New York Times, New York, New York, Sunday, September 07, 1958
Fischer Retains Hopes of Gaining
U.S. Youth and 3 Russians in Strong Bids to Reach Challengers' Chess
As the end of the interzone chess at Portoroz, Yugoslavia, approaches the Russians are making a strong bid to land three of the six places in next year's challengers' tournament.
Bobby Fischer, the 15-year-old United States champion, also is in a good position to qualify. None of the four Russian contenders has been able to win from him. He drew with each—David Bronstein, Yuri Auerbach, Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian.
The most noteworthy of Fischer's performances was his game with Petrosian, who has been rivaling Tal, Soviet national champion, for first place.
Fischer, on the black side of a King's Indian defense, fought the grandmaster to a standstill in sixty-seven moves. Petrosian appeared to have the better of it, with two connected passed pawns. The Russian was first to queen a pawn, but the American resorted to a technical draw, possible because his pawn, having reached the seventh rank, was on the queen's bishop file. The game is included in the following selection received here from Portoroz: