1970 Siegen Chess Olympiad

The 19th Chess Olympiad comprising an open team tournament as well as the annual FIDE congress, took place between September 5-27, 1970, in Siegen, West Germany.
The finals began on September 16th. USSR and Hungary took an early lead while Argentina fell down the table. USSR made eight draws vs Yugoslavia and Hungary. USA were missing Fischer and barely drew against Canada but then wiped out Bulgaria and took joint lead together with Hungary. In the 6th round USSR played USA and were extremely lucky to win 2½-1½ since it looked like the Americans are going on for 3-1 win, if not better. Hungary beat West Germany whose performance worsened considerably this year and Yugoslavia halved with Czechoslovakia. The leaders lost to Yugoslavia on the next day because of Portisch's terrible blunder and USSR took the lead after they had comfortably beaten East Germany. USA leveled on points with Hungary and Yugoslavia against whom they drew in eighth round. The Soviets extended their lead beating Romania. In penultimate round Hungary beat USA (and it could have even been worse for the Americans!) and USSR beat Canada by a wide margin extending their lead to safe distance of 2 points with one round to go.
USSR took the gold, Hungary took the silver with their desperate final sprint and Yugoslavia were in bronze medal position. USA stayed in 4th place, somehow disappointing given both Fischer and Reshevsky were in the squad. Czechoslovakia were lying in 5th ahead of West Germany, the hosts.
The Soviet Union won for the tenth time in succession. Scoring six wins and four matches ending in draws the Soviet victory was extremely slim this time. Two years ago al Lugano they had 8½ points to spare. This slender margin shows how strong the tournament was and how tensely it was fought. Only towards the end Soviet victory became apparent when they produced some high scores against weaker teams. It is interesting to note that the differences between the first four teams correspond exactly to their results against the tailenders
The highlight came with the game between Spassky and Fischer, which ended in a win for the World Champion who thereby snatched first board prize from Fischer. The Hungarians went in the lead at the beginning and held on the silver medals whereas Yugoslavia and USA which had to be conceded the better chances only finished third and fourth. The Hungarians herewith confirmed their success at the European Team Championship some months ago at Kapfenberg. Then the bottom Yugoslav boards (10 boards) were responsible for the relative failure of their team, this time also the top grandmasters could not show the necessary punch, conceding too many draws. The United States, for the first time with Fischer and Reshevsky, giving even real chances for first place, not even managed to acquire a medal.
The Czechs retrieved their former strong position, but the Bulgarians faced the question whether their third place in 1968 at Lugano had been a success or coincidence. Especially successful and interesting newcomers to the Olympic floor were Smejkal for Czechoslovakia with a 13/17 record, Quinteros for Argentina (10/14) and Ribli for Hungary with 4½/7. GM Browne led Australia from first place in final C at Lugano (29th overall) to a proud third in group B at Siegen, making it excellent 15th overall.
The finals lured an unbelievably numerous flow of spectators to the Siegerland Hall at Siegen. Hundreds of them arrived in special coaches, the hall was filled to utmost capacity. At weekends the organisers could hardly manage the crowds that converged to Siegen.
That the big attraction Spassky-Fischer was played on a Sunday let the waves of enthusiasm completely somersault. The fans nearing 5,000 in number had the difficult choice between standing on their toes in order to catch a glimpse of Spassky's or Fischer's hair now and then, or to be somewhat less squeezed in the demonstration room, where grandmaster Benko commented the game and R. Cardoso translated his explanations into German

[@neilkaplan4488]

Fabulous. Especially enjoyed the outdoor colour footage. Fischer and Edmondson. Evans, Lombardy, Mednis, Benko and 21 year old Walter Browne. Spassky, Petrosian, Polugaevsky, Smyslov and Krogius from the USSR. Hort and Jansa from Czechoslovakia. Portisch and Csom from Hungary. Keene, Hartston, Lee and Whiteley from England. Larsen, Uhlmann, Pomar......

[@user-tx3oq6vp8y]

En el minuto 6:56; los tableros "electrónicos" que habían desarrollado en los países socialistas. 😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