For this match, both candidates had qualified from the Riga Interzonal (1979). The other quarterfinal matches were: Korchnoi - Petrosian Candidates Quarterfinal (1980), Portisch - Spassky Candidates Quarterfinal (1980) and Huebner - Adorjan Candidates Quarterfinal (1980). In all matches, the winner was the first to get 5,5 points.

Picture: https://niktips.files.wordpress.com...

The venue was House of Officers in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan.1 Tal had crushingly defeated Polugaevsky in Riga and won by a large margin.2 He was the favorite also by rating. The match was scheduled for 9 March, and then set to 23 March because Tal was sick.3 According to the regulations, the players had three times the right to defer a game.4 Tal used this right before game 2, before the resumption of game 25, 6 and before game 5 (which was scheduled for 4 April).7 Polugaevsky asked for extra rest before game 5 as well.8

Alma Ata (Kazakhstan) 24 March - 12 April 1980

                  Elo   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  Pts
1 GM Polugaevsky  2635  1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½  5½
2 GM Tal          2705  0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½  2½

1http://www.chesslibrary.ru/publ/ehn.... 2Harry Golombek in The Times 9 February 1980 p. 10. 3Leeuwarder Courant 10 March 1980 p. 25. 4De Telegraaf 18 March 1980 p. 23. 5De Telegraaf 27 March 1980 p. 27. 6Leeuwarder Courant 29 March 1980 p. 9. 7Het Vrije Volk 5 April 1980 p. 13. 8Nieuwsblad van het Noorden 5 April 1980 p. 23. 9FIDE Rating List January 1981: http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198....

Elo is from the FIDE Rating List January 1980: http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198.... Game dates are from various newspapers, mainly the Dutch ones at http://kranten.delpher.nl/. Thanks to User: zanzibar for providing the picture.

Original collections: Game Collection: 0 by User: TheFocus and Game Collection: Polugaevsky - Tal Candidates Quarterfinal 1980 by User: Tabanus.