IBM Amsterdam 1976
The sixteenth IBM tournament ended with Viktor Korchnoi and the young English grandmaster Tony Miles sharing first place on 9½/15. The result alone was newsworthy — it was Miles's first major tournament win — but the event is remembered above all for what followed: within weeks, Korchnoi asked the Dutch authorities for political asylum, becoming the first leading Soviet grandmaster to defect to the West.
◈The sixteenth IBM
From 1961 to 1981 IBM sponsored a series of strong international tournaments in Amsterdam whose roll of main-group winners came to include five world champions. The 1976 edition drew sixteen grandmasters and masters for a single round-robin of 120 games.
At its head stood Viktor Korchnoi, the four-time Soviet champion who had taken Anatoly Karpov to the wire in the 1974 Candidates final. Against him came Tony Miles — in the same year that he became the first UK-born over-the-board grandmaster — alongside Hungary's Gyula Sax, Iván Faragó and the veteran László Szabó, Yugoslavia's Dragoljub Velimirović, Borislav Ivkov and Bojan Kurajica, Iceland's Fridrik Olafsson and Gudmundur Sigurjónsson, the Latvian Aivars Gipslis, and a large home contingent led by Jan Hein Donner and Hans Ree.
◈Korchnoi and Miles share it
Korchnoi and Miles finished level on 9½ from 15, half a point ahead of Sax on 9, with Velimirović and Faragó next on 8½ and Szabó on 8. For Miles it was his first major tournament win, achieved in the very year of his grandmaster title; for Korchnoi it was one more elite result in a career that was about to change course entirely.
The archive's cross table preserves one curiosity of the event: Aivars Gipslis drew every one of his fifteen games.
◈"Political asylum"
At the closing ceremony the two joint winners sat together, and in a quiet conversation Korchnoi asked Miles how to write political asylum in English. Before the month was out he had presented himself to the Dutch authorities and asked for exactly that, leaving his wife and son behind in the Soviet Union.
The Soviet reaction was ferocious. On 27 July 1976 TASS denounced the defector, an open letter condemning him was signed by 31 Soviet players, and the USSR went on to boycott events in which Korchnoi appeared. Korchnoi stayed first in the Netherlands, then settled in Switzerland by 1978 — and fought Karpov for the world title in 1978 and again in 1981.
◈Final Standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =1 | Kortschnoj, Viktor Lvovich | 9½/15 | +5 -1 =9 | games → |
| =1 | Miles, Anthony John | 9½/15 | +5 -1 =9 | games → |
| 3 | Sax, Gyula | 9/15 | +5 -2 =8 | games → |
| 4 | Velimirovic, Dragoljub | 8½/15 | +6 -4 =5 | games → |
| 5 | Farago, Ivan | 8½/15 | +4 -2 =9 | games → |
| 6 | Szabo, Laszlo | 8/15 | +4 -3 =8 | games → |
| 7 | Bohm, Hans | 7½/15 | +6 -6 =3 | games → |
| 8 | Sigurjonsson, Gudmundur | 7½/15 | +3 -3 =9 | games → |
| 9 | Kurajica, Bojan | 7½/15 | +1 -1 =13 | games → |
| 10 | Gipslis, Aivars P | 7½/15 | +0 -0 =15 | games → |
| 11 | Olafsson, Fridrik | 7/15 | +2 -3 =10 | games → |
| 12 | Ivkov, Borislav | 7/15 | +0 -1 =14 | games → |
| 13 | Ree, Hans | 6½/15 | +3 -5 =7 | games → |
| 14 | Langeweg, Kick | 6/15 | +3 -6 =6 | games → |
| 15 | Ligterink, Gert | 5½/15 | +3 -7 =5 | games → |
| 16 | Donner, Jan Hein | 5/15 | +2 -7 =6 | games → |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kortschnoj, Viktor Lvovich | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Miles, Anthony John | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | |
| 3 | Sax, Gyula | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 4 | Velimirovic, Dragoljub | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | |
| 5 | Farago, Ivan | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | |
| 6 | Szabo, Laszlo | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 7 | Bohm, Hans | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Sigurjonsson, Gudmundur | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | |
| 9 | Kurajica, Bojan | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | |
| 10 | Gipslis, Aivars P | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | |
| 11 | Olafsson, Fridrik | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | |
| 12 | Ivkov, Borislav | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | |
| 13 | Ree, Hans | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 14 | Langeweg, Kick | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 15 | Ligterink, Gert | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 16 | Donner, Jan Hein | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Each cell shows the row player's per-game results against the column player (in round order). ● = same player.
“The despicable act... can only fill us with a feeling of total indignation and contempt.”