)

                 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6  Pts
  1 Smyslov      * ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1  11½
  2 Tal          ½ * 1 ½ 1 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½  10½
  3 Gligoric     0 0 * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1  10
  4 Antoshin     ½ ½ ½ * ½ 0 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1   9½
  5 Vladimirov   ½ 0 ½ ½ * 1 ½ 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1   9
 =6 Liberzon     0 1 ½ 1 0 * 1 0 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 1 ½   8½
 =6 Keres        ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 * 0 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1   8½
 =8 Simagin      0 0 0 0 1 1 1 * 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½   8
 =8 Szabó        ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0 0 0 * ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1   8
=10 Hort         ½ ½ 0 0 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ * ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1   7½
=10 Matanovic    ½ 0 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 ½ 1   7½
 12 Pietzsch     0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 1   6
 13 Padevsky     0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * 1 1 ½   5½
 14 Jimenez      0 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 ½ 1 0 ½ 0 * ½ ½   4½
 15 Kuijpers     0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ * 1   3
 16 Balcerowski  0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 *   2½
(1) Rusbase [rusbase-1]
(2) Crosstable from Magyar Sakkelet, 1963, p. 181. In Di Felice, Chess Results 1961-1963, pp. 329-330.
(3) Rounds and game dates from: Alexander Khalifman, ed., Mikhail Tal Games II (Chess Stars 1995), pp. 34-43.

Original collection: Game Collection: Moscow 1963 by User: sneaky pete. Unfinished collection completed by User: TheFocus.

 page 1 of 5; games 1-25 of 120  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Hort vs B Vladimirov 1-0731963MoscowE79 King's Indian, Four Pawns Attack, Main line
2. Antoshin vs Keres 1-0431963MoscowE55 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Gligoric System, Bronstein Variation
3. Simagin vs W Pietzsch  ½-½261963MoscowD59 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower
4. Smyslov vs N Padevsky 1-0291963MoscowD42 Queen's Gambit Declined, Semi-Tarrasch, 7.Bd3
5. E Jimenez Zerquera vs Szabo  ½-½301963MoscowB42 Sicilian, Kan
6. Tal vs F Kuijpers 1-0371963MoscowC79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred
7. Gligoric vs V Liberzon ½-½621963MoscowE68 King's Indian, Fianchetto, Classical Variation, 8.e4
8. W Balcerowski vs A Matanovic  0-1361963MoscowE11 Bogo-Indian Defense
9. Szabo vs Hort ½-½431963MoscowA25 English
10. Keres vs B Vladimirov  ½-½421963MoscowB42 Sicilian, Kan
11. F Kuijpers vs Simagin 0-1401963MoscowB11 Caro-Kann, Two Knights, 3...Bg4
12. V Liberzon vs Smyslov 0-1361963MoscowE54 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Gligoric System
13. Antoshin vs Tal  ½-½301963MoscowE52 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line with ...b6
14. A Matanovic vs Gligoric 1-0661963MoscowC74 Ruy Lopez, Modern Steinitz Defense
15. N Padevsky vs E Jimenez Zerquera  1-0661963MoscowC79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred
16. W Pietzsch vs W Balcerowski  1-0291963MoscowB07 Pirc
17. Hort vs N Padevsky  ½-½291963MoscowA28 English
18. Tal vs Keres ½-½481963MoscowC96 Ruy Lopez, Closed
19. Simagin vs Antoshin 0-1601963MoscowC96 Ruy Lopez, Closed
20. Smyslov vs A Matanovic  ½-½221963MoscowE19 Queen's Indian, Old Main line, 9.Qxc3
21. B Vladimirov vs Szabo 0-1241963MoscowE97 King's Indian
22. Gligoric vs W Pietzsch  1-0411963MoscowC19 French, Winawer, Advance
23. W Balcerowski vs F Kuijpers  0-1601963MoscowE88 King's Indian, Samisch, Orthodox, 7.d5 c6
24. E Jimenez Zerquera vs V Liberzon  1-0751963MoscowB06 Robatsch
25. V Liberzon vs Hort ½-½361963MoscowB16 Caro-Kann, Bronstein-Larsen Variation
 page 1 of 5; games 1-25 of 120  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)  

Kibitzer's Corner
Feb-03-14
Premium Chessgames Member		  WCC Editing Project: <TheFocus>, <Sneaky Pete>

I can't thank you enough for constructing this event, with the round numbers and dates also.

