The 57th Hastings International Congress 1 took place at the White Rock Pavilion (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...) between 28th December 1981 and 12th January 1982. The tournament was won outright by the 32-year-old Viktor Kupreichik, who remained in first place from Round 1. Half of Kupreichik's games in this tournament were decisive. He started with 5/6 and lost only one game (Short vs Kupreichik, 1982) after an uncharacteristic blunder in the penultimate round. His first prize brought him £1,200 (approximately £4,000/$6,700 in 2014 values).
The participants
The tournament had fourteen participants, comprised of eight grandmasters and six masters. It was a Category 11 tournament with the GM norm at 8.5 points and the IM norm at 6. The average Elo rating was 2511.
There was an increasing tension between the Soviet bloc and the West over the recent imposition of martial law in Poland (13 December 1981). Although a dispute with the organizers the previous year had resulted in no Soviet player being accepted to play in Hastings (1980/81), the Soviet Chess Federation was now represented by an ex-world champion (Vasily Smyslov) and a new grandmaster who was riding a notable upwards trajectory (Viktor Kupreichik).
The British players did better than expected. Jonathan Speelman, who had been awarded the GM title in 1980, lost only one game and came equal second with Smyslov. Jonathan Mestel was only one point short of a grandmaster norm, and he continued to play strongly, qualifying for the Las Palmas Interzonal (1982), where he shared 8th-10th place. The British Champion Paul Littlewood won his first four games, but then losses set in, as he encountered players who were to come in the top half of the table. For the 23-year-old Shaun Taulbut, this tournament was his best individual performance with a 2604 TPR result. He had been European Junior Champion in 1977-78, but within a year he was to give up professional chess. However, as one promising British player left the fields of battle, another announced his presence. This was 16-year-old Nigel Short's best result to date (TPR 2624), and can now be seen as the beginning of his rise into the world's top five by the end of the decade. 21-year-old Manuel Rivas Pastor had qualified from the previous year's Challengers Tournament. He had been awarded the IM title in 1980 and was Spanish Champion in 1978, 1979 and 1981 (and would be again in 1991). The early 1980's were to be his best period, and he achieved a better result than most previous Challengers' winners. He had realistic hopes of a GM norm until Round 11, and he showed he could also defend (see L Christiansen vs Rivas Pastor, 1982).
The three grandmasters at the bottom of the table were completely out of form. The 64 years old Laszlo Szabo had won Hastings (1938/39), Hastings (1947/48) and Hastings (1949/50), and Hastings (1973/74) (jointly). Now his play showed only sparks of former strength. He lost to Kupreichik in only 18 moves (Kupreichik vs Szabo, 1981), but kept on fighting, and defeated Short and Larry Christiansen in sharp games. Christiansen had come second behind Karpov
at the strong Linares (1981) tournament and had then qualified at the US Championship (1981) at South Bend (which a zonal tournament) for the Moscow Interzonal (1982). He could only win one game and that against fellow tail-ender Hans Ree. Ree, who had been awarded the GM title in 1980, gave no indication of the form which he displayed in winning the Dutch championship (1982). He suffered five successive losses between Rounds 4 and 8 and never recovered.
Hastings, England, 28 December 1981 - 12 January 1982
Elo* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 Points
Kupreichik 2580 * ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 9.0/13
Smyslov 2580 ½ * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 8.0/13
Speelman 2520 ½ 0 * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 8.0/13
Andersson 2600 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 7.5/13
Mestel 2475 ½ ½ 0 ½ * 1 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 7.5/13
Short 2440 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 * 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 0 7.0/13
Rivas Pastor 2470 0 ½ ½ 0 1 0 * 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 7.0/13
Lein 2510 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 7.0/13
Taulbut 2420 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ * 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 6.5/13
Littlewood 2435 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 1 * 1 ½ 1 1 6.0/13
Chandler 2530 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 * 1 0 1 5.0/13
Christiansen 2575 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 * 1 0 4.5/13
Ree 2510 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 0 * ½ 4.0/13
Szabo 2510 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 0 0 1 ½ * 4.0/13
*FIDE Rating List July 1981 (http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198...)
The prizewinners
First prize £1,200, second £850, and third £600. Sponsored by a British computer company ICL, the first prize was 20% greater than the previous year's, and the tournament was stronger at Category 11 as compared to Category 10.
The tournament's winner Kupreichik had been awarded the GM title in 1980, but he was relatively unknown outside of the Soviet Union. Running up to Hastings, he strung several successful results together. In the USSR Championship (1979), he was fifth through seventh of eighteen players (see Game Collection: USSR Championship 1979) having been last in three previous championships. He had taken first prizes at Medina del Campo (1980) and Reykjavik (1980), and in the Rubinstein Memorial (1981) he was second out of fourteen. Smyslov had won Hastings (1954/55) (with Paul Keres) and Hastings (1968/69). The early 1980's were a swan song period for Smyslov after a long but gradual period of decline in the 1970's. In July 1982 at the age of 61, he was to come second at the Las Palmas Interzonal (1982), and from there he reached the Kasparov - Smyslov Candidates Final (1984), defeating Robert Huebner and Zoltan Ribli on the way. In this tournament he played cautiously, winning three games and drawing the remaining ten.
It could have been Ulf Andersson 's fourth consecutive victory at the Hastings Premier. Andersson drew all but two of his games and often in very short order. After two wins, he was content to draw eight times in succession. He explained, "I do not believe in straining for these things, I take each game as it comes. This is a much stronger tournament than the others". 2
Notable games
Kupreichik vs L Christiansen, 1981 - White breaks through to Black's king
Szabo vs Short, 1981 - Black's king flees but cannot escape
A Lein vs Short, 1983 - Attack and counter-attack
A Lein vs Kupreichik, 1981 - Black sacs the exchange for an attack
P Littlewood vs Chandler, 1981 - White gives up two pawns for a king hunt
Szabo vs L Christiansen, 1981 - Violent Benoni
Notes
1. Introductory material and round details based on information from: Chess Magazine, vol. 46, nos 869-70, pp. 307-334, January 1982.
2. Quote from Chess Magazine, vol. 46, nos 869-870, pp. 298-299, January 1982.
This text by User: Chessical. Thanks to User: OhioChessFan and User: Paint My Dragon for suggesting improvements to the text.
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