New York Times, New York, New York, Wednesday, October 28, 1959
Tal Beats Fischer And Retains Lead
Latvian Wins in 52 Moves and Nears Chess Prize With One Round Left
Mikhail Tal and Paul Keres, Soviet grand masters, were still first and second, respectively, in the challengers' chess tournament at Belgrade last night after the completion of twenty-seven rounds, according to a report from Yugoslavia.
Both played adjoined games, with Tal remaining a point ahead of Keres after defeating Bobby Fischer, the United States champion, in fifty-two moves. Tal has a score of 19½-7½, Keres 18½-8½.
With only one more round to be contested, Tal needs merely to draw his final game with Paul Benko of New York in order to emerge as the challenger for the world title held by Mikhail Botvinnik of the Soviet Union.
Keres can tie Tal for the lead in the final round if he wins from Fridrik Olafsson of Iceland, and if Tal loses to Benko, a Hungarian refugee. Thus far Benko has lost three times to Tal, who is a Latvian.
Tal Keeps Slate Clean
Tal's victory in his adjourned twenty-seventh-round game with Fischer made his score 4—0 against the Brooklyn chess prodigy. The Latvian player was reported to have been fortunate in surviving the onslaught by Fischer and had the better prospects at the end of the first session. Upon resumption, Tal won a pawn and had fairly smooth sailing after that.
Four of the unfinished games were decided without further play. In one of them, Keres accepted the resignation of Svetozar Gligoric of Yugoslavia after forty-one moves.
Fischer won his twenty-sixth-round match with Olafsson, which had gone to forty-one moves, in a similar fashion. His final score with the Icelander found him ahead, 2½—1½.
Olafsson also lost in forty-one moves to Vassily Smyslov of the Soviet Union in a twenty-seventh-round match. The game between Benko and Tigran Petrosian, of the U.S.S.R., was recorded as a draw in forty-three moves.
Last Round Tomorrow
The pairings for the twenty-eighth round, scheduled to start tomorrow:
Tal vs. Benko, Petrosian vs. Gligoric, Keres vs. Olafsson and Smyslov vs. Fischer. Those first in each pairing will play white.
By winning in their fourth encounter in the tournament, Keres tied Fischer at 2-2.
The score:
