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Chess for All 10 May 1958, Sat The Crewe Chronicle (Crewe, Cheshire, England) Newspapers.com
The Russian Championship was won this year for the second time in succession by the young Tal. As can be seen from the table below, a whole galaxy of stars participated in this, the world's strongest annual event.
Two factors made this year's event especially interesting. First, the defending champion, Tal, is a native of Riga, where the championship was held this year. The local interest, we are told, was tremendous, and over 20,000 people applied for tickets.
Universal interest was created by the high standard of the competitors although World Champion Smyslov, and his challenger, Botvinnik, were missing, as was the winner of the 1958 Hastings Tournament, Keres. The former pair were preparing for their World Championship match, which is now being played, while Keres considered the event too close to his battles at Hastings.
Qualifying event
The second factor which made for special interest was this, that the Russian Championship was also the qualifying event for the World Interzonal Tournament, which will be held in Yugoslavia this coming August. In this Inter-zonal Tournament, twenty-two of the world's best will be competing for the much-coveted five places in the Candidates' Tournament for the World Championship of the following year, in which the West hopes to see participating 14-year-old Bobby Fischer of the U.S.A.
