Pal Charles Benko (; July 15, 1928 – August 25, 2019) was a Hungarian and American chess grandmaster, author, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of endgame studies and chess problems.

Early life

Benko was born on July 15, 1928, in

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

, France, where his Hungarian parents were on vacation. He was raised in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Benko learned to play chess aged eight from his father, but he did not compete in tournaments until age 17 due to World War II. During the war, he dug ditches for the Hungarian army before being captured by the Soviet army, which forced him to be a laborer. He eventually escaped to his home, only to find that his brother and father had been sent to Russia as laborers, and his mother died as the war neared its conclusion. Benko made rapid progress once he began tournament play and became Hungarian champion by age 20. He was awarded the title of International Master in 1950. He qualified for the 1952 Interzonal tournament but was unable to compete as he was sent to a concentration camp in March 1952 for attempting to defect to the American embassy in West Berlin during a chess tournament in East Berlin. He starved and saw others around him die.Benko, Pal. Silman, Jeremy. ''Pal Benko: My Life, Games, and Compositions''. Siles Press. (2004) He remained imprisoned for 16 months, attaining release after Stalin's death. He emigrated to the United States in 1958 after defecting following the World Student Team Championship in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

, Iceland, in 1957.

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

awarded him the title of Grandmaster in 1958.

World title candidate

Benko's highest achievement was qualifying and competing in the Candidates Tournament—the tournament to decide the challenger for the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

—in 1959 and

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

. Both tournaments had eight of the world's top players. He finished eighth in 1959 and sixth in 1962. In the next world championship cycle, he qualified for the 1964 Interzonal but failed to progress to the Candidates. Benko also qualified for the 1970 Interzonal tournament, but gave up his spot to Bobby Fischer, who went on to win the World Championship in 1972.

Other achievements

Benko finished in first place (or tied for first place) in eight U.S. Open Chess Championships, a record. His titles were: 1961, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1974, and 1975. He won the 1964 Canadian Open Chess Championship. He represented Hungary at the 1957 Student Olympiad in

on , scoring 7½/12, and Hungary was fourth as a team. He had earlier played for the Hungarian national team at the Moscow 1956 Olympiad, on board three, scoring 10/15, and helping Hungary to team bronze. He moved to the United States, but it was not until 1962 that he appeared on the U.S. team. He would wind up on six teams in a row. At Varna 1962, Benko played board two, scored 8/12 for the silver medal on his board, and the U.S. finished fourth. At Tel Aviv 1964, he was again on board two, scored 9½/14, and the U.S. ended up sixth. At Havana 1966, Benko was on board three, scored 8/12, and the Americans won team silver. At Lugano 1968, he made 6/12 on board three, and the U.S. finished fourth. At Siegen 1970, Benko was on board four, scoring 8½/12, and the Americans again finished fourth. His last Olympiad was Skopje 1972, where he played on board three, made 9½/16, and the U.S. ended up ninth. Benko defeated four players who held the World Champion title at some point. They are Bobby Fischer,CHESSGAMES.COM * Chess game search engine – Games where Pal Benko defeated Robert James Fischer
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Mikhail Tal Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet and Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as Comparison of top chess players throughout history, one ...

, Tigran Petrosian, and Vassily Smyslov. His career score against Fischer was three wins, eight losses and seven draws. After Fischer retired, Benko was one of the few players with whom he maintained contact; reportedly, the two corresponded every week. According to Chessmetrics, at his best, Benko was ranked 17th in the world, with a peak rating of 2687.

Later life and death

In later life, Benko was a tutor to many up-and-coming players from his native Hungary; his students included the Polgár sisters (

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, Judit Polgár) and Peter Leko. Benko had a column on chess endgames in '' Chess Life'' magazine, which is published by the United States Chess Federation, for decades: "In the Arena" (1972–1981), "Endgame Lab" (1981–2013), and chess problem column "Benko's Bafflers". In 2003 he revised Reuben Fine's book '' Basic Chess Endings''. Benko died in Budapest on August 25, 2019, at the age of 91.

