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Las Palmas Interzonal (1982) As a step toward finding a challenger for the World Champion Anatoly Karpov, eight players had to qualify for the Candidates quarterfinal matches that would take place in 1983. Viktor Korchnoi was seeded into the Candidates by virtue of his loss to Karpov in the world title match the previous year, and Robert Huebner was qualified as the loser of the Korchnoi - Hübner Candidates Final (1980). The other six players had to qualify from interzonal tournaments: Las Palmas (this page), the Toluca Interzonal (1982) (Lajos Portisch and Eugenio Torre qualified), and the Moscow Interzonal (1982) (Garry Kasparov and Alexander Beliavsky qualified). To play in the interzonals one had to qualify from zonal tournaments. Mestel had qualified from Marbella B (1982), Marbella Final (1982) and the Leiden Zonal Playoff (1982), Ribli, Suba, and Pinter from Baile Herculane (1982) (Pinter via the Budapest Zonal Playoff (1982)), Tukmakov and Psakhis had qualified from Yerevan (1982), Sunye from Morón (1982), Browne from the US Championship (1981), Karlsson from Randers B (1982) and the Randers Final (1982), and Bouaziz from Tripoli (1981). (1) Four players were directly seeded: Timman, Larsen and Petrosian based on rating per 1 July 1981, (2) and the 61-year-old Smyslov by appointment of the Soviet Chess Federation. (3) The opening ceremony took place on Sunday 11 July, at about 12 noon. It was announced that Mestel and Timman's second Jonathan Speelman played in the European Club Cup but would arrive in Las Palmas at the start of Round 1. Prior to the drawing of lots, Antonio Angel Medina Garcia explained that FIDE had decided that players from the same country should not play against each other in the last five rounds. After the draw, in seeking a player-member for the Appeals Committee, the organizers cheerfully leapt into the lion's den. Medina addressed the hall and proposed Petrosian as a member. Petrosian nodded. But then the scraping of a chair was heard, and the volatile Browne protested. Larsen then refused a place. Then Browne proposed Sunye. The Russians objected. Ribli then suggested Browne. He refused, while still objecting to Petrosian. All this happened in short succession, creating complete confusion. Medina complained that the others would not listen to the voice of experience, "which is why I now decree a players meeting Monday at noon." Play would start at 3 pm and last up to eight hours, with time for resumptions between 10 and 12 midnight. (4) Medina was the arbiter. (5) Hotel Reina Isabel, Las Palmas, Spain, 12-29 July 1982 Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 1 GM Ribli 2580 * 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 9 2 GM Smyslov 2565 0 * 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 8½ 3 GM Suba 2525 ½ 0 * ½ 0 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 0 8 =4 GM Petrosian 2605 ½ ½ ½ * 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 7½ =4 GM Tukmakov 2555 0 1 1 1 * ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 7½ =6 GM Larsen 2595 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ 0 0 ½ 1 1 1 1 6½ =6 GM Timman 2600 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ * 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 6½ =8 GM Pinter 2550 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 * 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 6 =8 IM Mestel 2540 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 1 0 1 * 0 ½ 0 1 1 6 =8 GM Psakhis 2615 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 * ½ ½ ½ 1 6 =11 IM Bouaziz 2360 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 5½ =11 IM Sunye 2500 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ * ½ 1 5½ =11 IM Karlsson 2505 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ 5½ 14 GM Browne 2590 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ * 3 Ribli and Smyslov advanced to the Candidates matches: Ribli - Torre Candidates Quarterfinal (1983) Smyslov - Hübner Candidates Quarterfinal (1983) Korchnoi - Portisch Candidates Quarterfinal (1983) Kasparov - Beliavsky Candidates Quarterfinal (1983) Smyslov beat Ribli in the Smyslov - Ribli Candidates Semifinal (1983) and went on to the Kasparov - Smyslov Candidates Final (1984) before he had to throw in the towel. Tournament books: Torneo Interzonal de Ajedrez Ciudad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 12 al 30 julio 1982 (Sevilla 1982. 96 pp.), and Interzonal Las Palmas 1982, ed. by Robert Wade (England 1982. 24 pp.). The Dutch newspapers at http://kranten.delpher.nl/ had decent coverage. Notes (1) Mainly based on Mark Weeks at http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/zon.... (2) Timman in Schaakwerk I (Studien und Partien), 1990, pp. 152-153, and assuming that Henrique Mecking (2615) (who was ill) was replaced by Petrosian, see http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198... (3) Tidskrift för Schack, vol. 88 (1982), p. 188. (4) Alexander Jongsma in De Telegraaf, 12 July 1982, p. 17. (5) El Mundo Deportivo, 22 July 1982, p. 34. Original collections: Game Collection: Las Palmas Interzonal 1982 by User: suenteus po 147 and Game Collection: Las Palmas Interzonal 1982 by User: Tabanus. The Elo in the crosstable is from FIDE Rating List July 1982 (http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198...).  