![]() Spassky finished first followed by Donner with a tie for the third position. The Leiden 1970 chess tournament was a double round robin between four contestants: Borris Spassky, Jan Donner, Bent Larson and Mikhail Botvinnik. The German deserves a special mention after losing his first two games, his ascent to =3rd included wins over Larsen and Olafsson. Olafsson held onto an easy second, followed by Gligoric and Unzicker. For Larsen, another in his great run of tournament wins around this time. In the last three rounds the only decisive game was Larsen's win over Byrne, consigning the American to fifth place. However, Olafsson took a quick draw with White in their twelfth round game, which essentially decided matters. He was able to make it interesting with a couple of losses in the second half, which allowed Olafsson to get within a half-point with three rounds to go. ![]() Of the 19 decisive games, nearly half involved Larsen. 67% of the games were drawn, and three players were unable to win a single game. This looked to be insurmountable, as this was one of those events when having no weak players leads to conservative play. Larsen may have been concentrating more on the board than the scenery, as he won his first five games to take a two-point lead. Enjoying the scenery were: Robert Eugene Byrne, Jan Hein Donner, Svetozar Gligoric, Lubomir Kavalek, Bent Larsen, Fridrik Olafsson, Laszlo Szabo, Wolfgang Unzicker. ![]() Using the estimated ratings from Chessmetrics, it was a Category XVI event with an average rating of 2632. Eight of the world's top non-Soviet players assembled in Lugano, Switzerland, for a peaceful double-round tournament from March 1-20, 1970. Condition: Corners bumped and rubbed, some light edge wear else a very good copy. The Chess Player number 109 (Lusis: 1560) First edition. Octavo (8" x 6 1/2") bound in original publisher's stapled wrappers. Condition: Old label at top of front wrapper, some light age toning to pages, corners bumped else a very good opy. Predrag Ostojić end up last at 12th place. Rudolf Teschner and David Bronstein shared 9th/10th. William Lombardy and Lothar Schmid tied for 4th/5th. Vasily Smyslov and Lajos Portisch tied for first. The 1969 tournament fielded 12 competitors. As in the turn of the century, the contests only lasted a few years this time 3 years. But in 1967 chess resumed in that venue and that first year saw Bobby Fischer win the Grand Prix tournament. After that, Monaco dropped off the chess radar. Impressive contests, sometimes called the Belle Epoque tournaments were held in Monte Carlo in -04. ![]() The Chess Player number 90 (Lusis: 1530) First edition. Octavo (8" x 6 1/2") bound in original publisher's wrappers. ![]()
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