 Byrne in Amsterdam, 1969 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Eugene Byrne (1928-04-20)April 20, 1928 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 12, 2013(2013-04-12) (aged 84) Ossining, New York, U.S. |
| Chess career | |
| Country | United States |
| Title | Grandmaster (1964) |
| Peak rating | 2605 (July 1973) |
| Peak ranking | No. 12 (July 1973) |
Robert Eugene Byrne (April 20, 1928 – April 12, 2013) was an Americanchess player and chess author who held theFIDE title ofGrandmaster (GM).[1] He won theU.S. Championship in 1972, and was aWorld Chess Championship Candidate in 1974. Byrne represented the United States nine times inChess Olympiads from 1952 to 1976 and won seven medals. He was the chess columnist from 1972 to 2006 forThe New York Times, which ran his final column (a recounting of his 1952 victory overDavid Bronstein) on November 12, 2006.[2] Byrne worked as a university professor for many years, before becoming a chess professional in the early 1970s.
Byrne was born in Brooklyn, the son of Elizabeth Eleanor (Cattalier) and Robert Byrne.[3] He and his younger brotherDonald grew up in New York City and were among the "Collins Kids", promising young players who benefited from the instruction and encouragement ofJohn W. Collins. Both ultimately became college professors and among the leading chess players in the country. They were part of a talented new generation of young American masters that also includedLarry Evans,Arthur Bisguier, and George Kramer.
Robert Byrne's first Master event wasVentnor City in 1945, where he scored a respectable 4/9 to place 8th; the winner wasWeaver Adams. He tied 1st–2nd in the Premier Reserves section at theU.S. Open Chess Championship,Pittsburgh, in 1946. College studies limited his opportunities for the next several years; he represented the U.S. in a 1950 radio match againstYugoslavia. In the 1951Maurice Wertheim Memorial in New York, Byrne scored 6/11, tying for 6th–7th place; this was aGrandmaster round-robin featuring six of the world's top 36 players, and was won bySamuel Reshevsky.
Byrne became anInternational Master based on his results at the1952 Chess Olympiad atHelsinki (bronze medal on third board). In that same year he graduated fromYale University. He went on to become a professor ofphilosophy atIndiana University, and his academic career left him little time for chess. He did represent the U.S. in team matches against the Soviet Union at New York in 1954 (losing 1½–2½ toAlexander Kotov), and Moscow in 1955 (losing ½–3½ toPaul Keres).
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Byrne shared 4th–7th positions at the 1957U.S. Open Chess Championship inCleveland with 9/12, a point behind joint winnersBobby Fischer and Arthur Bisguier. Byrne did not play in his firstU.S. Chess Championship until the age of 30 in 1958–59, placing tied 9th–10th with 4/11; the winner was Bobby Fischer. But Byrne improved dramatically the next year in the same event to place 2nd with 8/11, ahead of Reshevsky andPal Benko, as Fischer won again.
In 1960, Byrne increased his serious play, winning theU.S. Open Chess Championship atSt. Louis, and taking a silver medal on third board at the Olympiad inLeipzig. A poor result of 8th–11th place in the U.S. Championship 1960–61, with only 4½/11, was balanced by his fine tie for 2nd–5th places atMar del Plata 1961 with 11½/15, behind winnerMiguel Najdorf. On that same South American trip, he dominated a small but strong event atSanta Fe with 6½/7, ahead ofMiroslav Filip,Aleksandar Matanović, andHéctor Rossetto. In the U.S. Championship of 1961–62, he tied for 2nd–3rd places on 7/11, half a point behind Larry Evans. He placed 6th in the U.S. Championship 1962–63 with 6/11, as Fischer won again. In the U.S. Championship 1963–64 he again placed 6th with 5½/11, as Fischer defeated Byrne brilliantly in 21 moves and won the tournament with a perfect score. Of his game against Fischer, Byrne wrote: "The culminating combination is of such depth that, even at the very moment at which I resigned, both grandmasters who were commenting on the play for the spectators in a separate room believed I had a won game!"
In 1964, Byrne's third-place finish at theBuenos Aires tournament (behind Paul Keres and World ChampionTigran Petrosian), with 11½/17, made him anInternational Grandmaster. Byrne shared 2nd–3rd places in the U.S. Championship 1965–66 with 7½/11; Fischer won again, but Byrne defeated Fischer in their individual game. He shared the 1966 U.S. Open title with Pal Benko atSeattle. He scored 4½/11 for a shared 8th–10th place in the U.S. Championship 1966–67, with Fischer winning. Byrne qualified for his firstInterzonal tournament,Sousse 1967, but scored just 7½/22, far short of advancing.
By the late 1960s he was playing chess semi-professionally. He won the 1972 U.S. Championship; after tying with Samuel Reshevsky andLubomir Kavalek in the tournament proper, Byrne won the 1973 playoff at Chicago. Subsequently, scoring 12½/17, Byrne achieved his career highlight of third place at theLeningradInterzonal in 1973, which made him only the fourth American (after Reshevsky, Bobby Fischer, and Pal Benko) to qualify for theCandidates Tournament (part of theworld chess championship process). However, he lost his first-round Candidates match to former world championBoris Spassky by 1½–4½ atSan Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1974.
As a 1974 Candidate, Byrne was seeded directly to the 1976Biel Interzonal, where he performed very strongly but missed a playoff berth by half a point, sharing 5th–6th places with 11½/19, behindBent Larsen (winner, with 12½),Mikhail Tal,Lajos Portisch, and Petrosian (2th–4th, with 12).
Byrne was the highest-rated American player on the January 1977 FIDE rating list.[4]
Byrne played nine times for the United States, with a total of +51−12=53, for 66.8 per cent, and won seven individual and team medals.[1] His detailed results follow.[5]
When he became the columnist for theTimes in 1972, he became less active as a player. He did, nevertheless, win tournaments atTorremolinos (1976–77),Harare (1983), andLagos (1993). He has also been a frequent contributor toChess Life magazine, the publication of theUnited States Chess Federation. He has chaired USCF's committee on masters' affairs and been one of its vice presidents. Byrne was inducted into theU.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1994.
Throughout his career, Byrne improved his results level by level in major competitions, at the U.S. Open, the U.S. Championship, the Olympiad, and the Interzonal. He made original contributions in several opening systems. He was the first to play 6.Be3 against the Najdorf Variation of theSicilian Defense (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3); this system has been named for him and has been very popular since the mid-1980s. He developed the Byrne Variation of theKing's Indian Defense against the Saemisch Variation, with a quick queenside expansion by Black. He used theDutch Defense with success when that opening was rarely seen at the top level. His opening repertoire was wide with both colors, and featured both Open and Closed games, which made him a challenge to prepare for. Byrne played competitively until age 74 in 2002, with an average of a couple of significant events per year even past age 60. He retired from writing his chess column at age 78.
Byrne died in 2013 at his home inOssining, New York, fromParkinson's disease.[6]
| Achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 1972 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
