In 1955, Samuel Reshevsky won the Rosenwald tournament (later the Rosenwald became the US Championship) in New York. Bobby Fischer played in his first tournament, the US Amateur, and scored 2.5-3.5. His provisional rating was 1826 (Class A).
In 1956, Fischer took first place in the US Junior Championship that was held in July. In October he defeated Donald Byrne in the Game of the Century in the Rosenwald. This year the Olympiad was held in Moscow and the USSR again comfortably took first place.
In 1957, William Lombardy won the World Junior championship with a perfect score. Fischer tied with Bisguier for the US Open championship. Reshevsky defeated Bisguier in a match, but the title of US champion was not at stake and Bisguier remained the title holder.
In 1958, Raymond Weinstein became the US Junior champion. Fischer, age 14, won the 1957/58 US Championship which was also a Zonal tournament.
During the period from 1954 to 1958 the World Championship was a fight between Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Botvinnik.
They met in 1954 and Botvinnik retained his title when the match was tied at 7 wins apiece with 10 draws. They met again in 1957 and Smyslov prevailed +6 -3 =13. Taking advantage of the rematch clause, they met again in 1958 and Botvinnik scored +7 -5 =11 to regain his title. If you're counting, Smyslov actually had the better score: +18 -17 =34.
Here's an exciting near-miniature that was the 9th game of their 1954 match.
Vasily Smyslov–Mikhail Botvinnik1–0C18World Championship, Moscow9Moscow URS03.04.1954Owner
French: Winawer 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.c3 b4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 a5 Usually 5...
Bxc3+ which leads to a very complicated position is played here, but Botvinnik
often chose this move which gives white the opportunity to immediately force
favorable tactical complications. 6.b4 cxd4 6...cxb4 is to white's
advantage after 7.b5 bxa3+ 8.c3 and the threat of Nd6+ gives white the
advantage. 7.g4 This sharp move was first played (I think) in
Nezhmetdinov-Aramanovich, Tibilisi, 1948.These days you are more likely to see
7.Nb5 which yields better results. e7 8.bxa5 dxc3 9.xg7 g8 10.xh7
Botvinnik had reached this position in a game back in 1951, but his opponent
didn't find the best line. d7 11.f3 White is clearly better. f8
This turns out to be a very poor maneuver. Better was 11...Qc7 11...c7 12.h5 c5 13.g5 d7 14.xe7 xe7 15.h4+ White is better, but black is
better off than after the text. 12.d3+- xa5 13.h4 aiming for Rb1. d7 14.g5 Smyslov's plan is to keep black's K in the center. c8 14...c6
was tried in Tringov,G (2460)-Oren,M Moscow 1956. 15.f6 was considerably
better. g4 16.e2 e4 Now instead of having a nice advantage after
castling Tringov played 17.Ng5 which should have allowed black to equalize.
Black failed to take advantage of the opportunity and ended up losing. 15.d4 f5 16.b1 16.xf5 exf5 17.d1 e6 18.xd5 is good, but the Rs
invasion on the 7th rank is even more powerful. 16...c4 Allowing the R to
reach the 7th rank was a bad decision. He could have put up tougher resistance
with 16...b6 17.xf5 exf5 18.xb7 Decisive. Threatened with Rb8+ black's
position is desperate. e4+ This meets with a brilliant refutation, but
there was no saving the game. 18...xg5 19.hxg5 xa3 20.b8+ e7 21.xd5 e4+ 22.e2 g6 23.d6+ xd6 24.exd6+ xd6 25.f3 d4 26.b3 White has a
winning position. 19.xe4 The aforementioned brilliant
refutation. dxe4 19...fxe4 20.b8+ c8 21.b5+ regains the Q and leaves
white with an easily won position. 20.b8+ c8 21.b5+ This is the only
correct followup. 21.xc8+ d7 22.d8+ c7 Black has escaped and the
materially unbalanced position offers both sides chances. 21...xb5 22.xb5 e6 23.f6 xg2 24.h5 a6 25.h6
Very precise play by Smyslov. 25.h6 e3 25...xb5 26.h7 e3 27.h4
and the P queens. 26.h7 exf2+ 27.f1 g1+ 28.xg1 fxg1+ 29.xg1 xb5 30.h8+ 1–0
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