The Ottawa Journal Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Thursday, September 02, 1971 - Page 5
Ottawa Man May Defeat World Chess Champion Thu, Sep 2, 1971 – Page 5 · The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) · Newspapers.com
Ottawa Man May Defeat World Chess Champion
Vancouver (CP) — An untitled Canadian player, Ed Formanek of Ottawa, stood on the brink of knocking world champion Boris Spassky of Moscow out of top-money contention in the Canadian open chess championship Wednesday night.
Formanek, who has already defeated two grandmasters in the 11-round tournament, held a decided edge when his game against Spassky was adjourned to this morning.
Playing the white pieces, Formanek was ahead by virtue of the strength of a rook to a bishop and threatening to even the count at six pawns apiece.
Canadian champion Duncan Suttles of Vancouver and Hans Ree of Holland, both international masters, couldn't break their first-place deadlock as they agreed to a draw on the 18th move of their game. Both now have 7½ points.
The winner of the Spassky-Formanek game will move into a first place tie with Suttles and Ree. Spassky and Ree are the only players to remain undefeated. Both have drawn three games. Only one player remained with a possibility of taking sole possession of first place in the ninth round. He is George Kuprejanov, who, with seven points, adjourned his game against Grandmaster Walter Browne of Australia, the U.S. open champion, who has 6½ points.
One other key game was adjourned Wednesday night. That was between second-place contenders Zvonko Vranesic of Toronto, another international master, and John MacPhail of Ottawa, who have six points each.
The adjourned games made it impossible to list second and third-place contenders. At least 17 players are still in contention for first-place money.
Meanwhile, Ed Edmondson, vice-president of the U.S. Chess Federation, announced that the World Chess Federation voted Wednesday to deny its president, Dr. Max Euwe of Holland, the authority to settle the dispute over the site for the final world championship challengers' series.
The match, between Grandmasters Bobby Fischer of the U.S. and the Soviet Union's Tigran Petrosian, is to be held in about three weeks. The U.S. and Soviet chess federations, attending the world organization's congress in Vancouver, have been unable to settle on a site for the match.
Edmondson said that delegates to the congress have decided to settle the issue by a vote Friday.
The U.S. wants the match held in Buenos Aires, while the Soviets insist on Athens. Yugoslavia is also reported to be high on the list of possible sites.
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