Palma de Majorca
"In the picturesque streets in the town of Palma de Majorca..." so begins Viktor Korchnoi's excellent auto-biography "Chess is My Life"(Batsford 1978). As you read this columns, that is where I shall be spending my holidays. Palma is notable for its annual winter chess tournament and for the 1970 Interzonal, won by Bobby Fischer on his way to the Worlds Chess title, as described in Frank Brady's biography "Bobby Fischer" (Batsford 1974). I find these two books suitable for holiday reading, with or without a chess et, though Korchnoi's is by far the more amusing, e.g. he reveals ex-world champion Petrosian's wife was notorious for helping her husband cheat at chess and even slapped his assistant Suetin in the face for his poor chess analysis in Buenos Aires in 1971 - hence he has been "Suetin" ever since
Palma de Majorca 1968 was one of Korchnoi's greatest triumphs with 14 out of 17 points, though his recent success at 52 in reaching the World Championship Candidates show he is still going strong.
Bent Larsen was put "straight" into the deep end in Palma, 1968.
