The Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Sunday, March 08, 1959
Soviet and Challengers Line Up
Tigran Petrosian won the 26th Soviet national chess championship. He was undefeated and topped ex-champion Mikhail Tahl by a full point. The rest of the field included Boris Spassky, Paul Keres, Mark Taimanov, Ewfim Geller, David Bronstein, Yuri Auerbach and V. Korchnoi. Petrosian, Tahl, Keres and ex-world champion Vassily Smyslov are the four Russian players who will compete in the challengers' tournament in Yugoslavia, during September and October. Bobby Fischer, Brooklyn; Paul Benko, New York (formerly of Hungary); Fridrik Olafsson, Iceland; and Svetozar Gligoric, Yugoslavia, complete the field.