The Guardian, London, Greater London, England, Friday, September 12, 1958
Portoroz Chess Tournament Ends: Benko, Fischer, and Olafsson Qualify
From a Chess Correspondent
Portoroz, September 11.
The third interzonal chess tournament ended here to-night. The six players who are to compete at the next candidates' tournament, the winner of which will challenge the world champion Botvinnik, are Tal, Gligoric, Petrosian, Benko, Fischer and Olafsson.
Until the last move there was a possibility that six people could share the sixth place if Olafsson drew against de Greiff in his last game before the curtain fell. However, the Icelander concluded six weeks of hard fight by beautifully mating the Columbian master in the fifty-third move.
In the most dramatic last round, played the night before in such a furious thunderstorm that the lights went off for a while and all telephone lines were cut, the outsider Cardoso, only third from the bottom, produced the biggest sensation of the whole tournament, be beating grandmaster Bronstein who went through twenty previous rounds as the only unbeaten competitor.
Bronstein was thus deprived of the opportunity to appear in the third candidates' tournament but the American champion, 15-year-old Bobby Fischer, took his chance to make chess history. He both qualified for the candidates' tournament and became the youngest grandmaster ever.
Fierce struggle
Fischer drew with Gligoric after a fierce struggle in which the Yugoslav champion tried very hard to win and to catch the leader Tal at the last bend. Tal drew with Sherwin and was congratulated by all other participants as a truly deserving winner. The other prospective candidates for the winning sector, Szabo and Pachman, could only draw with Panno and Sanguinetti respectively and were caught by Matanovic, who beat Larsen.
To win this tournament which will undoubtedly rate as one of the sharpest and most dynamic in chess history Tal won eight games, drew eleven, and lost one, Gligoric had the same number of wins but lost one more game. Of the other winners, Petrosian won six, drew thirteen, and lost one: Benko won seven, drew twelve, and lost two: Fischer won six, drew twelve, and lost two: and Olafsson won eight, drew eight, and lost four.
The final position was:
Tal (USSR) 13½, Gligoric (Yugoslavia) 13, Benko (stateless) and Petrosian (USSR) 12½, Fischer (USA) and Olafsson (Iceland) 12, Averbakh (USSR) and Bronstein (USSR) 11½, Matanovic (Yugoslavia), Pachman (Czechoslovakia), Szabo (Hungary), Filip (Czechoslovakia), and Panno (Argentina) 11, Sanguinetti (Argentina) 10, Neikirch (Bulgaria) 9½, Larsen (Denmark) 8½, Sherwin (USA) 7½ Rossetto (Argentina) 7, Cardoso (Philippines) 6, de Greiff (Columbia) 4½, Fuster (Canada) 2.
Nordic game
Not all the best games in the tournament were played by the Russians, who rather tended to dominate it. In the following Nordic game the Danish player Larsen was White and Olafsson, the Icelander, Black.
Bent Larsen vs Fridrik Olafsson
Portoroz Interzonal (1958), Portoroz SLO, rd 14, Aug-28
King's Indian Attack: Symmetrical Defense (A05) 0-1
