First and Second Piatigorsky Cup

2 volumes: xix+240 pages with frontispiece illustrations (including portraits) table, diagrams and index; xxxiii+288 pages with illustrations, table, diagrams and index. Royal octavo (9 1/4" x 6 1/4") volume one bound in original red with silver lettering to spine and black and silver decorative cover in original pictorial jacket; volume two bound in original publisher's sea green with silver lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. (Betts: 25-340; 25-388) First editions.

Volume one annotated by Samuel Reshevsky and other participants. All 56 games, annotated, with an index of openings. Each competitor annotated the game he considered his best and Reshevsky the remainder. Volume two annotated by Jan H Donner, Tigran Petrosian, Robert Fischer, Lajos Portisch, Boris Ivkov, Samuel Reshevesky, Bent Larsen Minguel Najdorf, Wolfgang Unzicker. Introduction by Gregor Piatigorsky. All 90 games annotated with an index of openings.

In 1963 famous cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and his wife Jaqueline gave a cup through the Piatigorsky Foundation for a chess tournament (1) that would include two grandmasters from the USSR and two grandmasters from the USA. Four grandmasters from other countries filled out the playing list. The final player line-up consisted of Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, Samuel Reshevsky, Pal Benko, Fridrik Olafsson, Svetozar Gligoric, Oscar Panno and Miguel Najdorf. The tournament ran from the 2nd of July to the 30th of July 1963 in Los Angeles, USA. The players met in a double round all-play-all and the joint winners Petrosian and Keres returned to the Soviet Union with more than half of the $10,000 prize fund offered by the Piatigorsky Foundation. After the New York (1927) event, this tournament was the strongest until such time to be held in the USA.

After the success of the First Piatigorsky Cup (1963), the second was organized by Gregor and Jacqueline Piatigorsky in Santa Monica, California from July 17-August 15, 1966, with Isaac Kashdan directing. The stellar field included the current and next two World Champions plus a slew of Candidates-level grandmasters in a double-round robin event: Jan Hein Donner, Robert James Fischer, Borislav Ivkov, Bent Larsen, Miguel Najdorf, Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian, Lajos Portisch, Samuel Reshevsky, Boris Spassky, Wolfgang Unzicker. The Piatigorskys invited both Reshevsky and Fischer in spite of the Fischer - Reshevsky (1961) match fiasco. Spassky played steadily and was at or near the lead most of the way, unsheathing his claws when the time was right. Larsen gave him some competition for a while, even taking the lead in Round 10, but three losses in a row (the last being to Spassky) put an end to his challenge. But it was Fischer who captured everybody's attention and made this into a "Tale of Two Tournaments". In the first half, a three-game losing streak (the last being to Spassky) left him in ninth place at the halfway mark, 2.5 points behind Spassky. Nothing daunted, he won his first four games in the second go-around and caught Spassky by round 16. Their draw in round 17 didn't change anything, but the last round saw Fischer with Black against Petrosian while Spassky had White against tail-ender Donner. Petrosian had been having a lousy tournament, his two losses to Larsen both being of the immortal variety. In final round he hunkered down and secured a draw with Fischer, while Spassky demolished Donner to take first place. In fact, Petrosian's even score made him the first world champion since Alekhine to achieve "only" an even score in a tournament.

Condition:

Corners and spine heals bumped. Jacket First Piatigorsky Cup with edge chips and tears, three inch lacking from spine, corners chipped. Second Piatigorsky Cup spine ends, corners and edges chipped with tears else a very good set in good jacket.