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Chess 31 Oct 1959, Sat The Montreal Star (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Newspapers.com
Let's Play Chess
Chess Final Problematical With Solitary Round to Go
By William Oaker
With only one round remaining in the Challenger's tourney, at Bled, Yugoslavia, the result still remains in doubt, as Paul Keres has staged a tremendous comeback, to draw within one point of the young Soviet star, Mikhail Tal.
However, he did it the hard way, by defeating Tal, himself, in the 24th round, thus drawing within a point-and-a-half of the leader with four rounds to go. Neither player made any headway in the 25th round, with both drawing their respective games. In round 26, however, Keres defeated Paul Benko, of the U.S.A., while Tal could only draw against Tigran Petrosian, of the Soviet Union.
Thus the stage was set for the 27th round. Tal had 18½ and Keres had 17½.
Keres was paired with Svetozar Gligoric, of Yugoslavia, while Tal had to face Bobby Fischer, of the U.S.A. This latter game was one of the most exciting games in the 28-round tourney. More than 3,000 spectators were on hand.
At first, the 16-year-old Brooklyn wizard seemed more than equal to the occasion. By the time 25 moves had been made, Tal was in a hopeless position — hopeless, that is, for anyone but Tal. Calling forth his marvelous ability to create bewildering complications, he arrived at a position so distorted that, it was beyond anyone's ability to analyze. As usually happens, his opponent slipped instead of the Russian. When the adjournment was reached, Fischer had a lost end game. Tal had once again worked his magic.
Meanwhile, Keres was playing the game of his life, and he gradually crushed his opponent with a positional bind.
Now, with the last round coming up, everything hangs by the result of two individual games. Tal is scheduled to play Benko, while Keres is paired against Olafsson, of Iceland. In order for Keres to win the tourney he must defeat Olafsson and hope that Tal succumbs to Benko. Should Tal win or draw, of course, then he will be the youngest player to ever qualify to play in a match for the world championship.