page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 91  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. S Bouaziz vs Psakhis   ½-½ 24 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal B87 Sicilian, Fischer-Sozin with ...a6 and ...b5 2. Suba vs Smyslov 0-1 56 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A28 English 3. L Karlsson vs Larsen   0-1 51 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal B27 Sicilian 4. Tukmakov vs Petrosian 1-0 33 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal E17 Queen's Indian 5. J Pinter vs J Sunye Neto   ½-½ 41 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal E54 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Gligoric System 6. Browne vs Timman 0-1 45 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal E12 Queen's Indian 7. Ribli vs A J Mestel   ½-½ 36 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A15 English 8. Larsen vs Tukmakov   ½-½ 29 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A37 English, Symmetrical 9. Psakhis vs Suba 0-1 45 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A61 Benoni 10. Smyslov vs L Karlsson 1-0 57 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A04 Reti Opening 11. Timman vs Petrosian 0-1 21 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal D16 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 12. Browne vs J Pinter   ½-½ 24 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal D41 Queen's Gambit Declined, Semi-Tarrasch 13. A J Mestel vs S Bouaziz ½-½ 82 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal B92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation 14. J Sunye Neto vs Ribli 0-1 40 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A14 English 15. Suba vs A J Mestel   ½-½ 58 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A42 Modern Defense, Averbakh System 16. Petrosian vs Larsen   ½-½ 23 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal E11 Bogo-Indian Defense 17. L Karlsson vs Psakhis   ½-½ 33 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A15 English 18. J Pinter vs Timman 0-1 41 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal E41 Nimzo-Indian 19. Tukmakov vs Smyslov 1-0 71 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal E16 Queen's Indian 20. S Bouaziz vs J Sunye Neto   ½-½ 16 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal B42 Sicilian, Kan 21. Ribli vs Browne   ½-½ 15 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A30 English, Symmetrical 22. J Pinter vs Ribli   ½-½ 17 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A30 English, Symmetrical 23. J Sunye Neto vs Suba 0-1 35 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal A15 English 24. Smyslov vs Petrosian ½-½ 13 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal D27 Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical 25. Browne vs S Bouaziz   0-1 37 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal E88 King's Indian, Samisch, Orthodox, 7.d5 c6  page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 91    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)   Apr-11-15    SteinitzLives: What a terrible tournament for Walter. No e pawn openings in his games. Wonder if that had anything to do with it. Oct-15-15    say it with a smile: SteinitzLives: Because this tournament was out of Walter Browne's league. He was used to Mickey Mouse US championships. His short fuse/bipolar behavior didn't help either. Oct-15-15    Howard: Chess Life, as I recall, said that the tournament would knock about 70 points off of Browne's rating. On the other hand, Browne had a very good year in 1983. As I recall, he had one of the 6-7 best results that year of any player in the world. Oct-15-15    perfidious: Browne had long been regularly playing 1.d4 by then: I recall at least one pundit questioning his changing over from 1.e4 before an interzonal, but that was prior to Manila Interzonal (1976), not this event. Oct-16-15    Retireborn: I wouldn't agree that Browne was "out of his league" here, and he'd had good results earlier in 1982; shared first (with Henley) in the massive Indonesian tournament and second (behind Huebner) at Chicago. Las Palmas must have affected his confidence though; he was still apparently 1st board for the US at the Lucerne olympiad, but played rather passively and suffered horrible defeats against Ljubo and Miles. Some people (Ljubo and Miles again!) just seemed destined not to make an impact on the old-style interzonals. The highest rated player at Las Palmas was Lev Psakhis (over 2600 at the time)... Oct-16-15    Howard: Miles, Ljubo, and Andersson were three of the strongest players of the late 70's/early 80's not to ever make the Candidates. Though in the case of Andersson, it was suspected that he (secretly) never really wanted to qualify. Oct-16-15    Howard: Incidentally, 1982 was a good year for Psakhis notwithstanding his falling short at the Interzonal. He and Kasparov tied for first place in the Soviet championship, plus Psakhis beat the latter in their individual game. May-28-16    perfidious: <say it with a smile....this tournament was out of Walter Browne's league. He was used to Mickey Mouse US championships.