Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Saturday, September 06, 1958
Scoring of U.S. Teen Champ In Chess Tourney Amazing
Astonishing is a mild term to describe the scoring position of Robert Fischer, 15-year-old American champion, in the Interzonal Tournament at Portoroz, Yugoslavia.
In games lost he stands one behind the leader, Mikhail Tal, twice champion of Russia. The round-robin of 20 games has only four more to completion and the vital question is what players will finish among the first six. These will be accredited to play in the challenge round; the winner of that match to play Mikhail Botvinnik for the world title.
Fischer is the only player to appear in his first international tourney among the grandmasters entered at Portoroz.
CANADA's Geza Fuster, in last place with a lost column score of 14, is weak only in comparison to his present formidable opposition.
Your chess editor has found him well deserving of his mastership in private encounter, as have all his opponents on this continent, but adversaries like Bronstein, Gligoric, Averbakh, Petrosian and Tal and the others whose names are in the celestial sphere are quite another thing.
Attorney James Sherwin, the other American entry, has a games lost score of 7½, only 2½ behind the leader, yet he is in seventeenth place, an indication of how closely contested the Interzonal is, how desperately each half-point is fought for.
