Pál Charles Benkö

Born July 15, 1928
Amiens, France
Died August 25, 2019
Budapest, Hungary
Title International Master (1950)
Grandmaster (1958)
Best Elo rating 2530 (FIDE, July 1973)
2687 (historical, December 1958)

Pál Charles Benkő [ˈpaːl ˈbɛŋkøː] (born July 15 1928 in Amiens, France; † August 25, 2019 in Budapest, Hungary) was a Hungarian- American chess grandmaster and significant endgame study composer.

Tournament player

Pál Benkő demonstrates the Benkő Gambit (2005)
In the English-speaking world he is known as Pal Benko. This notation is used by the World Chess Federation, in chess databases and mostly in the German press.

Pál Benkő won the Hungarian championship in 1948. In October 1957 he emigrated from Reykjavík to the USA.[In 1958 he was named Grandmaster by the World Chess Federation FIDE. He took part in the Candidates Tournaments for the World Chess Championship in 1959 and 1962. In 1970 he qualified for the Palma de Mallorca 1970 interzonal tournament, but decided not to take part in favor of Bobby Fischer, who was therefore able to become world champion in 1972. Benkő waived the intervention of the US Chess Federation and also received a severance payment of $2,000. Benkő won the US Open Championships eight times. Benkő took part in seven Chess Olympiads, in 1956 in Moscow he reached third place with the Hungarian team, and from 1962 to 1972 he played on the United States team. His best result was second place in Havana in 1966, and in the individual ranking he achieved the second best result on second board in Varna in 1962.

In the mid-1990s he played for the club SK Göggingen in the German 2nd Bundesliga. In Hungary, Benkő played in the 1970s and 1980s for Spartacus Budapest, with whom he won the European Club Cup in 1982, and from 2002 to 2005 for Vasas SC Novák.

There are several chess openings named after him, such as the Benkő Gambit (also Volga Gambit or Volga-Benkő Gambit) and in English the “Benkő Opening” (Benko Opening) 1. g3, in German-speaking countries it is called Königsfianchetto common.

He achieved his best historical Elo rating of 2687 in December 1958. Benkő had not played a ranked game since the 2004/05 Hungarian Team Championship.

He took third place at the 1992 World Senior Chess Championship.

Game against Fischer:

Benkő–Fischer 1:0

Portorož, 10. August 1958

King's Indian Defence (Sämisch Variation), E80

1. d4 Sf6 2. c4 g6 3. Sc3 Lg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 e5 6. Sge2 0–0 7. Lg5 exd4 8. Sxd4 Sc6 9. Sc2 Le6 10. Le2 h6 11. Lh4 g5 12. Lf2 Se5 13. Se3 c6 14. 0–0 Da5 15. Dd2 Tfd8 16. Tfd1 a6 17. a4 Dc7 18. a5 c5 19. h4 De7? (besser wäre 19. … Sg6) 20. hxg5 hxg5 21. Sf5 Lxf5 22. exf5 g4 23. Lh4 Df8 24. fxg4 Sexg4 25. Lxg4 Sxg4 26. Dg5 Sf6 27. Td3 Sh7 28. Dg4 f6 29. Sd5 Df7 30. Te1 Te8 31. Tde3 Te5 32. Lg3 Txe3 33. Txe3 Te8 34. Te6 Sg5 35. Txd6 Te4 36. Td8+ Kh7 37. Lf4 Lh6 38. Td7! (38. … Dxd7 39. Sxf6+ und gewinnt...) Te1+ 39. Kf2 Se4+ 40. Kxe1 Dxd7 41. Dg6+ 1:0

Endgame study composer
Pál Benkő was a recognized authority on the final. He composed endgame studies and chess problems and is an International Master of Chess Compositions. For decades he had a column in Chess Life magazine, published by the United States Chess Federation. In 1993 he was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame. In 2003 he published an autobiography entitled My Life, Games and Compositions.

Factories
Pal Benko, Jeremy Silman: Pal Benko. My Life, Games and Compositions. Siles Press, Los Angeles 2003, ISBN 1-890085-08-1.
Web links
Commons: Pál Benkő - Collection of images
Review of his autobiography
Replayable chess games by Pál Benkő on chessgames.com (English)
Compositions by Pál Benkö on the PDB server
Individual evidence
  Johannes Fischer: A fascinating life, an exemplary biography In: chessbase.com, December 9, 2004, accessed on September 28, 2019.
  Jeremy Gaige: Chess Personalia: A Biobibliography. McFarland & Company, July 1987, ISBN 978-0-89950-293-9.
  Frank Zeller: On Pal Benkö's 90th birthday. In: chessbase.com. July 15, 2018, accessed on August 27, 2019.
  Frederic Friedel: Pál Benkö dies at 91. In: chessbase.com. August 27, 2019, accessed on August 28, 2019 (English).
  Pal Benko Dies at Age 91. In: uschess.org. August 26, 2019, accessed on August 27, 2019 (English).
  Dylan Loeb McClain: Pal Benko, Who Stepped Aside for Bobby Fischer, Dies at 91. In: NYTimes.com. August 26, 2019, accessed on August 27, 2019 (English).
  Benko/Silman, p. 85.
  Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924–2002. Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 75.
  Wojciech Bartelski: Benko, Pal. In: olimpbase.org. Retrieved on August 27, 2019 (English, Chess Olympiad results).
  Wojciech Bartelski: Benkő, Pál. In: olimpbase.org. Retrieved on August 27, 2019 (English, results from European Club Cups).
  Chessmetrics Player Profile: Pal Benko. In: chessmetrics.com. April 23, 2006, accessed on August 27, 2019 (English).

Source: Germain Wikipedia

Others: 33 endgame studies are selected on Website arves.org. (editor Peter Boll)