Chess - The Scotsman 23/07/2012

By John Henderson
Published on 23/07/2012 00:00

JACQUELINE PIATIGORSKY, a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty and also one of the most influential figures in the American chess scene of the 20th century, died late last week, aged 100.

She and her husband, the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, had not only a mutual love for music but also chess, and together they sponsored and organised three of the strongest events in US history. The first was a 1961 match between Bobby Fischer and Samuel Reshevsky, the two best American players.

After 11 of the scheduled 16 games, and the match tied, Fischer dramatically quit after a fight with Mrs Piatigorsky over the scheduling of the 12th game (Fischer wanted an afternoon game so he could sleep in, but she wanted it in the morning so as to attend a concert by her husband later in the day).

In 1963, the Piatigorskys sponsored the Piatigorsky Cup in Los Angeles, which included eight of the top players in the world, including the new Soviet world champion, Tigran Petrosian, who went on to tie for first with fellow Soviet Paul Keres.

Three years later, the second Piatigorsky Cup in Santa Monica outshone the first by being bigger and better with a world-class field of ten players. Boris Spassky went on to just edge out of first place his eventual nemesis Fischer, who by this time had mended the rift with Mrs Piatigorsky.

B Spassky - R Fischer

2nd Piatigorsky Cup

Grünfeld Defence

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bg7 7 Bc4 c5 8 Ne2 Nc6 9 Be3 0–0 10 0–0 Qc7 11 Rc1 Rd8 12 Qe1 e6 13 f4 Na5 14 Bd3 f5 15 Rd1 b6 16 Qf2 cxd4 17 Bxd4 Bxd4 18 cxd4 Bb7 19 Ng3 Qf7 20 d5 fxe4 21 dxe6 Qxe6 22 f5 Qf7 23 Bxe4 Rxd1 24 Rxd1 Rf8 25 Bb1 Qf6 26 Qc2 Kh8 27 fxg6 hxg6 28 Qd2 Kg7 29 Rf1 Qe7 30 Qd4+ Rf6 31 Ne4 Bxe4 32 Bxe4 Qc5 33 Qxc5 Rxf1+ 34 Kxf1 bxc5 35 h4 Nc4 36 Ke2 Ne5 37 Ke3 Kf6 38 Kf4 Nf7 39 Ke3 g5 40 h5 Nh6 41 Kd3 Ke5 42 Ba8 Kd6 43 Kc4 g4 44 a4 Ng8 45 a5 Nh6 46 Be4! g3 47 Kb5 Ng8 48 Bb1 Nh6 49 Ka6 Kc6 50 Ba2 1–0