Twenty-three years after his first title here, Miguel Najdorf produced one of the great late performances of his career: ten wins, five draws, no losses for 12½/15 in the 27th Mar del Plata international, a point and a half clear of the brilliant Soviet attacker Leonid Stein — whom he beat with the black pieces along the way.
The 27th Mar del Plata
Sixteen players contested the 1965 edition, a single round-robin of 120 games over fifteen rounds. The Soviet delegation of Leonid Stein and Yuri Averbakh headlined the visitors, joined by the Hungarian-American grandmaster Pal Benko and Romania's young star Florin Gheorghiu. The home ranks ran deep: alongside Najdorf came Julio Bolbochán, Oscar Panno, Raúl Sanguineti, Héctor Rossetto, Hermann Pilnik, Raimundo García, Alberto Foguelman, Vicente Palermo, Jorge Behrensen, and Carlos Bielicki.
Najdorf's late masterpiece
Najdorf, 54 years old and a fixture at this event since the early 1940s, simply refused to concede anything: ten wins and five draws left him unbeaten on 12½/15. The decisive moment came in round six, when he took the black pieces against Stein and won. Stein — who would claim the Soviet Championship at Tallinn later that year and again at Tbilisi in 1966 — fought back furiously with nine wins, but two defeats held him to 11 and clear second. Averbakh, unbeaten himself, took third on 10½ ahead of a three-way tie on 9½ between Panno, Benko, and Bolbochán.
For Najdorf it extended an association with Mar del Plata unmatched in tournament chess: he had won the international in 1942, 1944 (shared with Pilnik), 1945, 1946, 1948, and 1961, and now added yet another title in his sixth decade — a point-and-a-half beating of a field containing two of the Soviet Union's leading grandmasters.
Final standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Najdorf, Miguel | 12½/15 | +10 -0 =5 | games |
| 2 | Stein, Leonid | 11/15 | +9 -2 =4 | games |
| 3 | Averbakh, Yuri L | 10½/15 | +6 -0 =9 | games |
| =4 | Panno, Oscar | 9½/15 | +6 -2 =7 | games |
| =4 | Benko, Pal C | 9½/15 | +5 -1 =9 | games |
| =4 | Bolbochan, Julio | 9½/15 | +4 -0 =11 | games |
| 7 | Gheorghiu, Florin | 9/15 | +5 -2 =8 | games |
| 8 | Sanguineti, Raul | 8½/15 | +5 -3 =7 | games |
| 9 | Rossetto, Hector | 8/15 | +4 -3 =8 | games |
| =10 | Cruz, Raul C | 6/15 | +4 -7 =4 | games |
| =10 | Garcia, Raimundo | 6/15 | +3 -6 =6 | games |
| 12 | Pilnik, Hermann | 5½/15 | +4 -8 =3 | games |
| 13 | Palermo, Vicente | 5/15 | +4 -9 =2 | games |
| =14 | Bielicki, Carlos | 3½/15 | +1 -9 =5 | games |
| =14 | Foguelman, Alberto | 3½/15 | +1 -9 =5 | games |
| 16 | Behrensen, Jorge | 2½/15 | +1 -11 =3 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Najdorf, Miguel | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Stein, Leonid | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Averbakh, Yuri L | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | |
| 4 | Panno, Oscar | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | Benko, Pal C | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 6 | Bolbochan, Julio | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | |
| 7 | Gheorghiu, Florin | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Sanguineti, Raul | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 9 | Rossetto, Hector | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 10 | Cruz, Raul C | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | |
| 11 | Garcia, Raimundo | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | |
| 12 | Pilnik, Hermann | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 13 | Palermo, Vicente | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 14 | Bielicki, Carlos | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | |
| 15 | Foguelman, Alberto | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | |
| 16 | Behrensen, Jorge | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player.