Bugojno, 1978

Jon Edwards

In 1978, Anatoly Karpov "prepared" for his coming World Championship match by taking part in the strongest 16-player chess tournament ever held. All 16 players were grandmasters with an average ELO rating of 2588 (Category 14).

February 26: International Chess Tournament, Bugojno, 1978

The 16 grandmasters were A. Karpov (USSR), B. Spassky (USSR), M. Tal (USSR), J. Timman (NET), B. Ivkov (YUG), L. Ljubojevic (YUG), M. Vukic (YUG), E. Bukic (YUG), S. Gligoric (YUG), V. Hort (CZE), B Larsen (DEN), Y. Balashov (SSR), R Huebner (W GER), A Miles (ENG), L. Portisch (HUN), and R. Byrne (USA).

February 27: Day of the Chess players from Argentina

Timman defeated Karpov early in the tournament, but the world champion recovered by winning 6 of his remaining games to tie Spassky for first place. This was Karpov's tenth first prize in the 12 tournaments in which he competed since becoming claiming the world championship from Fischer (the match that never occurred). Bugojno was the second in his remarkable streak of 9 consecutive tournament wins.

Don't miss Karpov's beautiful win in Round 12 against Vlastimil Hort.

The games of Bugojno, 1978
Crosstable

Bogojno 1978 was not only one of the strongest-ever chess tournaments, it may have produced more different postmarks than any other tournament.

A total of 14 different postmarks were produced during the tournament, not quite one for each of the 15 rounds in the tournament. The postmarks exist as both machine and hand cancels. I present a complete set of registered covers from the tournament. Note that 4 additional cancels were produced in Bogojno in the months just prior to the beginning of the tournament.

February 28: Day of the Chess players from Czechoslovakia

March 1: Day of the Chess players from Denmark

March 2: Day of the Chess players from England

March 3: Day of the Chess players from the Netherlands

March 6: Day of the Chess players from Hungary

March 7: Day of the Chess players from West Germany

March 9: Day of the Chess players from the United States

March 10: Day of the World Chess Champion

March 13: Day of the Chess players from the USSR

March 14: Day of the Chess players from Yugoslavia

March 15: Day of FIDE

March 15: International Chess Tournament, Bugojno, 1978