This has probably been asked before but: Can anyone give me information on a tournament in the 1960’s or very early 70’s that became known as the Gothenburg or Gothenberg Trilogy? I know it involved three top Soviet players using a prepared line on three boards and the lower rated player watched to see how the higher players faired before copying the moves. All information will be appreciated. Thank you.
It was the Gothenburg Interzonal in 1955. The games Keres-Najdorf, Geller-Panno and Spassky-Pilnick all entered the same sharp variation, prepared by the Argentines. White won all three. A good source is Keres’s analysis of the Najdorf game in his best-game collection.
Thanks for the help. Does anyone else have any information to add?
The variation in question went as follows:
- e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Be7 8. Qf3 h6 9. Bh4 g5 10. fxg5 Nfd7 11. Nxe6! (Geller was the first to play this move) fxe6 12. Qh5+ Kf8 Geller wrote in the tournament book "At this point Keres and Spassky were still examinimg the consequences of sacrificing the knight on 36, while their opponents Najdorf and Pilnik were talking in a most animated fashion and looking at my game with Panno. Then Najdorf came over to me and said “Your games is lost. We have all this analyzed”. They expected to be able to plant the knight on e5 and repel the attack. White’s next move ruled this out and was not sufficiently analyzed in their analysis. 13. Bb5. Panno tried Ne5 14. Bg3 Bxg6 and lost. Seeing this, Pilnik and Najdorf tried Kg7 but were unable to hold back the attack. In 1958 Gligoric held found the best defense, Rh7.