The first of the three 1987 Interzonals ended in a photo finish. Gyula Sax, Nigel Short and Jonathan Speelman all tied for first place, and all three won through to the Candidates — the step that launched the 22-year-old Short toward a decade among the world's elite.
A three-way tie for first
Subotica was one of three 1987 Interzonals feeding the Candidates cycle, and it finished as tightly as any of them. Gyula Sax, Nigel Short and Jonathan Speelman each scored 10½/15, and with the top three qualifying, all three advanced. Sax was placed first on the Sonneborn–Berger tie-break (74.25, ahead of Short's 73.00 and Speelman's 70.75), but the three shared the title on equal points.
Just half a point behind, Zoltán Ribli and Mikhail Tal tied for fourth on 10, agonisingly short of a qualifying place in a field that also featured Vassily Smyslov, Alexander Chernin and the American Lev Alburt.
Reserves and withdrawals
Ribli and Tal, level on 10, were left to contest the first-reserve place. A play-off was arranged, but Ribli declined to play it, so Tal took the reserve spot. Robert Hübner, who was entitled to compete, withdrew before the tournament began as part of his boycott of FIDE events, and Lubomír Kavalek withdrew after the early rounds through illness; his results were annulled from the other players' totals in the official standings.
Because Kavalek's games are preserved in this archive, the auto-computed cross-table counts them where the official table does not — which is why the collection shows Short a half-point clear at the top rather than level with Sax and Speelman. The historical result is the three-way tie for first.
“The first Interzonal Tournament, in Subotica, Yugoslavia, has ended in a tie for first place among Nigel Short and Jonathan Speelman of Britain and Gyula Sax of Hungary.”
Short's ascent
For Nigel Short the Interzonal was a springboard. From Subotica he went on through the Candidates matches of the late 1980s and, in 1993, became the first Englishman to play for the undisputed world championship, challenging Garry Kasparov. Subotica 1987 is where that run began.
Final standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =1 | Sax, Gyula | 10½/15 | +7 -1 =7 | games |
| =1 | Short, Nigel D | 10½/15 | +7 -1 =7 | games |
| =1 | Speelman, Jonathan S | 10½/15 | +7 -1 =7 | games |
| =4 | Ribli, Zoltan | 10/15 | +7 -2 =6 | games |
| =4 | Tal, Mikhail | 10/15 | +6 -1 =8 | games |
| 6 | Rodriguez Cespedes, Amador | 8½/15 | +5 -3 =7 | games |
| 7 | Marjanovic, Slavoljub | 8/15 | +4 -3 =8 | games |
| =8 | Chernin, Alexander | 7½/15 | +5 -5 =5 | games |
| =8 | Smyslov, Vasily V | 7½/15 | +3 -3 =9 | games |
| 10 | Popovic, Petar | 7/15 | +4 -5 =6 | games |
| 11 | Zapata, Alonso | 6½/15 | +5 -7 =3 | games |
| 12 | Ernst, Thomas | 6/15 | +5 -8 =2 | games |
| 13 | Alburt, Lev O | 5½/15 | +2 -6 =7 | games |
| 14 | Xu, Jun | 5/15 | +2 -7 =6 | games |
| 15 | Prasad, Devaki V | 4/15 | +2 -9 =4 | games |
| 16 | Hamed, Ahmed | 3/15 | +1 -10 =4 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sax, Gyula | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Short, Nigel D | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 3 | Speelman, Jonathan S | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Ribli, Zoltan | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | Tal, Mikhail | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 6 | Rodriguez Cespedes, Amador | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | Marjanovic, Slavoljub | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Chernin, Alexander | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | Smyslov, Vasily V | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | |
| 10 | Popovic, Petar | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | |
| 11 | Zapata, Alonso | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 12 | Ernst, Thomas | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 13 | Alburt, Lev O | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | |
| 14 | Xu, Jun | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | |
| 15 | Prasad, Devaki V | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | |
| 16 | Hamed, Ahmed | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player.