ANew York Times, New York, New York, Tuesday, October 06, 1959
Tal Chess Leader With 11-5 Record
Beats Gligoric in 52 Moves and Overtakes Keres in Challengers' Tourney
Mikhail Tal took first place in the world challengers' chess tournament yesterday, according to a report received from Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
Tal, one of the four Soviet players competing, won his adjourned sixteenth-round game with Svetozar Gligoric of Yugoslavia in fifty-two moves. The victory gave him a score of 11—5, half a point better than Paul Keres of the Soviet Union, the previous pace-settler.
Regarded critically as the best game of the tournament and one of the longest was the victory of Fridrik Olafsson of Iceland over Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union, who is third in the standing. After the first five-hour session, during which Olafsson captured a pawn, four additional hours were required to reach a decision. Olafsson, however, is still in eighth place.
Bobby Fischer, the United States champion, also had an unfinished game with Petrosian, from the sixteenth round, but this, necessarily, was postponed until Thursday. The adjourned position is fairly even in a queen-and-pawn ending. Fischer is in sixth place with a score of 6½—8½.
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The score of one of Fischer's most hard-fought games was received yesterday.
It was his second encounter with Olafsson, in the twelfth round, and was won by the 16-year-old Brooklynite in seventy-eight moves.
Fischer had the white pieces in a Ruy Lopez, which followed familiar lines of attack and defense. Exercising great patience, he gradually gained a slight position advantage. On the seventy-second move he captured a pawn, and this soon led to victory.
