Interleague championship

1967

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 Tot
1 De Bruycker, Bernard BEL 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 Borodin, Vladimir RUS 0 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1
3 Bonne, Marck BEL ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ + 6
4 Schumacher, Helmut BEL 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 6
5 Verstraeten, Roeland BEL 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 1 + + 6
6 Mertens, Paul BEL 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 + 1 (1) 6
7 Tonoli, José BEL 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 1 1 + + (1)
8 Meunier BEL 0 0 ½ ½ 1 0 0 1 0 1 (1) 4
9 Smulders, Kurt NED 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 1 +
10 Lieutenant, Georges BEL 0 0 ½ 0 1 0
11 Peters BEL 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½
Riddell, John ENG 0 0 0 (0)

De Bruycker’s victory was never really in doubt; he beat his only real competitor, Borodin, in round 8. This qualified, him, together with Borodin and (on tie-breaks) Bonne and Schumacher for the Belgian championship.The tournament suffered from three withdrawals. Riddell’s results were cancelled, Peters’ and Lieutenant’s remaining opponent got a point by forfeit. Note that my source ([1]) gives Lieutenant’s only victory against Mertens instead of Meunier. However, that is not compatible with the other results and final standings the same source mentions.

There was a big to-do about the Schumacher–Mertens game. The following is based on Mertens’ account as published in [1]. Schumacher had white, so the game was supposed to be played in his club in Eupen, on July 2nd. As Schumacher couldn’t play that day, it was rescheduled to Wednesday, July 5th. However, on that day, Mertens got in a car crash and the game was delayed to July 11th. This was agreed to by Everaert, the tournament director of the Belgian Chess Federation. On July 9th Mertens was called by Schumacher who didn’t want to play on that day after all. The game was again rescheduled by Mr. Everaert, this time to August 6th. Schumacher couldn’t play that day either and Everaert decided he had won by forfeit. Obviously, Mertens protested and the Belgian Chess Federation decided in a special meeting that the game was to be played on August 30th. When the game was finally played, there was a pièce  touchée case and a claim that black lost on time. As no official was present, it was claim against claim. Apparently, it was decided in favour of Schumacher.

Wanted

  • Most games.
  • The exact dates (and locations) of the games.
  • First names for Peters and Meunier.

Sources

  1. De Volksgazet 09/05 — 05/09/1967
  ( ) -   ( )
  ( )

Download games
ChessTempo PGN Viewer