Cover Story / GM Robert Byrne
American Chess A Life in GM Robert Byrne 1928-2013 By FRANK NIRO G
RANDMASTER ROBERT E. BYRNE, arguably one of the top ten U.S. chess players of all time, died at his home in Ossining, New York on
April 12, 2013 of Parkinson’s disease. Byrne was U.S. Open champion in 1960, 1963 and 1966 and won the U.S. Closed Championship in 1972. He played on nine U.S. Olympiad teams, winning seven medals, and competed in the World Championship Candidates cycle in 1973. Perhaps best known for his 34-year tenure as The New York Times chess columnist, from 1972 to 2006, he was the older brother of Donald Byrne, loser of the well known “game of the century” in 1956 to 13-year-old Bobby Fischer. Born Robert Eugene Byrne in Brooklyn,
New York, on April 20, 1928, he grew up in New York City and graduated from Yale University in 1952. Both Robert and Donald learned chess before age eight and were students of the celebrated chess teacher John W. Collins. They, along with Bobby Fischer, Bill Lombardy, Raymond Weinstein, Sal Matera and Lewis Cohen, were the subjects of Mr. Collins’ 1975 memoir, My Seven Chess Prodigies. Byrne worked professionally as a pro -
fessor of philosophy at Indiana Univer sity and was very much a part-time player early in his career. Nevertheless, he earned the international master title by virtue of his outstanding performance at the 1952 Chess Olympiad in Helsinki, Finland, the same year he graduated from Yale. Playing
on board three behind Sammy Reshevsky and Larry Evans, he scored eight wins, two losses and five draws to earn an individual bronze medal. He played in nine Olympiads, the last in Buenos Aires 1978, picking up two individual medals (one silver and a bronze) and five team medals (a gold, two silver and two bronze). He played first board for the gold medal winning U.S. team at Haifa 1976. In his final column for The New York
Times, published November 12, 2006, Byrne declared his win in Helsinki over David Bronstein as one of the best and most exciting of his career. Bronstein had just tied in his world championship match with Mikhail Botvinnik and, despite the loss in this game, was awarded the gold medal for his performance on board three in Helsinki.
Queen’s Gambit Accepted (D24) GM David Bronstein Robert Byrne
Helsinki Olympiad (2), August 21, 1952 Soviet Union versus United States Notes by GM Robert Byrne
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bronstein’s 4. Nc3 introduced a sharp
gambit, in which Black has trouble even if he refuses it. If 4. ... e6 5. e4 Be7 6. Bxc4, White has the superior pawn center without being obliged to pay anything for it.
4. ... a6 5. e4 b5 6. e5 Nd5 7. a4 Nxc3 8. bxc3 Bb7 9. e6 f6
After 9. ... f6, the white knight was denied
the invasion squares at e5 and g5. About this point, Paul Keres, first board on the Soviet team, got up from his game with Samuel Reshevsky and intercepted me as I was pacing the floor while Bronstein pondered his move. Keres admonished me “for playing anything that gives White such powerful attacking chances against such a genius of attack as Bronstein.” I made no reply because I was unwilling to admit that I had not anticipated my opponent’s gambit and was just struggling to do my best.
10. g3 This move 10. g3 was tried out repeat -
edly after this battle and is still the subject of debate. At first I thought Bronstein’s fianchetto was the right way to go. But I later learned that my old friend Al Horowitz, a star on Olympiad teams in the 1930s and
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, JOHN G. WHITE COLLECTION
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