The Guardian, London, Greater London, England, Friday, January 12, 1968 - Page 2
The Chessmaster of 1967
Bobby Fischer (White to move) had this position against Panov of Yugoslavia in the Skoplje tournament. How did Fischer force a win?
Solution No. 968
It is easy to nominate the most successful chess player of 1967; the Danish champion Bent Larsen's record of four first prizes in a row in tournaments a few weeks apart is a performance matched only by Rubinstein as long ago as 1912. Larsen's successes all came in the second half of the year. Earlier on Stein and Fischer had the best results, but they both came unstuck, Stein at the board and Fischer away from it, during the interzonal tournament at Sousse.
Among British contenders, the accolade should be shared among our young players Basman, Hartston, and Keene for their international results. But for both home and foreign masters, 1967 was only a warm-up year before the more important battles of 1968, which will settle the world team championship as well as Petrosian's opponent for the individual title. This week's two games were both played in Larsen's final success of the year at Majorca.
