Tallinn 1973 International Chess Tournament

43 pages with photograph and table. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's stapled wrappers. (Lusis: 1679) First edition. Tallinn organized a large scale international tournament every 2 years. The 1973 edition was the strongest so far, with two ex world champions, former challenger Bronstein and the local ace Keres. After Sukhumi (1972), the USSR Championship (1972) and Hoogovens (1973), Mikhail Tal scored his 4th tournament victory in a row. There were speculations that he might continue in this vein and rise to challenge Robert James Fischer in 1975, but unfortunately three months later, at the Leningrad Interzonal (1973), he failed miserably. A point and half behind the leader was Lev Polugaevsky and followed by a distant shared third was Yuri Balashov, David Bronstein, Paul Keres and Boris Spassky all at 9 points each. The seventh spot was shared with Ulf Andersson and Iivo Nei at 8. Jan Timman captured sole ninth a half point behind and tenth was shared with Helmut Pfleger, Josef Pribyl and Boris Rytov all with 6.5. In descending order was Luben S Popov with 6; Hillar Karner with 5.5; Anthony Saidy with 4 and Heikki Westerinen at 3. Condition: Corners bumped, previous owner's name to title else a better than good copy.