Averbakh Likelv Winner

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31249, 22 December 1966, Page 14

Averbakh Likelv Winner

The winner of the Canterbury Chess Club’s centennial tournament should, logically, be Y. L. Averbakh, said Mr A. S. Hollander, president of the Canterbury Chess Club. Averbakh has twice been champion of Russia, a country where 10 million people played chess, and has won many major tournaments in several countries.

The finishing order of other players was open to speculation, Mr Hollander said. Apart from the ability to play chess, a great deal of physical stamina was required in a tournament of this nature, and experience had shown that players who did not have the capacity to stand the strain of several harrowing rounds in a major touma-

ment suffered in the results. The New Zealand champion, O. Sarapu, of Auckland, was expected to take second prize, notwithstanding the very strong competition from the Filipino international master, R. C. T. Cardoso, and from J. Alexander, who had been Arizona State champion and the Albuquerque (New Mexico) open champion of 1965, and P. Dosza, a former Hungarian champion now living in Australia. Competition could also be expected from F. Flatow and M. Fuller, from Sydney, and the two young Canterbury players, B. R. Anderson and A. Wilkinson. Two strong Melbourne players, R. Brent and D. Hester, could also be in the running, Mr' Hollander said.