Tungsram Chess Festival in Baden

Few people know that United Bulb and Electrical Ltd., which has business links with more than 100 countries around the world and whose products are marketed under the Tungsram brand name on every continent, has traditionally organized a grandmaster tournament every two or three years since 1975, precisely under this name. Until now, the Tungsram grandmaster tournaments were held within the walls of the Újpest office building of United Bulb; however, the world-famous popularity of chess suggested the idea to the management of the country’s largest export-oriented industrial company that it should from time to time transfer the venue of the tournament abroad, and specifically to countries where commercial links exist with Tungsram manufacturing plants and/or its extensive trading organizations. The choice first fell on neighbouring Austria, where, alongside Tungsram Austria AG and the Austrian Chess Federation, the Vienna Chess Club also joined enthusiastically in the preparations, for they had succeeded in bringing to the table a major chess tournament — last held in 1937 — in the half-Baden, half-Semmering event won by Keres ahead of Fine, Capablanca and Reshevsky. In the course of the organizing work, the international Tungsram Chess Festival took shape into a chess celebration lasting more than a week: besides the grandmaster tournament, an international master tournament and a surprisingly large mass-participation competition for foreign and domestic rated players were also included in the programme. The patronage of the event series was accepted by Dr. Fred Sinowatz, Minister of Education; as its venue, Baden was proposed — a town 26 km from Vienna and easily accessible from the capital by tram or bus, with about 28,000 inhabitants, famous for its sulphurous medicinal baths, with more than 500 years of past behind it and a calm, picturesque setting. Its excellent accommodation facilities and the extremely cultured conditions of the Congress Palace guaranteed the smooth staging of every event.

The field of the grandmaster tournament, planned as category 13, became final only at the last moment. Unfortunately, we had to acknowledge that for our leading Hungarian players the preparations for the Chess Olympiad made participation impossible, and therefore the Hungarian colours were represented only by grandmaster Adorján. Dr. Hübner withdrew because of obligations arising from the unexpected gaining of his Candidates’ match against Portisch; Timman had done so earlier, while Hort and Browne withdrew only a few weeks before the start of the tournament in order to take part in the Clarín tournament in Buenos Aires, which offered substantially larger prizes. Their places were taken by Spassky, Byrne, Liberzon and van der Wiel, whose “jumping in” saved the grandmaster tournament, although the average rating fell back to 2528. Thus the tournament became category 12, and for a grandmaster norm one needed 9 points instead of 9.5.

After overcoming the great initial difficulties, on October 27, 1980, at 11 a.m., in the absence of Beliavsky and Miles, the grandmaster tournament was opened ceremonially and the drawing of lots took place. Among others, the players were welcomed by Professor Kurt Jungwirth, president of the Austrian Chess Federation; Dr. Josef Bauer, managing director of Tungsram Austria AG; and Dr. Sala Flohr, who spoke on behalf of the competitors, the arbiters’ panel and all other contributors. “Unfortunately, the Yugoslav grandmaster Dr. Milan Vidmar, who died too early, continued his studies in Vienna and possessed a refined sense of humour,” he said in a moving reminiscence. “He taught that a good arbiter sees much and notices everything... but speaks little!” Therefore, before beginning his official duties, he pointed out that in 1934, when something similar had last been held and allegedly very well organized, he himself had played in Újpest in the Tungsram grandmaster tournament. He expressed the hope that in the course of the tournament some novelty would arise in the opening, one that would enter chess history as a Tungsram variation, and that the famous Tungsram lamps would illuminate not only the tournament hall but also the minds of the players, inspiring them to elegant games.

During the tournament, Spassky and Beliavsky fought almost a separate battle for first place, in which only Dr. Nunn’s victory in the fourth Tungsram grandmaster tournament could intervene. There is not much new to say about Dr. Nunn, the 25-year-old Oxford mathematician. The former world champion made enormous competitive experience count; Beliavsky, on the other hand, often based his energetic play on what may be called the justice of youth. If Beliavsky had won his adjourned game from the penultimate round, probably by refusing Spassky’s draw offer he would have been the sole winner. In the final round, however, the former world champion agreed to a draw after 24 moves “now that everything was settled” against Adorján, who had been playing sharply for a win with Black; meanwhile Beliavsky surprised Gheorghiu in the 10th move with a novelty worth mentioning, and in a hard ten-hour struggle forced him to sacrifice his rook so that he could overtake his rival.