Legacy

Some

chess opening The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established Chess_theory#Opening_theory, theory. The other phases are the chess middlegame, middlegame and the chess endgame, endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''op ...

s Benko pioneered are named for him: * The

Benko Gambit The Benko Gambit (or Volga Gambit) is a chess opening characterised by the move 3...b5 in the Benoni Defence arising after: :1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4, d4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6, Nf6 :2. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. ...

(1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5), which he popularised and played with great success from the mid-1960s. * Benko's Opening (1.g3), which he introduced at the 1962 Candidates Tournament, defeating Bobby Fischer and

with it. He was awarded the title of International Master of Chess Composition by

, and was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1993.

Books

* ''The Benko Gambit''. 1974. RHM Press. * ''Winning with Chess Psychology'' by Pal Benko and Burt Hochberg. 1991. Random House Puzzles & Games * '' Basic Chess Endings'' by Reuben Fine, revised by Pal Benko. 2003. Random House Puzzles & Games * ''Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions'' by Pal Benko, Jeremy Silman, and John L. Watson. 2004. Siles Press. * ''Pal Benko's Endgame Laboratory''. 2007. Ishi Press.

Notable games

Pal Benko vs. Viacheslav Ragozin, Budapest 1949, Budapest Gambit (A52), 1–0

Laszlo Szabo vs. Pal Benko, Hungarian Championship 1951, Sicilian Defence, Sozin–Fischer Variation (B88), 0–1

Pal Benko vs. Robert Fischer, Portoroz Interzonal 1958, King's Indian Defence, Saemisch Variation (E80), 1–0
The young Fischer would later qualify, but he loses in this game.
Pal Benko vs. Fridrik Olafsson, Yugoslavia Candidates' tournament 1959, Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation (B99), 1–0

Pal Benko vs. Robert Fischer, Buenos Aires 1960, King's Indian Defence, Fianchetto Variation (E62), 1–0

Pal Benko vs. Samuel Reshevsky, New York match 1960, Grunfeld Defence (D76), 1–0
Benko lost the match, but he scores a win here.
Pal Benko vs. Robert Fischer, Curacao Candidates' tournament 1962, Benko's Opening (A00), 1–0
Benko introduces an original opening scheme (1.g3), and defeats Bobby Fischer.
Pal Benko vs. Mikhail Tal, Curacao Candidates' tournament 1962, Benko's Opening (A00), 1–0

Pal Benko vs. Paul Keres, Curacao Candidates' tournament 1962, King's Indian Attack, Keres Variation (A07), 1–0
A loss for Keres, who had beaten Benko in the three previous cycles of the tournament; it costs him a chance to qualify for the world championship match.
Milan Vukic vs. Pal Benko, Sarajevo 1967, Benko Gambit (A58), 0–1
Benko plays the Benko Gambit for the first time.''Benko Counter-Gambit'', David Levy, (Batsford, 1978), p.11
Igor Zaitsev vs. Pal Benko, Solnak 1974, Benko Gambit (A57), 0–1

Pal Benko vs. Yasser Seirawan, Lone Pine 1978, English Opening, Symmetrical Variation (A34), 1–0

Notes

References

External links

* * * *
Pal Benko
download 765 Benko games in PGN format
"Best Chess Bio Yet?"
by Taylor Kingston; review of Benko biography, containing additional info on Benko
Pal Benko
U.S. Chess Hall of Fame

by Edward Winter {{DEFAULTSORT:Benko, Pal 1928 births 2019 deaths American chess players American chess writers American male non-fiction writers American instructional writers Chess composers Chess Grandmasters Chess theoreticians Hungarian chess players Hungarian emigrants to the United States Hungarian refugees Sportspeople from Amiens 20th-century Hungarian chess players 20th-century American chess players