The Greatest Blitz Tournament Ever
Preface
I found myself looking online at many chess books, scrounging for a number of old ones, to find a perhaps undiscovered gem; so I decided to look at the chess books the great Former World Champion Bobby Fischer read as a child....
I found nothing meaningful.
Alas, I did not come up empty handed, my fellow connoisseurs. I found some sort of gem, a certainly lesser known book, penned by Bobby Fischer himself!
NO! It is not Bobby Fischer teaches Chess, he didn't write that...and no, its not Bobby Fischer's Chess Games which he wrote as a young GM and teen.
The book I found myself enamored by was titled
'Chess Meets of the Century'
This unique piece of Chess Literature held within detail about, perhaps, the strongest and greatest blitz tournament of the 20th, and maybe 21st century.
Into 1970
In 1970, shortly after the notable Soviet Union v. the World tournament, a sort-of unofficial Blitz World Chess Championship was held. Prior to this there had never been such a grand speed chess tournament, stacked many of the world's best, sans Spassky. Blitz chess, also known as speed chess, emerged in the late 1800s as a faster-paced variant of traditional chess, and while some top players, such as Capablanca and Alekhine would occasionally indulge, it was treated as a fun, light fare. Until perhaps the late 80s, there would not be another blitz tournament so filled with the World's Best, and perhaps has never been another of such great game quality,
Also in 1970, Fischer was known at the time to be one of the strongest classical chess players in the world. After all, that same year he won the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal, Buenos Aires, and the Tournament of Peace in Zagreb, with at least a 2 point lead, and 2 losses total.
Yet, the Soviets doubted Fischer could do well in a blitz tournament, as he was not known for his blitz, whereas Tal and Matulovic were much more notable, which explains this:
Herceg Novi Blitz!
As is sometimes seen nowadays, the tournament was a double round robin, so for 7 rounds, each player gets white and black, every round. Under suggestion of Fischer and Tal, many of the games were notated externally (quite a difficult task in 5 minute blitz in 1970), including all of Fischer's games which were also completely memorized by him.
Crosstable
Round 1
In what must have been a shock to the Soviets, Fischer wins BOTH games in the first round, not against the IM, but the Magician of Riga himself. In his first game, Tal noted after move 47 in the endgame, "I had not seen the way how to win, but I knew that I could not lose", after which he comically had blundered, and would go on to lose as time pressure had got to him.
At this point, Tal would have 3/6, after losing his first round to Bobby, who was 6/6. GM Milan Matulovic would also find himself at 3, after playing this wonderful positional game:
Round 9
Following
As the dust settled on the Blitz tournament in Herceg Novi, Bobby Fischer emerged upon its throne, leagues above his peers. He won the tournament with an astounding 19/24, +4.5 on Mikhail Tal in 2nd place. I'd say its a score for the Soviets to bite their tongues on. Fischer's success here, melded with his classical success, cementing him as one of the best all-around chess players, and world champions, of all time. It's safe to say that the success and quality of this tournament might well have inspired the Blitz tournaments of the 80s and 90s, and gave rise to the necessity of the FIDE Blitz Championship where future GMs, Kasparov, Nakamura, and Carlsen would shine.
