Remembering the Odessa 1976 International Tournament
Reminiscences of Rosendo Balinas

By Mikhail Golubev
www.kasparovchess.com/serve/templates/folders/show.asp?p_docID=11909&p;_docLang=EN

 
I started to play chess in my hometown of Odessa (Ukraine, former Soviet Union) in 1976 when I was 6 years old. The same year, another even more important chess event took place in Odessa, the international chess tournament won by Filipino IM Rosendo Balinas. Unfortunately, in 1976 I was still not interested in international chess events, and am hardly able now to relate anything about the 1976 Odessa International Tournament. However, in October 2000 I found «The Filipinos Play Chess» website (editor Bobby Ang), with absolutely exceptional coverage of this tournament based on the articles by Rosendo Balinas published in 1976. See links to the website and the tournament coverage in the right margin.
 
GM Rosendo C. Balinas, Jr. passed away at his residence in Antipolo City on Thursday, September 24, 1998. He was the six-time chess champion of the Philippines and a lawyer by profession. After winning the tournament in Odessa, Rosendo Balinas became the second foreigner after Capablanca (1936) to win a chess tournament in the Soviet Union.
 
Below are several quotations selected by me from a series of nine articles by Rosendo C. Balinas titled The Odessa Report that were published in the Times Journal in September 1976.
 
The complete texts of these excellent historical documents are available from the links in the right margin.
 
Also, I tried to organize as many complete pgn-compatible tournament game files as possible, because in virtually every database, the tournament games are presented in an incomplete and/or incorrect form. However, there remain several questions such as the real opening move order in the Paoli-Bronstein game.
 

Rosendo Balinas:
 
«The tournament I won recently in Odessa, Soviet Union, is officially named the USSR Central Chess Club International, but the banner in the Moriakov Hall of the Seamen's Palace, where the games were played, simply read «International Chess Tournament, Odessa.» There were 16 participants in the tournament with eight Grandmasters, four International Masters, and four Soviet Masters. Their names, ages, and ELO ratings are: Grandmasters - Vladimir Savon (USSR) 36, 2545 ELO; David Bronstein (USSR) 52, 2540; Anatoly Lutikov, 43, 2500; Vladimir Tukmakov, 30, 2490, Georgi Tringov (Bulgaria) 34, 2490; James Tarjan (United States) 24, 2490; Lutz Espig (East Germany) 27, 2480; Istvan Bilek (Hungary) 42, 2460; International Masters - Jan Plachetka (Czechoslovakia) 31, 2470; Rosendo Balinas Jr. (Philippines) 34, 2365; Fernando Silva (Portugal) 26, 2340, Enrico Paoli (Italy) 68, 2265; Masters - Lev Alburt (USSR) 31, 2520; Constantin Lerner (USSR) 26, 2430; Michael Zeitlin (USSR) 29, 2450; Felix Ignatiev (USSR) 44, 2415.»
 
«Grandmaster Victor Korchnoi, the Soviet Union's No. 2 player, who tied for first place in the IBM international tournament in Amsterdam with the English Grandmaster Anthony Miles a few days before the start of the Odessa tournament, was originally scheduled to participate as well. However, Korchnoi sought political asylum in Holland and did not play. His reason for defecting, we learned later in news reports, was personal. He said that Soviet chess officials had concentrated on supporting the world champion, to the extent of discriminating against other Soviet players.»
 
«I learned about my assignment to play in the Odessa tournament from FIDE deputy president Florencio Campomanes in Amsterdam, Holland. The Soviet invitation was probably the first ever made to a Filipino player.»
 
«I arrived in Moscow at 7 a.m. on July 28. A man from the Soviet Sports Committee accompanied me to a domestic airport for my flight to Odessa that same morning. He was very friendly and courteous. In his halting English, he told me he had a Grandmaster friend named Polugaevsky. He spoke highly of him. I gave him two packs of Dunhill cigarettes and 10 cigars. He told me he would phone Polugaevsky the next day and give some cigars to him.»
 
«We arrived in Odessa at around 3 p.m. A few minutes after alighting from the plane, a heavy downpour came. The passengers, all waiting for their baggage, were trapped in a leaking shelter.»
 
«The official of the Sports Committee who was with us was a kind old man who did not understand one word of English. He frequented my room without an invitation and as a result, smoked half of the five packs of the Dunhill cigarettes I bought in Singapore and downed almost one bottle of White Label whiskey except for two shots which I took to sanitize my throat. I gladly gave these to him, though, seeing how hungry he was for western things. I even decided to sell my old Seiko 5 watch to him for 30 rubles after he told me he'd been dreaming of owning one like it. I wonder, though, if he really treasured it. I'm more inclined to believe that it went into the black market, where the watch could easily command a price of 150 rubles.»
 
«When Bilek got out of the hospital, he decided to go back to Hungary.»
 
«The pain actually began the previous night when I drank a small bottle of Russian wine labeled «Madera.» It contained 19 per cent alcohol. I just wanted to get a good night's rest so I drank it while reviewing some of Plachetka's games from the «Sahovski Informator» and the tournament bulletin. Only when I felt stomach pain again did I try to look for the kind old man from the Soviet Sports Committee.»
 
«I sympathized with Lutikov because it seemed to me that he could not win his fight against the bottle. It had already affected his professional chess life. The Soviet Chess Federation would no longer allow him to go out of the country to play, I was told, because of his drinking habits, but Lutikov is still a great player.»
 
«I drew my last two games with Bronstein and Tringov and clinched first place.»
 
«Bronstein also said that even if I do not play for 10 years, I will still be remembered for my victory in Odessa. Those nice words coming from a player whose worth and greatness I had practically denied, show the kind of person Bronstein is. He gave me a copy of his autobiography with a dedication saying: «Even if you say in this newspaper that you are a pupil of Botvinnik, I am still giving this book to you.»
 
«The closing ceremony was held in one of the biggest restaurants in Odessa. While the final standings were being announced the typical dancing and merriment of the nights in Odessa continued. Yefim Geller, who was born in Odessa, was one of the illustrous guests, as well as Baurinsky, whom the papers called the Campomanes or the Edmondson of the Soviet Union. By this they meant that Baurinsky, though not the president of the Soviet Chess Federation, wields more power and influence in Soviet Chess.»

 
Results: 1. Balinas 10/14, 2-3. Alburt and Savon 9, 4. Lerner 8, 5-9. Plachetka, Tseitlin, Tringov, Espig and Tarjan 7.5, 10-11. Tukmakov and Lutikov 7, 12. Bronstein 6, 13. Silva 5, 14. Ignatiev 4.5, 15. Paoli 2.

Related Links: Odessa 1976 Coverage The Filipinos Play Chess
Download: Odessa-Games in PGN