In the course of the tournament, the most balanced play was shown by Dr. Nunn, who did not stand worse in a single game and did not reach a clearly more favourable position either. The eligible candidate for third place, Rafael Vaganian — counted by the French Federation as one of the world’s greatest experts on the Grünfeld Defence — defeated him in the fourth round.

It is characteristic of Dr. Nunn’s unoccupied playing style that against Spassky — in a game drawn in terms of the final standings — he opened in the eighth round with 1. e4, and after 1... e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 the former world champion, by his own admission, survived the twelve-move miniature only by chance in the clash of the Hungarian Defence.

Byrne and Vaganian, with good play of equal value, deservedly obtained fourth and fifth places in a tie-break. Byrne played with colour, great enthusiasm and unshakeable calm; Vaganian, in the greater part of his games, turned over in his head, apparently devoting little attention and time to thought — unlike Smejkal, who, in some of his games that he did not decide in the early stage of the struggle, fought with severe and not infrequently shattering time trouble. This gifted Czechoslovak player, for example, had five minutes left for the last 19 moves of his game against Vaganian, and on one occasion he even arrived about half an hour late for the start. I once asked him why he did this, since he had little thinking time as it was. He laughed and replied that it made no difference at all when he began the game: in any case he would get into time trouble, because if the clock did not press him, he could not make up his mind to move.

Liberzon played for a win in almost every game; only with Spassky did he make a relatively quick peace.

The last prize was obtained by the 1979 junior world champion, the Damascus-born Yasser Seirawan of Syrian origin. At the Hoogovens tournament he was still only eleventh, but at Wijk aan Zee, after a tie-break with Browne, he won the tournament. His victory over Korchnoi in Lone Pine had meanwhile gone around the chess world. Well, things did not go well for Seirawan at all in the first stage of this tournament: after nine rounds, with 3.5 points, he was only in fourteenth place. I attribute his weaker performance partly to the fact that on the evening of the first tournament day Byrne, Miles, Stean and van der Wiel introduced Seirawan to the basic rules of bridge, and from then on almost every night, to the point of exhaustion, he played cards passionately in the hotel lobby. In the last six rounds, however, he pulled himself together and, scoring 4.5 points, fought his way into the prizewinners’ group. His best achievement was his win over van der Wiel in the twelfth round; here Seirawan skilfully took advantage of the fact that his likewise young opponent unnecessarily weakened his king’s position.

The list of those who did not win prizes and were also dissatisfied with their own performance is opened by Florin Gheorghiu, who played below his current form. In the game vs Van der Wiel he most strongly recalled his former self, the player who had once fought his way up to tenth place in the world ranking with an Elo rating of 2605. After this theoretically important game in the variation, which brought Gheorghiu his first and at the same time penultimate victory, came the tenth round. From then on, apart from his win against the completely discouraged Janetschek, he achieved nothing. His last-round defeat with White against Beliavsky deprived him even of eighth prize, which had already been allocated in advance. Yet the Romanian grandmaster had said earlier, weighing the chances: “We, who belong among the world’s best, draw with White only when we want to!” Well, fortunately for chess, this is not quite so.

Stean and Miles showed little. Both gave the impression of tired chess players; for Miles this was already his thirteenth tournament of the year.

Nor can grandmaster Adorján’s performance be regarded as a success, which may most likely be attributed to his poor health in the final period. From the seventh round onward he regularly produced equal or better games, until he usually went wrong after move 21. His loss to Liberzon and then to Beliavsky can hardly be compensated for by his single victory against Hölzl.

The oldest player in the field, the likeable Gligorić, was ill from the very first moment, and this explains his unusually weak performance.

During the Baden tournament, naturally, we often spoke about the Clarín tournament taking place in Buenos Aires. The bulletin sent in Spassky’s name was immediately photocopied for all the participants, and in their spare time they all began to study the games carefully.

John van der Wiel, the Dutch junior world champion of 1978, held his own well in the first half of the tournament: after five rounds he was in seventh place with a 50 percent score.

Of the two home players, Franz Hölzl, an employee of the Velden Casino, made a very good impression at the beginning of the tournament: in the first round he put van der Wiel on both shoulders, and in the fourth round Gheorghiu.

Janetschek played considerably better than the number of points he scored would suggest. In the first half of the tournament he drew or lost several promising positions, which broke his spirit, and in the last seven rounds he was able to score only half a point.