In the Autumn of 1966, Tigran Petrosian, the wily Grandmaster from Armenia, had recently defeated his fellow Soviet challenger Boris Spassky, to become the first reigning champion to win a title match since 1934. Meanwhile, a rampant Bobby Fischer was actively staking his future claim to the title, while the Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen, having annihilated Petrosian in two games from a tournament in Santa Monica, was about to embark on a triumphal tournament procession — the best year of his life. The year 1967 was, indeed, to become Larsen’s annus mirabilis.
All of the above cast, not to mention the author of this column, had assembled in the latter part of 1966 for the Havana Olympiad, or world team competition. This huge event was presided over by the cigar-smoking…
