As much as 14 years passed until the American teams met again at successive Panamerican Championship held in a small beach town in Argentina called Villa Gesell (BTW it is named after Carlos Gesell, a mildly eccentric outsider of German descent who in 1931 bought a stretch of coastal land, largely dominated by still moving and seemingly useless sand dunes, then stabilized the dunes founding a new spa). Only seven teams arrived, excluding Cuba who were major absentees.

Of competing teams Brazil and Argentina seemed to be strongest sides. The hosts were led by GM trio Najdorf (decades after his prime, but still full of energy and experience), Quinteros and Panno. Brazil sent a quintet of decent IMs with Sunyé Neto (Elo 2510) at top board. Chile were led by IMs Morovic and Cifuentes, rated just 18 Elo points behing Brazil on the seeding list. Then came Paraguay (IM Franco) and Peru (IM Granda Zuñiga). Uruguay and Bolivia were outsiders of the event.

On day one Argentina won 3½-½ while the Brazilians scored a clear 4-0 vs Paraguay. Chile lost to Peru to immediately be left far behind the leaders. The Chileans stroke back though on the next day defeating Brazil. Sunyé Neto beat Morovic at top board but Chile picked two wins at lower boards. Yet Brazil retained the lead as Argentina had the rest day. On day three Argentina wiped out Peru 3½-½ while Brazil dropped two fractions vs Uruguay. Chile kept the sinusoidal route beating unrated Bolivia by the smallest possible margin. The match of two major contenders took part in the fourth round. Filguth's win over Ricardi at board #3 was compensated by Panno defeating Brazilian Milos at board #2. Brazil picked decisive point on an adjournment session as Sunyé Neto scored the highly aesthetical win over Quinteros to extend Brazil's edge over Argentina to 2½ points (the Brazilians, however, had one match less to play). Chile moved into second, 1½ point behind the leaders. On fifth round, however, Brazil beat Peru by only 2½-1½ while Argentina won easily all four games vs Bolivia. On penultimate round Brazil had an unpaid bye while Argentina moved into the nose beating Paraguay 3-1. With last round to go Argentina had clear 2 point advantage and superior match point record but had to play third placed Chile yet, while Brazil had theoretically easy run vs Bolivia. The hosts managed however to score three draws and one win to get exactly what they needed to defend the title. Moreover, Brazil beat Bolivia by only 3-1 (Milos lost to Chávez). Chile took bronze ahead of Peru.

Panno's 5½/6 was best overall individual score. Sunyé Neto of Brazil took another prize for best individual result achieving 4½/5 at top board. Cifuentes Parada of Chile was best at board #2 with 4/5 while three Argentinians (Barbero, Soppe and Ricardi) took prizes at bottom boards equally scoring 3/4 each. Other notable performances: Almada (Uruguay) 3½/5 and unrated Chávez Chávez of Bolivia (only 3/6 but Elo performed 2516!).