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208 pages+[16] pages with plates, illustrations, diagrams. Octavo (8" x 5 1/4") issued in dark red wrappers with black lettering to spine and cover, pictorial knight on cover. Staff writers are Jude Acers, Alan Benson, Robert Burger, Dennis Fritzinger, Guthrie McClain. 220 games, many with notes (Liberzon). Surveys of endings (Burger). Middle games (Acers). Endings (Benson). [Signed by Walter Browne and Jeremy Sillman] (Lusis: 1728) First edition.
The Fifth Louis D. Statham Masters-Plus Tournament was held at Lone Pine, California from April 13-24, 1975. Everybody was grateful for this, since that provided an excuse to call it simply "Lone Pine" instead of the official name.
The first four events had been mostly American affairs, but when six GMs showed up in 1974 Statham got curious as to how many the tournament could draw if he really tried. After due consideration, he doubled the prize fund and offered any GM in the world free travel and lodging.
That did the trick. Even with the non-response of the Soviet Union, 22 Grandmasters and eleven IMs showed up among the 44 players for what was the strongest Swiss-System tournament held up to that time.
Surprises began early when Larry Evans was beaten in the first round by the #2 woman in the world, Alla Kushnir. At least, if stories floating around can be believed, it was a surprise to Bobby Fischer, who supposedly called Pal Benko to ask how Evans explained what happened. Of course, Lone Pine veterans could remember back to 1971 when Evans won the initial tournament with six straight wins after a first round loss, and talk of the "Evans Swiss Gambit" resurfaced.
Be that as it may, Evans promptly reeled off four wins in a row, and by the two-day break following round five he was tied for first place with Miguel Quinteros and Gudmundur Sigurjonsson, with Walter Browne and Vladimir Liberzon a half-point behind. A huge group of eighteen players followed at 3-2, and would have something to say about matters before the finish.
Round six saw Quinteros drop back with a loss to Liberzon, who joined Evans, Sigurjonsson, and Browne in the top group at 4.5. Moving up to join Quinteros at 4.0 were Biyiasas, Gheorghiu, Panno, and Shamkovich.
Browne took the sole lead after round 7, defeating Sigurjonsson while Evans and Liberzon drew. Round 8 saw Evans defeat Browne to go past him to 6.5, where he was joined by Liberzon after a defeat of the fading Sigurjonsson. A half-point behind were Browne, Quinteros and Shamkovich.
Since Evans and Liberzon had already played each other as well as Browne, they were paired against Quinteros and Shamkovich. Evans had to resort to a perpetual for a draw, but Liberzon slowly outplayed Shamkovich to take the sole lead with a round to go. That proved to be a good time to do so; when Evans couldn't get anything going with Black against Gheorghiu in the last round (after a bitter dispute about the pairings), Liberzon was happy to take a draw with White against Gligoric to clinch first place. (Chess dot com)
Condition: Corners bumped, some light pencil check marks next to some of the games. A very good copy of a scarce item in faux dust jacket.
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