Today is the 86th birthday for American chess Grandmaster Robert Byrne [1928-2013]. Although not usually considered amongst the worlds elite Grandmasters, Chessmetrics shows Byrne as the 11th highest ranked player in the world at his peak, for 5 different months between October 1973 and September 1974. Byrne won the 1972 U.S. Chess Championship, which sent him to the 1973 Interzonal in Leningrad, where he put in the best performance of his career. Byrne finished in 3rd place with 12.5/17 (+9 -1 =7; his one loss was against Korchnoi [b. 1931], who tied with Karpov [b. 1951] for 1st place). That sent him to the World Championship Candidates matches in 1974, where he lost his 1st match against the former World Champion Boris Spassky [b. 1937]. Byrne was well known in the U.S. also as a writer; he wrote the N.Y. Times chess column for many years. Roberts brother Donald Byrne [1930-1976], was also a well known chess player; though not a Grandmaster, he held the International Master title, but is still listed by Chessmetrics as #38 in the world in April 1955. The Byrne brothers were a formidable chess duo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrne_(chess_player) chessgames/perl/chessplayer?pid=15496 chessmetrics/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?Params=199510SSSSS3S018581000000111000000000003310100
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 16:40:49 +0000
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