Cura\u00e7ao 1962<\/i><\/a> is Jan Timman’s account of the 1962 Candidates’ Tournament, the Cold War contest where a 19-year-old Bobby Fischer accused three Soviet players of arranging draws among themselves. Timman narrates the event, weighs the collusion charge, and annotates the key games, including 16 of Fischer’s. Listed at intermediate level, it reads well for anyone drawn to chess history and the great tournament books.\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n The eight-player Candidates Tournament in Cura\u00e7ao, 1962, was full of high drama and intrigue. This is indicated by the subtitle of this book: The Battle of Minds that Shook the Chess World<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe idea of this book arose during the preparations for the 40th<\/sup> anniversary of the tournament in 2002. The book was written by GM Jan Timman, who sadly passed away recently in February 2026, and it was originally published in 2005. Timman, a world-class player, former world number 2, and an excellent author, was an ideal choice for the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTigran Petrosian won the tournament by a mere half point from Paul Keres, the eternal second, and Efim Geller. He would go on to successfully win the 1963 World Championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik. Timman quotes Petrosian\u2019s successor, Boris Spassky, who succinctly said:\u201cHe set himself the aim of becoming World Champion, and he achieved it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nIt was an exceptionally strong tournament, with three players, Petrosian, Mikhail Tal and Bobby Fischer, holding the World Championship title at some stage of their careers. The tournament was a gruelling affair of 28 rounds over nearly two months, and it had a one-week break in the middle of the tournament. It\u2019s hard to imagine such a format in today\u2019s fast-paced chess world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the tournament produced some excellent games, the drawing pact between three of the Russian players, Petrosian, Keres, and Geller, was the major talking point of the tournament, and Timman covers this issue in the book. The three players drew all their games against each other. The other Russian players, Tal and Viktor Kortchnoi, appeared not have been part of the pact, although doubts remain about Kortchnoi\u2019s role. Timman writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe rumours that Kortchnoi was in some way involved in the combine are still going around. A Russian former World Champion once told me that Kortchnoi had been told to lose his game as Black against Petrosian in Round 23. Petrosian\u2019s wife Rona supposedly put great pressure on Kortchnoi\u2019s wife Bella, and it is a telling detail that both women were Armenian. In New In Chess 2003, Issue 1, Kortchnoi observes in an interview with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam: \u2018I would say that the part played by my wife in this situation should not be underestimated. She was Armenian and in some ways she behaved like Petrosian\u2019s youngest sister… When Petrosian was around, she always acted like a pupil, like a younger sister.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nFischer used the Keres \u2013 Petrosian game from round 24 in his claims against the Russians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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