Only an international master, he finished 1.5 points ahead of former world champions Mikhail Tal and Vasily Smyslov.

[2] Taimanov and Bernard Cafferty, in their book on the Soviet championships, described Savon's win "the least plausible result for decades".

It was claimed that Fischer's 6–0 wins against Larsen and Taimanov had hypnotised the top Soviet players, who were now following Petrosian's similar demise in the Candidates match that was to finish only days after this tournament.

Savon's next-best result in the Soviet championship came the following year, when he tied for 3rd–5th and qualified for the Interzonal.

[3] He did, however, achieve other good results in international competition; at Debrecen in 1970 (1st= with Bilek), at Sukhumi 1972 (2nd after Tal), at Vilnius 1975 (1st=), at Portorož 1977 (2nd= with Hort, after Larsen) and at Kyiv 1978 (2nd=).