Petrosian's only Olympic loss in 130 games was this time forfeiture in a dead drawn Rook and Pawn ending against Robert Huebner, whom he had beaten in a 1971 Candidates Match. This also happened to be Huebner's only victory ever against Petrosian.

When Petrosian overstepped the time limit, he claimed that "white space" still showed on his clock, but the claim was disallowed, and he threw the clock across the room. Despite the fact that this act was witnessed by millions on Yugoslav television, it has never received the publicity of Alekhine's throwing his King across the room after losing to Gruenfeld, or Nimzovich's standing on the table, and yelling "Why must I lose to this idiot???".

Petrosian later said that if he'd known they were on television, he'd have smashed the clock, to make the perfect advertisement for the clock company. No, no, really, you've done enough already.