1967 USSR Chess Championship

In fact, as early as the first round Lev Polugaevsky was incensed that he had to play such a strong opponent as Lutikov, whereas Mikhail Tal was paired with Hillar Kamer, to whom he had lost in a junior event a decade earlier.

His first-round experience was repeated in the last round when he had to play the strong grandmaster Ratmir Kholmov, whereas Tal had the easier task of meeting Valery Zhuravlyov.

In a sense Polugayevsky had declined a challenge since after the moves 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 in the penultimate round, Polugaevsky offered a draw to Tal, which was accepted.

Flohr praised the creative level of Evgeni Vasiukov games, attributing this to his recent joint study with Korchnoi.

Some future chess stars did make their debuts, such as Lev Alburt, Mark Dvoretsky, Boris Gulko, Gennady Sosonko, Evgeny Sveshnikov and Rafael Vaganian.