The eleventh Costa del Sol tournament grew to a fifteen-player field and handed Spain's Arturo Pomar a commanding win on home soil. Pomar, the first Spaniard to earn the grandmaster title, finished clear of a strong international entry that also caught several careers on the rise — among them the young Dutchman Jan Timman and a teenaged American, Kenneth Rogoff.
A bigger field on the coast
By 1971 the Costa del Sol tournament had run for a decade as one of the anchors of the Spanish chess calendar. The eleventh edition, held in Málaga, expanded to fifteen players — the largest field the event had yet assembled — for a single round-robin of fourteen rounds.
The tournament was played in May 1971, and American grandmaster Arthur Bisguier's account of it appeared in Chess Life & Review that August.
Pomar clear at the top
Arturo Pomar won outright with 11 points from 14 games, a point ahead of Bisguier. It was Pomar's third success in the series, after a shared first in 1961 and a win in 1964, and it came in front of home crowds against an international field.
Behind Bisguier, who took clear second on 10½, Romania's Victor Ciocâltea and the Hungarian-American grandmaster Pal Benko tied on 10, with the young Dutch master Jan Timman fifth on 9.
“I finished a good second with 10½ points and played some excellent chess.”
Careers on the rise
The lower half of the crosstable held names that would soon be far better known. Ljubomir Ljubojević, a future world top-ten grandmaster, and the eighteen-year-old American Kenneth Rogoff — later celebrated as an economist rather than a chess player — finished in the middle of the table, alongside veteran Spanish and Portuguese masters such as Antonio Medina and Joaquim Durão.
Final standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pomar Salamanca, Arturo | 11/14 | +8 -0 =6 | games |
| 2 | Bisguier, Arthur Bernard | 10½/14 | +8 -1 =5 | games |
| =3 | Ciocaltea, Victor | 10/14 | +7 -1 =6 | games |
| =3 | Benko, Pal C | 10/14 | +6 -0 =8 | games |
| 5 | Timman, Jan H | 9/14 | +8 -4 =2 | games |
| =6 | Medina Garcia, Antonio Angel | 8/14 | +6 -4 =4 | games |
| =6 | Ljubojevic, Ljubomir | 8/14 | +4 -2 =8 | games |
| 8 | Rogoff, Kenneth | 7½/14 | +5 -4 =5 | games |
| 9 | Palacios de la Prida, Ernesto | 7/14 | +5 -5 =4 | games |
| 10 | Visier Segovia, Fernando | 6½/14 | +2 -3 =9 | games |
| =11 | Durao, Joaquim Manuel | 5½/14 | +4 -7 =3 | games |
| =11 | Quinteros, Miguel Angel | 5½/14 | +2 -5 =7 | games |
| 13 | Huguet, Bernard | 3½/14 | +2 -9 =3 | games |
| =14 | Cardoso, Ruth | 1½/14 | +0 -11 =3 | games |
| =14 | Lacalle, Antonio | 1½/14 | +0 -11 =3 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pomar Salamanca, Arturo | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Bisguier, Arthur Bernard | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Ciocaltea, Victor | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Benko, Pal C | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | Timman, Jan H | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 6 | Medina Garcia, Antonio Angel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | Ljubojevic, Ljubomir | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Rogoff, Kenneth | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | Palacios de la Prida, Ernesto | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 10 | Visier Segovia, Fernando | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 11 | Durao, Joaquim Manuel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 12 | Quinteros, Miguel Angel | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | |
| 13 | Huguet, Bernard | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | |
| 14 | Cardoso, Ruth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | |
| 15 | Lacalle, Antonio | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player.