CHESS

The grandmaster, Miroslav Filip (1928-2009) was, during his peak years, one of the strongest grandmasters outside of the Soviet Union. His major claim to fame was qualifying for the gruelling Candidates Tournament in Curacao 1962 that contained such titans as Tal, Fischer, Petrosian, Korchnoi and Keres. Apart from an attractive victory over Mikhail Tal the Czech GM was unable to compete at such a high level and thus concentrated on journalism. He became an arbiter of some distinction and was selected to be present in six world championship contests The prolific English chess author GM Raymond Keene gave the following brief portrait: ‘It was during the seven years from 1955 to 1962 that Filip, at six foot nine inches in height an imposing presence at the chess board, truly became a world force. During this period he twice achieved the notoriously arduous feat of qualifying for the Candidates Tournaments for the World Championship, at Amsterdam 1956 and again at Curacao, 1962. Thus Filip was automatically propelled into the upper echelons of the world elite. It was in this happy time that Filip inflicted defeat on no fewer than three world champions, Dr Max Euwe in 1955, Vassily Smyslov (the reigning champion) in 1957 and former world champion Mikhail Tal in 1962’. Tal,Mikhail - Filip,Miroslav [B43] Candidates Tournament Curacao (12) 1962 ‘At one point smoking was widespread among chess players. Lots of the World Champions smoked: Alekhine, Tal, Spassky, Korchnoi. Nowadays there’s quite a strange situation – among the Top 100 only about five guys smoke. That creates certain difficulties. Before a tournament I usually have to ask the organisers to provide a smoking room within the accessible zone. Last year I played in Wijk aan Zee and in order to smoke there you had to go outside to a pavilion. It wasn’t just that the weather was bad – zero degrees, a strong wind – I also had to go there and back with an arbiter so no-one would give me any tips along the way. That all took around ten minutes. My opponents naturally noticed and the moment I approached the arbiter and left the hall they made a move. So that was how I had to play the whole tournament – madness! By the way, young chess players don’t even drink. That really does look strange.’ (Alexander Grischuk)