One thing is known among chess enthusiasts: the American grandmaster Bobby Fischer had been invited to take part in the Eggert Gilfer Memorial Tournament, which was held in September last year. Because of a misunderstanding concerning the timing of the tournament, however, the grandmaster did not come to Iceland before the end of that year.

The board of the Chess Federation therefore decided to organize a tournament with the participation of the above-mentioned players, so that Icelandic chess enthusiasts would have a chance to see this world-famous grandmaster play against our best players.

This small tournament ended with Fischer’s victory. He lost only one game, against Freysteinn Þorbergsson, and won the rest.

It cannot be denied, however, that in such a small tournament, with so few games, Fischer had several scares. Nor would anyone object to saying that Fischer was somewhat fortunate. His game against Friðrik was very exciting, and only a miracle saved him. Friðrik had been worse, but then missed a win because of severe time trouble.

Ingi also had a good game against Fischer, but then made an inaccurate move in an equal position and allowed him to escape.

Second place went to Ingi R. Jóhannsson with 2½ points, and he was very pleased with the outcome.

Grandmaster Friðrik Ólafsson had to settle for third place with 2 points. It cannot be said that luck had smiled on him, because in the first round he let a winning position slip against Freysteinn, ending in a draw because of time trouble. As it seems, that game then hung over him like a shadow in the final round of the Gilfer tournament. It is not impossible that fatigue should be taken into account here, since Friðrik has played about 50 tournament games since the spring. That must be considered good “output.”

/ "Skák", 1960.11.15 /