Reykjavik 1978

In the Crystal Hall of Hótel Loftleiðir, the Icelandic Chess Federation staged an experiment: a premier fourteen-player international at the fastest time control top-level chess had yet seen. The gamble produced hard-fought, spectator-friendly chess before crowds of hundreds — and a clear winner in Walter Browne, the three-time US champion, who took first with 9/13 ahead of England's Tony Miles.

◇An experiment in the Crystal Hall

The Icelandic Chess Federation ran thirteen rounds in sixteen days in the Kristalsalur of Hótel Loftleiðir, with a time control of ninety minutes for the first thirty moves — the fastest ever used in a premier international to that point. Organizers added point money on top of the prize fund of 2,200 US dollars for first: 50 dollars per win, 10 per draw, 15 per loss, a structure that rewarded fighting chess. Guðmundur Arnlaugsson was chief arbiter.

The formula worked. Games finished faster, adjournments grew rare, and 400 to 600 spectators turned out every round to watch a field that set grandmasters Bent Larsen, Vlastimil Hort, Lev Polugaevsky, Tony Miles, William Lombardy, Jan Smejkal, Gennady Kuzmin, and Friðrik Ólafsson against Iceland's rising generation.

◇Browne in front, Larsen in freefall

Browne's seven wins carried him to 9/13 and clear first, half a point ahead of Miles, who lost only once. The dramatic collapse belonged to Bent Larsen: leading late, the Dane lost his last three games — including a final-round defeat by 18-year-old Margeir Pétursson that brought the house down — and tumbled into a four-way tie for third on 8 with Ólafsson, Lombardy, and Hort.

For the home crowd the quiet triumph was Friðrik Ólafsson, who went through the event undefeated on ten draws and three wins after a difficult previous year; later in 1978 he would be elected president of FIDE, succeeding Max Euwe. The young Icelanders — Pétursson, 17-year-old Jón L. Árnason, and Helgi Ólafsson — finished at the bottom of the table but, as Browne wrote, gained invaluable experience.

“The time control of 30/90 followed by 20/1 was the fastest ever used in a premier international chess tourney. It was a constant delight to the spectators, who witnessed more exciting and faster paced games.”