> Come again? He won six of those 'Mickey Mouse' events. You ever play anyone in the class of Browne or other US championship participants? They all have plenty of game--that I can tell you from experience, including being on the receiving end from Browne himself. <Retireborn....Some people (Ljubo and Miles again!) just seemed destined not to make an impact on the old-style interzonals....> The cause of these great players' failures may well be psychological in nature. At best, maintaining one's form can be a tricky business: Kasparov averred that before losing his title to Kramnik, he was playing very well and his results supported this assertion. May-28-16    Howard: Maybe it was the wrong year for Browne to be at an interzonal. In 1983, he had one of the best years of his career, and at the end of the year he was ranked in the world's top-20. By the way, he was not first board at Lucerne 1982---that was Seirawan. May-29-16    Retireborn: <perfidious> I agree that one never knows when one's form will desert one. As for the psychology, I gather that for FIDE interzonals the prize money (and sometimes the playing conditions) weren't that great, which may have affected Western players a little more. <Howard> Are you sure about that? According to my database Browne played ao Huebner, Timman, Igor Ivanov, Ljubojevic, Miles, and Andersson at Lucerne. I know Seirawan was top board in 1986 (beat Kasparov!) and in 1984 it was Dzin. My understanding is that the US Olympiad team was often plagued by disagreements about board order, financial affairs etc. May-29-16    Howard: Oops! You got me there! Just looked it up---Browne was 1st board, and Yaz was second. My mistake. I figured since Seirawan played Karpov in the event (and drew), then "logically" he must played 1st board. Regarding the 1984 edition, Yaz refused to play. Had something to do with the fact he didn't want Dzin playing on a higher board than he. And, then, there's the story about Browne refusing to play on the 1976 squad because it was either first-board-or-nothing. May-30-16    Retireborn: <Howard> Yes, I think Seirawan being promoted to play Karpov (who he'd beaten at London earlier that year) makes more sense than Browne being promoted to first board several times. May-30-16    Howard: You're certainly right about Yaz having beaten Karpov earlier that year--in fact, there was a picture from that game on the cover of Chess Life when that took place. Lest we forget, however, Karpov beat Seirawan later that year, at Hamburg, by improving on the opening variation from the London game! That went down as one of the top 3-4 games from the Informant volume that it appeared in. Apr-14-17    offramp: Obviously a very strong tournament. Both Timman and Larsen scored just 50%. Browne had a bad tournament - it happens to every player. Apr-15-17    Howard: Browne not only came in dead-last, but he did so by a wide margin. For the record, I still remember seeing Robert Byrne's NYT chess column on this interzonal back in '82, and noticing that Browne had come in last. It was quite a surprise. Another noteworthy thing about this event was the failure of Petrosian to qualify for the Candidates! As some people noted back then, this was the first time in 30 YEARS that Petrosian would not be part of the world championship cycle!! Apr-16-17    Retireborn: Any other examples of strong players unexpectedly coming last? Shirov at Dos Hermanas 1995 is the only one that immediately comes to mind. Apr-16-17    Nerwal: <Any other examples of strong players unexpectedly coming last? Shirov at Dos Hermanas 1995 is the only one that immediately comes to mind.> Shirov has a good record in finishing last in tournaments, like at Dortmund 1998 when he was at the peak of his career. Apr-27-17    Howard: Another example is Geller's dismal last-place finish at Moscow 1981. Granted, he was well past his prime at the time, but last place was still quite unusual for him. Apr-27-17    Howard: Then there was Speelman and Short's joint-last-place finish at Linares 1992 ! Rather surprising was that later that year, Short pulled off a big upset by beating Karpov in the Candidates, despite the fact that Karpov did fairly well at Linares 1992. Aug-18-23    FSR: Judit Polgar's last place finish at FIDE World Championship Tournament (2005) was unexpected. NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! 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