Benko turns 80

Grandmaster Pal Benko celebrates his 80th birthday today. He was born in France, but grew up in his native Hungary. Later he moved to the US. Benko was one of the world’s leading players in the 1950s and 1960s.

Benko’s best-known contribution to the opening theory is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5, which in the West is called Benko Gambit. He is a well-known chess journalist and composer. In 2003 Benko and IM Jeremy Silman wrote a book called “Paul Benko. My Life, Games and Compositions”.

To celebrate Benko’s 80th birthday, Hungarian chess magazine Magyar Sakkvilag organised an international formal thematic composition tourney. The theme was: starting from the initial position of the play White and Black don’t capture any men in the main line during the first eight moves at least.

Pal Benko is the judge in this competition. The preliminary award of tourney will be published on September 1st 2008 at the webpage of the Magyar Sakkvilag.

Source: Chess Today