| Varese Interzonal Playoff (1976) |
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Bent Larsen had won the Biel Interzonal (1976), with Petrosian, Portisch and Tal in shared second place. But only three players from Biel could advance to the 1977 Candidates matches, and a playoff was needed. This was twice delayed because Petrosian and Portisch were ailing, and when it finally took place it was hoped that it would end before the FIDE Congress in Haifa (6-9 November 1976) and the draw for the Candidates. (1) The venue was Villa Mirabello (2) in Varese, (3) about 55 km north of Milan (Italy), near the Swiss border. Varese, Italy, 9-24 October 1976 Elo 1234 1234 1234
1 GM Petrosian 2635 **** 1½½½ ½½½½ 4½
2 GM Portisch 2625 0½½½ **** ½1½½ 4
3 GM Tal 2615 ½½½½ ½0½½ **** 3½
Tal was eliminated, and Petrosian, Portisch and Larsen joined Henrique Mecking, Lev Polugaevsky and Vlastimil Hort from the Manila Interzonal (1976) for play against Boris Spassky (who in the capacity of losing semifinalist in 1974 replaced ex-World Champion Robert James Fischer) and Viktor Korchnoi (the loser of the Karpov - Korchnoi Candidates Final (1974)) in the next year's Candidates matches:Korchnoi - Petrosian Candidates Quarterfinal (1977)
Portisch - Larsen Candidates Quarterfinal (1977)
Polugaevsky - Mecking Candidates Quarterfinal (1977)
Spassky - Hort Candidates Quarterfinal (1977) Of the players from Biel, only Portisch reached the semifinal: Spassky - Portisch Candidates Semifinal (1977). Tournament book: Sakkvilágbajnokság 1976: Manila, Biel, Varese, by Janos Flesch. Sport, Budapest 1979. 391 pp. See also Larsen in Skakbladet, 12/1976, pp. 318-319 (https://danbase.skak.dk/skakbladet/...). (1) De Telegraaf, 5 October 1976, p. 19.
(2) Photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...
(3) Wikipedia article: Varese.
Original collections: Game Collection: Interzonals 1976: play-off by User: capybara and Game Collection: Varese Interzonal Playoff 1976 by User: Tabanus. Round dates and pairings are from El Mundo Deportivo and the newspapers at http://kranten.delpher.nl/.
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Apr-22-14
 | | GrahamClayton: The average moves per game was 27, and there were only two decisive games out of the twelve games played. Just cautious play, or did the poor health of Petrosian and Portisch mean that they were susceptible to taking quick draws? |
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| Nov-15-15 | | Howard: Some argued at the time that Petrosian and Tal were using a "Curacao-like" strategy. Need one say more ? |
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| Nov-15-15 | | Lt.Surena: "Curacao-like" strategy??
Petrosian and Tal had already reached the pinnacle. Tal in 61. Petrosian twice in a row in 63 and 66. As a matter of fact, Tigran was very relieved by his loss of the World Championship title in 69. The "Curacao" allegation was the product of a sore loser/"Russian hater"/racist man called Bobby Fischer that lost 7
games in Curacao and wanted to pin the blame on others and not himself.
