Robert byrne chess master ratings

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GM Robert Byrne was an American grandmaster who was the U.S. chess champion in 1972 and a candidate for the world championship in 1974. He was also the chess columnist for The New York Times for a third of a century, from 1972 to 2006. Perhaps nothing demonstrates Byrne’s longevity as a columnist better than a nearly perfect overlap with GM Garry Kasparov’s entire playing career (1973-2005).

Byrne became a candidate for the world championship by finishing third in the 1973 Leningrad Interzonal tournament, but he faced former world champion GM Boris Spassky in the quarterfinal of the 1974 Candidates and lost. Byrne would be the last American to play in a Candidates tournament for over a decade until GM Yasser Seirawan four cycles later in 1985.

Robert’s brother Donald (1930-76) was an IM who, although he defeated world championship candidates like GMs Samuel Reshevsky and Efim Geller, is best known for losing “The Game of the Century” to GM Bobby Fischer in 1956. Robert Byrne also lost a famous game to Fischer, in 1963, but scored a respectable +1 -2 =6 overall. The win, not that famous loss, is the game above. The game below, against the great GM David Bronstein, was recounted by Byrne in his final The New York Times column.

White Pieces

Sicilian Defense: Open, Classical, Richter-Rauzer Variation (31 games)

Sicilian Defense: Open, Scheveningen, Keres Attack (17 games)

Sicilian Defense: Open, Scheveningen, Classical Variation (14 games)

Ruy López Opening: Morphy Defense, Keres, Breyer, Zaitsev Hybrid Variation (10 games)

Sicilian Defense: Open, Najdorf, English Attack (9 games)

A chess pro at 40

Robert Byrne was born in New York on April 20, 1928. He is the older brother of Donald Byrne (1930-1976), also a strong grandmaster, known for his defeat in Fischer's "game of the century". He died early in 1976, aged 45, as a result of autoimmune disease. Both Byrne brothers were in their active time to the best chess players in the United States.

Robert and Donald Byrne grew up in New York City and belonged to the chess group of legendary chess teacher John William Collins. Robert Fischer was also looked after by Collins.

At age 17, Robert Byrne played his first chess tournament in Ventnor City (1945). After graduation, however, he focused on his studies and then became a philosophy professor at Indiana University. He participated in tournaments only sporadically. Nevertheless, he rose in later years quite quickly to become one of the best players in the United States.

In 1950, Byrne was on the USA team in the famous radio match against Yugoslavia, in which he drew twice against Boris Kostic. In 1951 he participated in the Wertheim Memorial in New York and finished tied for 6th-7th in a strong field. Reshevsky won ahead of Najdorf and Euwe. In 1952 Byrne represented the USA for the first time at the Chess Olympiad in Helsinki and scored the third best single result (bronze medal) on the third board. His victory over David Bronstein in the 2:2 result against the USSR team caused a stir and he made a name for himself in one fell swoop. Throughout his career, Robert Byrne participated in eight other chess Olympiads, including the bronze medal winning team in 1974, silver in 1960 and 1966 and gold in 1976 in Haifa (absent teams of the Eastern Bloc, including the USSR team). 

Byrne began to compete regularly in the US Championships only at the age of 30. At the 1958 US Championships in New York Byrne finished ninth. The title was won by Fischer. In 1959 Byrne was second behind Fischer. In the following years, he w