Walter Browne

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Walter Browne at the 2002 U.S. Chess championships in Seattle, Washington

Walter Shawn Browne (born January 10, 1949 in Sydney, Australia) is a grandmaster chess player. FIDE awarded him the title of International Grandmaster in 1970. He earned the International Master title in 1969 by tying for first with Renato Naranja in the Asian Zonal tournament in Singapore, where Browne represented his native Australia. This result immediately earned him an invitation to a grandmaster tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he earned the grandmaster title by tieing for second behind Boris Spassky and where he defeated Lubomir Kavalek.

Browne was born to an American father and Australian mother. His family moved to the New York area when he was three, and Browne moved to California in 1973. He was the most dominant American player in the immediate post-Bobby Fischer era. His accomplishments are quite considerable.

Browne won the U.S. Junior Championship in 1966. In 1969, he tied for second with Bruno Parma and Arthur Bisguier, behind reigning world champion Boris Spassky, in an international tournament at San Juan, Puerto Rico, a performance that earned him the grandmaster title. He has won the U.S. championship six times, a number exceeded only by Bobby Fischer and Samuel Reshevsky. He also won the National Open eleven times, the American Open seven times, and the U.S. Open and World Open three times each. Particularly noteworthy is his three-way victory in the 1976 American Open when he tied John E. Pike, a biochemist from Kalamazoo, Michigan, who, upon learning that the open was being contested at the same hotel where he was speaking at a symposium on prostaglandins, entered the championship on a whim. Browne was a dominant presence in American chess in the 1970s and 1980s. His many international firsts include Reykjavík 1978, Wijk aan Zee 1980, Chile 1981, Indonesia 1982 (a 26-player round-robin), the 1983 New York Open, Gjovik 1983, and Naestved 1985. Most recently, he won the U.S. Senior Open in June 2005. Browne claims to have won more Swiss system events than any other living player. He was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2003.

A world-class speed chess player, Browne in 1988 formed the World Blitz Chess Association, which has recently encountered financial trouble.

Browne has been a professional poker player since 1966. He plays several times a week at the Oaks Club in Emeryville, California.

Here is one of Browne's best games, a coruscating brilliancy against International Master Bernard Zuckerman:

Browne-Zuckerman, New York 1973 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 O-O 6.e3 Nbd7 7.Bd3 dxc4 8.Bxc4 c5 9.O-O a6 10.a4 cxd4 11.exd4 Nb6 12.Bb3 Bd7 13.Ne5 Bc6 14.Bc2 Nbd5 15.Bb1 Nb4 16.Re1 g6 17.Bh6 Re8 18.Ra3 Qd6 19.Ne2 Rad8 20.Rh3 Qd5 21.Nf3 Qa5 22.Nc3 Nbd5 23.Ne5 Nxc3 24.bxc3 Bxa4 25.Qe2 Bd7 26.Bg5 Nd5 27.Nxf7 Bxg5 28.Rxh7 Nf6 29.Bxg6 Nxh7 30.Qh5 Qxc3 31.Qxh7+ Kf8 32.Rf1 Qxd4 33.Ne5 Qf4 34.Nxd7+ Rxd7 35.Qh8+ Ke7 36.Qxe8+ Kf6 37.Qxd7 Kxg6 38.Qxe6+ Bf6 39.Qe8+ Kh6 40.g3 Qb4 41.Re1 a5 42.Re6 Qb2 43.Qf7 Kg5 44.h4+ Kg4 45.Qg6+ Kh3 46.Qf5# 1-0

Here is another brilliant win, this one against grandmaster Larry Christiansen:

Browne-Christiansen, U.S. Championship 1977 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.d5 Ba6 4.e4 exd5 5.exd5 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Qe2+ Be7 8.Qc2 c6 9.Bd3 b5 10.cxb5 cxb5 11.Nge2 b4 12.Ne4 Nxd5 13.O-O O-O 14.Rd1 Qa5 15.N2g3 g6 16.Bh6 Re8 17.Qd2 Nf6 18.Qf4 Qb6 19.Bxa6 Nxa6 20.Rd6 Bxd6 21.Nxf6+ Kh8 22.Bg7+ Kxg7 23.Ngh5+ gxh5 24.Qg5+ Kh8 25.Qh6 Bxh2+ 26.Kh1 Qxf6 27.Qxf6+ Kg8 28.Qg5+ Kh8 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.Qg5+ Kh8 31.Kxh2 Re6 32.Rd1 Rg8 33.Qf4 Reg6 34.g3 f6 35.Rxd7 Nc5 36.Rd6 h4 37.Qxh4 a5 38.Qd4 1-0

[edit] External links

• FIDE rating card for Walter Browne
• Walter Browne at ChessGames.com
• Statistics at ChessWorld.net