They could have paid off Benko under the table like they did in 1970 to
get a seat at the table like the case with Bobby (1970 Interzonal). But
that's a story for a different time. |
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| Nov-15-15 | | Marmot PFL: Once Tal lost to Portisch his only chance was to beat him later, which he did try to do. The Petrosian-Tal games were likely prearranged draws and there was no reason for Portisch to exert himself more than necessary. Tal's health was always fragile too so it wasn't much of a fighting event. |
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| Nov-15-15 | | Petrosianic: <The Petrosian-Tal games were likely prearranged draws> Is there any reason to think so? I've never quite understood the whole idea that two GM's who are afraid of each other can't draw quickly without arranging it in advance. Is there any evidence worth making Surena go into his usual "Niagara Falls! Slowly I turn..." routine? |
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| Dec-31-18 | | Olavi: The interesting thing is that Petrosian made that last draw with Portisch, ensuring that Tal is out, even though he was already sure of qualifying. And according to Portisch he proposed it before the game. https://en.chessbase.com/post/team-... Why? Perhaps he wasn't anymore afraid of Portisch, having beaten him the previous cycle (with a 0-4 score before the match), but felt unsure about Tal, and fancied his chances of going all the way to a title match vs. Karpov, and justifiably so, in my opinion. |
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Jan-01-19
 | | perfidious: Petrosian's score against Tal from 1966 onwards in classical play was +2 -3 =21, with only one such game reaching the time check at move 40, and the majority being quick draws--Varese was by no means an isolated phenomenon in the history of these titans. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... |
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May-08-22
 | | Stonehenge: Biel Interzonal Playoff seems to be a better name. |
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| May-10-22 | | Caissanist: So far as I know, the main source for the prearranged draw accusation was Korchnoi. Here is what he said in an interview with Tim Krabbe shortly after his defection. FWIW, I am neither endorsing nor questioning his accusation: <"Look at what happened betwen Tal and Petrosian in Varese. They played four draws in maybe fifty moves altogether. It's unsporting, it's unfair. I have no words to describe it. But Tal punished himself. Huh? Ah ... you do not understand this. It is because Petrosian is a great force in the Soviet Union. He leads all the politics of the Soviet chess Federation, of the chess press. Everyone has to consider his opinions and desires. Tal submits to him. Even when Portisch was already sure of qualification and it was clear that one Russian had to drop out, Tal did not try to win against Petrosian. Well, he punished himself.""One starts selling his soul by bits and pieces until it's all gone." "You ask me what would have happened to Tal if he just hadn't ... Well, he would have felt it little by little, as I felt it for such a long time."> |
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| May-10-22 | | Olavi: <Caissanist> <Even when Portisch was already sure of qualification and it was clear that one Russian had to drop out, Tal did not try to win against Petrosian.> The problem with that is that there never was such a point in the triangular match. Every sentence Korchnoi said about Petrosian has to be checked very carefully. |
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| May-11-22 | | Petrosianic: <Olavi>: <The problem with that is that there never was such a point in the triangular match. Every sentence Korchnoi said about Petrosian has to be checked very carefully.> There are probably a dozen people that's true of, but Petrosian is definitely one of them. On this page, you can see what happened. Had Tal beaten Portisch with White in Round 11, then he and Petrosian would have been in the top two spots, with Portisch clear 3rd. Portisch was never sure of qualification until he survived this game, and so there was never a time when one of the Russians had to drop out, but it was uncertain which one it would be. Now, you can ask okay, but why didn't Tal also try to beat Petrosian in Round 10? Well, apart from the fact that he had Black, there's a much stronger answer: It would have done him no good. A R10 win would have created a 3 way tie, but Tal had the worst tiebreaks of the three. To qualify, he HAD to beat Portisch in R11. Tiring himself out the day before trying for a meaningless win would have been decidedly stupid. In order to catch up after losing to Portisch in Round 5, Tal was going to have to either beat Portisch once or Petrosian twice. Nobody except Korchnoi would have found his decision shocking. |
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May-11-22
| | perfidious: Whatever the truth of Korchnoi's remarks, when Petrosian failed to beat him in this cycle, <he> fell out of favour. |
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| May-12-22 | | Olavi: Wouldn't a Petrosian win against Portisch in the last game have qualified Petrosian and Tal? Tigran had nothing to lose, he was home and dry. Or what were the tiebreak rules. |
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May-12-22
| | perfidious: Believe the S-B tiebreaks would have been carried over from Biel, though from the tournament page, it is not at all clear who came off worst of the three players without calculating all the scores. |
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| May-12-22 | | Olavi: Apparently they did, see the Kirillov article I linked on Dec-31-18 above: Portisch: "I had the worse Berger score and I knew I had to play sharply." |
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