Pal Benko

     Back in July, Benko (born in 1928) celebrated his 90th birthday. From the end of the 1950s to the middle of the 1970s, he was one of the world's best players. 
     I never cottoned to Benko's boring positional style with what seemed like endless maneuvering that often lead to the endgame and if you were watching him play it was tedious because it took him forever to make a move.  Same for William Lombardy. That was Benko's biggest weakness...his constant time trouble.  At least he always followed his own advice when he wrote, “Under no circumstances should you play fast if you have a winning position. Forget the clock, use all your time and make good moves.” 
     He was born in Amiens, France where his father was an engineer who fancied himself an artist and loved to travel which is how Benko ended up spending most of this youth in Budapest. As a kid he loved sports and learned to play chess at the age of ten. He enjoyed his youth in Budapest, but that all came to an end in 1940 when war, with all its deprivations, came and people had to stand in line for hours for bread. At the same time the allied forces were repeatedly bombing Budapest. 
     By the end of 1944, the Russians occupied Hungary and things got even worse. Benko, who had just turned 16, was drafted into the Hungarian army, but rather that go to the front, he deserted. 
     He was eventually captured by the Russian army, which forced him to be a laborer. He managed escape and return home only to find that his father and brother had been sent to Russia as slave laborers and his mother had died, leaving Benko to take care of his little sister. 

Hungarian laborers

     During the war he had been studying and had turned into a strong player. Strong enough that he qualified for the Hungarian Championship in 1946. Things were still so bad in Hungary that food was offered as a prize because inflation was so bad that food was more valuable than currency. 
     In 1948, at the age of 20, he played his first international tournament in Budapest and shortly afterwards won the Hungarian Championship. In 1952,during a tournament in East Berlin, he tried to defect to the American embassy in West Berlin, but was captured, interrogated, tortured and without trial sent to a concentration camp for a year and a half. Starving, he lost 20 pounds and watched others around him die. When Stalin died Hungarian President Nagy gave amnesty to most prisoners, including Benko. In My Life, Games and Compositions he wrote, "Prison camp really makes you appreciate things that you might have been oblivious to before!" 
    Benko appreciated his freedom and determined to enjoy life, travel, beautiful women and play chess. Away from the board Benko was a ladies man. In his youth, Bobby Fischer exclaimed he wanted to emulate Benko in that area, but apparently he was never able to pull it off. Finally, in 1968 at the age of 40, Benko married his Hungarian girlfriend Gizella and began spending a lot of time in his native Hungary. 
     After his release from prison Benko adapted, but he had to be very careful. He had made up his mind to escape and chess was going to be the means. He had to become even better in order to get invitations for tournaments abroad so he devoted his efforts at improving. 
      In 1957, following the World Student Team Championship in Reykjavík, he walked into the American embassy and asked for and was granted asylum. He arrived in the United States at the end of 1957. He didn't speak a word of English and had only a few dollars. 
     He ended up in Cleveland, Ohio, but didn't stay long. He had hoped to find employment as a professional at a chess club like they had in Europe, but no Cleveland club was interested in paying for a professional on staff, so Benko moved on to greener pastures. 
     In the U.S. he earned the title “King of the Opens.”  He finished in first place or tied for first in eight U.S. Open Championships: 1961, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1974, 1975. He also won the 1964 Canadian Open. Starting in 1962, he represented the U.S. on six Olympic teams. 
     Benko was a successful open player, playing almost every weekend in open tournaments all over the US. The prizes gave him a good income but he had to adapt his style to fit those tournaments: in open tournaments, you always had to play for a win and that's when he developed the Benko Gambit which brought him great success. 

    Besides being known for popularizing the Benko Gambit and a composer of endgame studies and problems, he is also remembered for giving up his spot in the Interzonal tournament in Palma de Mallorca 1970 to Fischer. Was Benko paid to give up his place in the 1970 Interzonal so that Fischer could play?
     According to Edmonds and Eidinow in Bobby Fischer Goes to War, Benko received $2,000 from the USCF for his withdrawal. In his 2010 book Chess Duels Yasser Seirawan disputed that claiming Benko yielded his place to Fischer because he thought Fischer had a real chance at becoming World Champion.  And, if Fischer was successful in advancing then Benko would have a chance at being his second. 
     Benko said he went to Palma de Mallorca in 1970 despite having agreed to yield his spot to Fischer just in case Fischer changed his mind and didn't show up. Fellow qualifiers Samuel Reshevsky and William Addison were each paid $2,000 for their participation in the Interzonal and the USCF Executive Director Ed Edmondson offered Benko the same. Benko declined, but agreed to stay and serve as a second to Reshevsky and Addison and received his regular fee of $2,000 for his services. Fischer got more than $2,000, but how much more isn't known. 
     Benko noted that he explained his actions to Fischer who never even so much as said, “Thanks” although Fischer did add Benko to his team at Reykjavik for his match against Spassky.   However, Benko had already committed himself to play in a tournament in Las Palmas and said he would only be willing to cancel if he would be serving in Reykjavik as Fischer's second. Fischer would not commit, so Benko went to Las Palmas instead. 
     Benko's career peaked in 1958 when he qualified for the Interzonal in Belgrade; that's where he became friends with Fischer. Benko, an IM at the time, qualified for the Candidates Tournament 1959 and was awarded the GM title. A letter from Fischer to Benko
     According to Chessmetrics 1958 was Benko's highest ever rating, 2687 (number 17 on the list), which put him in company with Najdorf, Reshevsky and Larsen. His best performance ratings were 2724 at the Stockholm Interzonal, 1962 (2724), Portoroz Interzonal, 1958 (2717) and the Curacao Candidates, 1961 (2713). 
     At Curacao, Benko played white 14 times and 11 times he opened with 1.g3, hence it became known as the Benko Opening. As he got older Benko abandoned tournament chess and served as a columnist for Chess Life where he concentrated on problems and endings. 
     In the following game played in round 3 at Curacao 1962, Benko used the same opening move (1.g3) that he used to defeat Fischer in round 1 and Tal opted for the same setup which allowed white to exert strong pressure on black's position. In the end, Tal gets swindled in time pressure.