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Chess For All 18 Oct 1958, Sat Nantwich Chronicle (Nantwich, Cheshire, England) Newspapers.comChess players throughout the world have recently had all their doubts about the greatness of Bobby Fischer expelled by his success in the Interzonal Tournament at Portoroz. The first six in this tournament are to join Smyslov and Keres in the Candidates' Tournament, the winner of which plays the present World Champion, Botvinnik, for chess's greatest honour. As may be seen from the table below, the 15-year-old American prodigy finished equal fifth, thus qualifying for “the Candidates.”
The winner of the Portoroz Tournament, Tal, is at 22 a comparatively old hand at the game. His win surprised nobody, following as it did his two successive firsts in the Russian Championship. The rise of the political refugee, Benko, to World Championship class is worthy of note. Few knew of his existence before this event. Noteworthy, too, is the “failure” of the U.S.S.R.—only two of the six are Russians. However, both Smyslov and Keres come from Russia, as does World Champion Botvinnik.
Here is the list of the top thirteen of this tournament, the figures in brackets being the ages of the qualifiers