Interzonal Palma de Mallorca 1970 Poster

The Interzonal Chess Tournament held in Palma de Mallorca in 1970 became the last major chess tournament of Bobby Fischer, before embarking on the series of Candidates matches leading to the World Championship match with Spassky in 1972. This gruelling 23 round tournament ran from 9th November to 13th December 1970. The tournament included 15 Grandmasters and 9 International Masters, all battling for the six available places in the Candidates, for which Petrosian and Korchnoi were already qualified.Fischer scored seven victories in a row in the last seven games of the tournament — an astounding performance, which came before his 13 consecutive victories in the three Candidates’ matches against Taimanov, Larsen and Petrosian. In the end, he gained the right to challenge the Soviet representative and reigning champion. This Interzonal Tournament is considered to be the strongest in chess history.