Bled 1961 Revisited. A Book, A Famous Game, And Some Lesser Known Ones

 Afternoon everyone, and welcome along to another of my 'My Week In Chess' kind of offerings.My Friend Victor Ciobanu has a new book out in electronic format on Amazon. A translation of one version of the Tournament Book of Bled 1961. ( I have a different version in my library!)

I got a free copy for 'services rendered', so to speak - i.e. contributing the rare images from my version.

You can find it here:-  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jubilee-International-Grandmaster-Tournament-Bled-ebook/dp/B0CGRQ32WD 

it has some material missing from my copy, and, at the same time, doesn't have some of the material in mine! The first page.

One thing my version - from memory - does not have is this nice page - with the autographs of the players from it's predecessor.

Well, the 1961 event is a legendary one. Tal and Fischer doing battle, alongside a host of fine players.

So, what is the book like? Well, as i have said before, Victor is not a native English speaker, and it shows. Also - a much bigger gripe - the notes to the games have not been properly proof read, and contain numerous errors. Both things are irritating!! However, you get lots of game notes, which my version does not have, and plenty of illustrations, including my own contributions.

Is it worth buying, you ask? definitely - at the price!! If I was given a print copy, which would be three times the price, I would feel that my earlier mentioned gripes devalued it - particularly given that all the games can be found online for free. However, it is perfectly useable, and full of interesting material, and so as a cheap download it is certainly worth investing in - particularly as there are many game notes which I have not seen before, and the games are really my thing!

So, let's do my thing - some games and pictures, with reference to the title!

The famous game was, of course, Fischer's first win against Tal. You get annotations from both players, and the Tal notes were new to me.

 O.K. You guys know me - when i get a tournament book I look at ALL the games - not just the ones by famous players, and those easily found elsewhere. so let's look at three forgotten games.

Two are linked by an idea. I think that, until he died last year, Alexander Matanovic

may have been the oldest living Grandmaster - I haven't done the research!! A crushing win of his from the tournament.

And I think that the player who is now the oldest living Grandmaster - feel free to correct me if I am wrong - is Klaus Darga. He had a poor tournament, but won this fascinating game. I know the opening from a game of Baumbach

And that page takes us to Trifunovic. In Victor's book you get the bonus of notes by Keres - one of the great annotators. Enjoy the game - it's a really interesting one to study - and the notes.

A couple of images to finish with.