Cover Story / GM Robert Byrne
walked away, he laughed and said, “Against a C-player it is, too!” In October 1972, following the Fischer-
Spassky match, The New York Times named Byrne as permanent chess colum - nist, a position he didn’t give up until age 78. Meanwhile, Byrne finished in a three- way tie for the 1972 U.S. Championship with Sammy Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek. Since the tournament served as a FIDE Zonal tournament that year, a playoff was required to determine a qualifier to each of the 1973 Interzonals in Leningrad and Petropolis, the next leg of the World Championship cycle. Byrne won the playoff against Reshevsky and Kavalek in Chicago and earned the spot in the Leningrad Interzonal. Reshevesky went to the Petropolis Interzonal.
1. Byrne
FIRST PLACE PLAYOFF (February, 1973) 1 23 Score xx 1 ½ ½ 1 3-1
2. Reshevsky 0 ½ xx ½ 1 2-2 3. Kavalek ½ 0 ½ 0 xx
1-3 A critical win came against Reshevsky
when it appeared that Sammy had the game in hand but an oversight in time pressure allowed Byrne a winning queen sacrifice.
King’s Indian Defense, Classical Variation (E92) GM Samuel Reshevsky GM Robert Byrne
1972 U.S. Championship Playoff, Chicago, Illinois February 1973
1. c4 g6 2. Nc3 Bg7 3. d4 Nf6 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Nf3 e5 7. Be3 Ng4 8. Bg5 f6 9. Bc1 f5 10. Bg5 Qe8 11. dxe5 Nxe5 12. Nxe5 Qxe5 13. exf5 Qxf5 14. Be3 Nc6 15. Qd2 Be6 16. O-O Rae8 17. b3 Bc8 18. Rad1 Qf7 19. Nd5 b6 20. f4 Nd8 21. Bf3 Ne6 22. Bg4 Nc5 23. Bxc8 Rxc8 24. f5 gxf5 25. Rxf5 Qd7 26. Rdf1 Rxf5 27. Rxf5 c6 28. Bxc5 Kh8 29. Ne7 Qxe7 30. Qxd6 Qe2 31. Rf2 Qh5 32. Be3 Re8 33. Rf3 c5 34. h3 Qh4 35. Bf2 Qe4 36. Re3 Qb1+ 37. Kh2 Rg8 38. Bg3 Qxa2 39. Be5?
Byrne went on to finish third at the Leningrad Interzonal, just a point behind Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov, qualifying for the Candidates match against Spassky. It was a surprising result to observers throughout the chess world who knew Byrne mostly as a 45-year-old journalist. And in the U.S., commencement of the next world championship cycle was under the radar for most players as well as the media, still fixated on Fischer’s 1972 triumph over Spassky. Byrne’s score of plus-8 in Leningrad
was high enough to be an outright winner in most Interzonal tournaments and thwarted Bent Larsen’s attempt to get another shot at Fischer after his embarrassing 6-0 defeat in 1971. Larsen was a qualifier from the previous three Interzonals and a favorite to advance once again, especially after his +5 start through 11 rounds. Byrne’s only loss was to Korchnoi.
Among those who finished behind Byrne was former World Champion Mikhail Tal who entered the event undefeated in 84 straight games. Robert Byrne achieved a peak FIDE rating of 2605 immediately after the Leningrad Interzonal, making him one of the top 15 rated players in the world at the time. Regarding his opening preparation, GM
Bill Lombardy noted that “Robert was an exceptional player, ever more dangerous with a well prepared theoretical variation.” And as he did in the d4 lines, Byrne trotted out many new ideas in the e4 openings, most notably on the white side of the Sicilian Defense. A schoolboy from Leningrad at the time
was future Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky who emigrated to the U.S. in 1990. He was able to witness all of the games of the tournament from the auditorium. Yermo was kind enough to annotate the following win by Robert Byrne from that historic event for Chess Life readers.
Sicilian Defense,
Scheveningen Variation (B81) GM Robert Byrne
IM Guillermo Estévez Morales Leningrad Interzonal (6), June 9, 1973 Notes courtesy of Alex Yermolinsky
Byrne got off a fast start in Leningrad, winning three out of his first five games. I was a 15-year-old city junior champion, who had a pass to the theater where the Interzonal was held. My favorite player then was the Great Dane, GM Bent Larsen, who also started well.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6
39. ... Qxg2+ 40. Kxg2 Bxe5+, White resigned. 22 July 2013 | Chess Life
I won’t make it a secret—I wanted Larsen’s competition to lose. Here the
Cuban international master plays my favorite opening, the Scheveningen Sicilian, so I had two reasons to root against the American in this game.
6. g4 h6 7. h3 What’s that? Everybody, including the
future World Champion Karpov, played 7. g5 in those days. Later, of course, 7. Rg1 and 7. h4 became topical, but what about the modest move played by Robert Byrne?
7. ... a6 8. Bg2
White is patient with his attacking ambition. For now he is happy to play a souped-up version of the g3 line, where he has put his pawn on g4 in one move thus gaining a tempo.
8. ... Bd7
A standard response to the fianchetto system. Perhaps Black should try to turn the tables on his clever opponent and find a line in which the early g4 would work against White. Say, after 8. ... Nc6 9. Nxc6 (9. f4 Qb6) 9. ... bxc6 10. e5 Nd5 (or even 10. ... dxe5 11. Bxc6+ Bd7) 11. exd6 Bxd6 12. Ne4 Bc7 13. c4 Black can use the f4- square.
9. Be3 Nc6 10. Qe2 Pay attention to the placement of the
white queen—way superior to the usual d2-square.
10. ... Rc8 11. f4 Nxd4?! 11. ... b5 played by GM Jaan Ehlvest
some 30 years later is better. There’s also 11. ... Be7 which Byrne faced against Lombardy a year prior to this game.
12. Bxd4 Qa5 12. ... Bc6 13. 0-0-0 Be7 (13. ... Qc7 14.
Nd5 is thematic) 14. h4 gives White a huge attack.
13. e5 dxe5
14. Qxe5!! Totally brilliant. White seeks to increase
his initiative after a queen exchange—an idea not recognized by many a Sicilian expert back in the day. Not the obvious 14. fxe5 Nd5 15. Bxd5 exd5 16. 0-0-0 Be6 where Black is quite solid.
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