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Montreal, (Canada); 1979

"Tournament of Stars"

(Won by Tal and Karpov, who shared first place.)

(Page created Feb, 1995 ... on another server. Posted here June, 2003.)

Originally I was just going to have one or two paragraphs about this tournament. But the events that just recently transpired have caused me to erase the old web page ... and start from scratch!! I must know the truth. This event deserves a better fate!

This tournament originally had another name ... something like: "A Man and His Cup, World Chess Challenge Tournament."
But this name was so goofy and awkward that almost no one refers to it this way anymore. Just about everyone simply refers to it as: "Montreal, 1979," or "The Tournament of Stars." FIDE even had ANOTHER (!) name for this event ...

For a very long time, this tournament has gotten short-changed when it comes to the discussion of what the strongest tournaments ever played are. (The Sonas list.) The impetus for me came on a very well-known server the other day. (Around July 20th, 2003.) Another very popular chess server had a chess historian there, and one whom I respect very much. He had posted a list of the "25 strongest" tournaments since 1950. This tournament was not even mentioned - it didn't make the cut. (Many tournaments that I consider to be vastly weaker did! Most of the events were the Linares and Wijk aan Zee tourneys of the last 10-to-15 years.) When I asked him ... in a kind of chat/forum room ... to consider this tournament, he dismissed me out of hand, almost as if I did not know what I was talking about. He told me many of these players were low-rated, a couple were not even in the world's "Top-50" when the tournament was played. {I think this was a veiled reference to Hort.} He also said that this tournament only had "one or two players" from the "TOP TEN" list. I tried desperately to get him to talk about this tournament further, but he evidently did not wish to do so.
(He basically refused to discuss it further.)

I was a tad annoyed ... to say the least! I also felt this expert was ... to put it nicely ... a trifle uninformed! I felt sure that this tournament was much better - and deserved to be better known than it was.

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I was taught in school that before you say anything that you must do your homework. Research is FUNDAMENTAL ... as one of my teachers used to say. So I have ordered several books - I had no tournament book on this great event! - and will begin writing as soon as I get them in and get a chance to look at them. Stay tuned! I will (try to) discover the truth.

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The Contestants of "The Tournament of Stars"

GM Anatoly Karpov (USSR) - FIDE Rating - 2705
GM Lajos Portisch (Hungary) - FIDE Rating - 2640
GM Boris Spassky (USSR) - FIDE Rating - 2640
GM Jan Timman (Holland/NED) - FIDE Rating - 2625
GM Bent Larsen (Denmark) - FIDE Rating - 2620
GM Mikhail Tal (USSR) - FIDE Rating - 2615
GM Vlastmil Hort (Czech) - FIDE Rating - 2600
GM Robert Hüebner (W. GER) - FIDE Rating - 2595
GM Llubomir Kavalek (USA) - FIDE Rating - 2590
GM Llubo Ljubojevic (Yugoslavia) - FIDE Rating - 2590

These were the actual contestants in this tournament. Many had been - or would be - nearly perpetual/repeat Candidates for the World Championship. Except for the Soviet players, each was the champion of his respective country. Karpov was the World Champion. (He also won a very strong USSR Championship at about this time as well.) Tal was invited ... well because he was Tal! (And a former World Champion!!) Spassky was also a {former} World Champion as well. The average rating was well over 2600. This would have made this a CATEGORY FIFTEEN (XV) at an absolute minimum. Few tournaments of this rank had ever been held, prior to this event.

NOTE: Hort had just shared first place at Lone Pine just prior to this event.

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Until the books I have ordered come in, and I have a chance to do further research, this is all the information I can give you at this time. But I can promise you, I will not forget about this event! There is more coming!

Name	Fide Rating	Fide Rank	Sonas Rating	Sonas Rank
A. Karpov	2705	?	2786	# 1
L. Portisch	2640	?	2701	# 5
B. Spassky	2640	?	2689	# 6
J. Timman	2625	?	2651	# 14
B. Larsen	2620	?	2672	# 11
M. Tal	2615	?	2715	# 3
V. Hort	2600	?	2644	# 18
R. Hüebner	2595	?	2640	# 20
L. Kavalek	2590	?	2621	# 31
L. Ljubojevic	2590	? (info?)	2635	# 25

These ratings for FIDE were taken from the FIDE yearbook. (1978.)

The Sonas Ratings were taken from his February, 1979 rating list.

It seems that every one of these players were solidly in the "Top 50." Further, we have 8 of the world's current "Top 20." (!)

- The average FIDE rating was 2623. (Cat. # 15)
- The average SONAS rating was 2675. (Cat. # 17!)

This means this event was/is VERY strong ... maybe in the the top 10-20 tournaments ever held! I have now, (Aug. 8th); gone over close to 30 of these games. I can safely tell you that this tournament produced some very good, high-quality and fighting chess. (Maybe more so than five Linares events. There are almost NO short draws!)

I have written several people who were part of this tournament.

I have also gotten two e-mails, (see below) ... and 1 letter ... from people who were there. This page is dedicated to the history of the event, and while I will not promise to print everything I receive, it is nice to hear from people who were actually there. What I really would like is some photo's. If someone would like to send me some pics ... as an e-mail attachment ... I would greatly appreciate it.

> --- Michael Kennedy <mnk@pathcom.com> wrote:
To: A.J. (Aug, 2003.)
I was a spectator at the Montreal 1979 tournament for two of the rounds ... have fond memories of an absolutely superb venue. The tournament was well organized, especially from a spectator's perspective, and it was a real thrill to see all of that chess talent ... on one big stage.
Michael Kennedy; Stouffville, Ontario. --> CFC 2299
(Used by permission.)

08/06/03 I have already received one of the books I ordered on this tournament ... the one by Tal, Roshal, etc. But I have not had a chance to study any of the games or even read it much. (I take my time.)

04/20/05 I have gotten several e-mails in the past few weeks about this page. (I have not forgotten about it, but have been working on many other projects. Not only this, a hard drive crash wiped out just about all the data that I had been generating on this tournament.) I will probably have to re-do a lot of the material intended for this page.

Click HERE to return to my Home Page.

Click HERE to return to my page ...
on "The Best Chess Tournaments of All Time."

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Page last up-dated: Thursday; August, 21st, 2003. Last edit/save on: 05/04/2015 .

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