Prior to the start of the Olympiad it was assumed that no team would represent the United States because the U.S. did not maintain diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and American passports were not valid for travel there.
The Intercollegiate Chess League of America had been in correspondence with the State Department for nearly a year, but the results were not encouraging then suddenly the State Department agreed to validate the passports so a team could travel to Bulgaria.
Max Pavey's wife was chairman of the USCF International Affairs Committee and she took immediate steps to assemble a team while ICLA Vice-President Anthony Saidy acted as chairman of the organizing committee. Naturally, there was the usual problem of financing and USCF members were asked to donate money to the cause. 
Eventually a team (William Lombardy, Edmar Mednis, Anthony Saidy, Arthur Feuerstein and Martin Sobell) was put together and sent to Varna. The team started out with great success...they swept through the qualifying matches defeating Albania, Iceland, and Bulgaria, to enter the finals.
In the finals the USSR finished 1st ahead of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, USA, Argentina and East Germany.
At the end, the team finished rather poorly, taking 6th place out of 16 teams. According to Lombardy, "The chess was good, but the nerves and luck were bad."
In the following game Tal crushes Bulgarian Milko Bobotsov (1931-2000, 68 years old).
Bobotsov was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and was Bulgarian champion in 1958 and was awarded the IM title in 1960 and the GM title in 1961, thus becoming Bulgaria's first GM. After suffering a stroke in 1972 his international play was somewhat curtailed. He was married to WGM Antonia Ivanova.
Milko Bobotsov–Mikhail Tal0–1E81Finals World Student Olympiad, VarnaVarna BUL1958Stockfish 15
King's Indian: Saemisch Attack 1.d4 f6 2.c4 g6 3.c3 g7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.ge2 White hopes to solidify the center, castle Q-side and play
g4–g5 and h2-h4 with a K-side attack. The disadvantage is the P on f3
deprives this N of its most natural square, f3 6.d3 Playing this first
seems to make more sense, but for whatever reason, it's almost never seen. c5 7.d5 e6 8.ge2 a6 9.a4 c7 10.0-0 exd5 11.cxd5 Equals. Granda Zuniga,J
(2525)-Barlov,D (2555) Zagreb 1987 6...c5 Black can challenge the center
with this or ...e5 after which white needs to decide whether to close the
center with d4-d5 or let it remain fluid. 7.e3 7.d5 e6 8.g3 exd5 9.cxd5 h5 is the main alternative. 7...bd7 8.d2 a6 9.0-0-0 a5 10.b1 b5 11.d5 The opening was played at blitz speed as Bobotsov was curious to find out
what had Tal prepared. This risky move had been played in some blitz games the
previous day and when Bobotsov played it the spectators gasped when Tal,
without a flinch, sacrificed his Q just as happened in the blitz games. 11.dxc5 was tried in Alterman,B (2585)-Nunn,J (2590) Pardubice 1993 dxc5 12.d5 xd5 13.cxd5 xd2 14.xd2 f5 15.f4 with equal chances. 11...xd5
This is the correct move as any engine will tell you, but black's advantage is
not great. 12.xa5 White pretty much has to take the Q as other moves are
inferior. 12.cxd5 xd2 13.xd2 f5 Best. In Sarno,S (2425)-Timoscenko,G
(2533) Lido Estensi 2003 black played 13...Nb6 with equality. 14.dxc5
Favoring black is 14.exf5 xc5 15.xc5 dxc5 16.c3 Black is considerably
better. Spulber,C (2365)-Itkis,B (2430) Odorheiu Secuiesc 1993 12...xe3 13.c1 13.d3 is more appropriate. xc4 14.e1 cxd4 15.xd4 with roughly
equal chances. 13...xc4 14.xc4 bxc4 15.c1 Wrong direction! The N
needs to go to f4 hoping to eventually land on d5 b8 White's prospects are
grim. Black has open lines against his K, his Q is misplaced on the Q-side and
he has zero prospects of a K-side attack. 16.xc4 b6 17.b3 xd4 18.d2
This loses quickly. 18.e2 To eliminate the B offers a glimmer
of hope. xb2 19.c2 19.xb2 c4+ wins outright. 19...f6 20.b1 e6
Keeps the status quo...black has the initiative, but white can hope to defend
himself. In 5 Shootouts (long and fascinating) white managed 4 draws and a
loss. 18...g7 19.e2 c4 Gutting the position of white's K. 20.c2 c3 21.d3 cxb2 22.d4 d7 Prevents Nc6. 23.d1 fc8 24.b3 24.xa6 is met by c4 25.b3 e6 26.a4 a8 27.b4 cb8 28.c3 a3+ 29.xb2 b5 30.e3 xd4 31.xd4 xb3 32.axb3 a4 and wins 24...a4 25.xa4 xa4 26.b3 c3 27.xa6 xb3 28.axb3 bc8 29.a3 c1+ 30.xc1 xc1+ A delightful
slaughter! 0–1
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