Any reason why you haven't listed the <start-finish> dates of this event in the intro, since you have listed the dates of each game in the collection?

Might you tell me your source for these dates?

Curiosities I've found:

In In Edward Winter, ed. "Word Chess Champions" (Pergamon 1981), p.150, <Winter> lists <Smyslov> winning the <5th Central Chess Club Championship> in Moscow 1963 with +8 -0 =7.

Clearly <Winter> means this tournament here, but he's mislabeled it- here is the actual <5th Central Chess Club Championship 1962>, which wasn't played in 1963: http://al20102007.narod.ru/nat_tour...

And here is the <6th Central Chess Club Championship 1963> http://al20102007.narod.ru/nat_tour..., which *was* played in 1963 and was won by Vladimir Mikhailovich Liberzon, who also appears in the tournament on this page, which might help explain <Winter's> mistake.

So in their title for the event on this page, <Rusbase> calls it the <International Tournament of Central Chess Club 1963> and lists the correct crosstable: http://al20102007.narod.ru/it/1963/....

But when I downloaded all the games from this <Rusbase> page, I found they are all labeled <Alekhine Memorial 1963>, with "chessbase" listed as the source for the game scores.

I don't think the "chessbase" title can be correct because there was an <Alekhine Memorial> in 1956, and the next one wasn't until 1971.

So I think it likely this tournament was indeed played at the <Moscow Chess Club>. But what we know for sure is that it was an international tournament played in <Moscow 1963>.

I would really like to know where the dates for these games came from though. The "chessbase" PGNs from the <Rusbase> tournament page list the round numbers, but not the dates. So if you could help me with this information, I'd be grateful.

Feb-04-14  sneaky pete: I was only trying to build a game collection, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.

The dates are from Complete Games of Mikhail Tal 1960-66 by Hilary Thomas, published by Batsford in 1979. A number of games in this database (I believe the Keres games and some others) already had a date. None of these dates here conflicted with the Thomas dates I used for my reconstruction of the event.

Some of the games I found here had the clearly wrong event tag Alekhine Memorial. The undated (it's probably from 1964) Yugoslav booklet by Bozic and Matanovic that I used to make the collection (and from which I submitted 17 missing games) calls it V (= 5th) Medjunarodni Turnir U Moskvi. On another page the dates are given: 28.X = 20.XI.1963. I guess October 28 was the day of the opening ceremony, the first round was played the next day and the last round November 20.

I think medjunarodni means international, so this was the 5th (in a series started in 1959) International Tournament organised by the Moscow Chess Club. I believe we have collections of some of the earlier tournaments here.

The magazines from 1963 I consulted (Deutsche Schachzeitung and Schakend Nederland) gave no details about prize money and playing hall and things like that. Matanovic wrote a 4 page introduction in the Yugoslav booklet mentioned above, but I have no idea what he's talking about.

Feb-04-14  nok: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!
Feb-04-14
Premium Chessgames Member		  WCC Editing Project: <sneaky pete>

Thanks for giving such a thorough explanation of your data provenance, and also of the detailed process of how you put the puzzle together.

Your information supports mine. At the least, it doesn't contradict the conclusion I reached, so I'm breathing a little easier now. I'm glad to hear of the "5th" matching the number of Moscow chess club "Internationals." It also helps explain how <Winter> may have made his error.

And yes I can confirm that medjunarodni means international in <Bosnian>. At the least, when I type "medjunarodni" into the Google translator set to go from "Bosnian to English," then it coughs up the word "international."

I'm a little concerned at how heavily <Rusbase> relies on "chessbase" for its information though. That was "chessbase" that had every single game in this event mislabeled "Alekhine Memorial."

Here is some rare film footage that also supports your thesis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqr...

Dec-26-21  jerseybob: <nok: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!> Our chief weapon is surprise!
Feb-07-23
Premium Chessgames Member		  perfidious: <nok: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!>

Beware the bastinado!

Jul-19-23
Premium Chessgames Member		  PJchess: Keres reports on this tournament in the 'Chess Life' of January 1964, p. 10. He writes, "the traditional tournament of the Moscow Chess Club, which usually takes place in May, was held this year [i.e. 1963] from October 28th to November 20th. There was a really good participation with seven international grandmasters and many national masters."

He briefly discusses how the tournament unfolded, lists the final results with total scores of all participants (which matches the above crosstable), and also annotates Keres-Matanovic from Round 10 (g#1073016) and Tal-Gligoric from Round 6 (g#1139642).

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