Donald Byrne

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Donald Byrne.jpg
Donald Byrne
Association United StatesUnited States United States
Born June 12, 1930
New York City , United States
Died April 8, 1976
Philadelphia
title International champion (1962)
Best Elo rating 2475 (July 1973)

Donald Byrne (born June 12, 1930 in New York City , † April 8, 1976 in Philadelphia ) was one of the best chess players in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s .

Chess career

In 1953 he won the US Open Chess Championship . In 1954 he managed a 3-1 victory against Yuri Averbach in the USA - USSR competition . In 1962 he achieved the title of " International Master ". With the US team he took part in the Chess Olympiads in 1962 , 1964 and 1968 , scoring 25 points from 34 games. He achieved the second best result on the first reserve board in 1962 and the third best result on the second reserve board in 1968 and in 1972 he was the head of the delegation of the Olympic team. His brother Robert Byrne was also a leading player at the time and held the title of grandmaster .

In 1956 he lost to 13-year-old Bobby Fischer , who was hardly known at the time, in a game with a spectacular course ( game of the century ).

After a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and a Master of Arts from the University of Michigan , Byrne worked at Penn State University from 1961 until his death . Here he held a junior professorship for English and headed the chess group there. He has also taught at Valparaiso University and a private college in Olivet, Michigan .

He was posthumously inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in 2003.

Private

He met his wife Madge while studying at the University of Michigan . With her he had two sons. Donald Byrne died as a result of kidney involvement from systemic lupus erythematosus , an autoimmune disease for which he had been a dialysis patient since 1974 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donald Byrne's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
  2. ↑ Donald Byrne, a Chess Master Who Won '53 Open Title, Dies . New York Times, Apr 10, 1976, p. 26.
  3. ↑ Inductee biography ( Memento from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Byrne, Donald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chess player
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1976
Place of death Philadelphia