WALTER BROWNE (born Jan-10-1949, died Jun-24-2015, 66 years old) Australia (federation/nationality United States of America) [what is this?] Walter Shawn Browne was born in Sydney, Australia to an Australian mother and an American father. In his youth, he lived in both countries at various times. He won the 1969 Australian Championship, was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1970, and played first board for Australia at the Siegen 1970 and Skopje 1972 Olympiads. He also played on four bronze medal U.S. Olympiad teams (1974, 1978, 1982, 1984), once each on boards 1-4 (http://www.olimpbase.org/players/tt...). Chessmetrics ranks him No. 27 in the world at his peak in December 1975 and January 1976. Browne was known as "Mr. Six Time" for his six U.S. Championship wins (1974, 1975, 1977, 1980 (tied with Larry Evans and Larry Christiansen), 1981 (tied with Yasser Seirawan), and 1983 (tied with Roman Dzindzichashvili and Christiansen))*, behind only Robert James Fischer and Samuel Reshevsky. He also won many open tournaments, including two U.S. Opens, seven American Opens, eleven National Opens, and the 1991 Canadian Open. He was frustrated at Interzonals, scoring 8.5/19 at the Manila Interzonal (1976), 3/13 (last by 2.5 points) at the Las Palmas Interzonal (1982), and 6.5/15 at the Taxco Interzonal (1985). Browne's first international tournament was San Juan (1969), won by the new world champion Boris Spassky. Browne tied for second with Arthur Bisguier and Bruno Parma. His international successes include first-place finishes at Venice (1971), Hoogovens (1974), Winnipeg 1974 (Pan American Championship), Lone Pine (1974), Mannheim 1975, Reykjavik (1978), Hoogovens (1980) (tied with Seirawan), Chile 1981, the First Lady's Cup (1982) (shared with Ron Henley in a 26-player round-robin tournament), the 1983 New York Open, Gjovik (1983) (tied with John Nunn and Andras Adorjan), and the Nimzowitsch Memorial (1985) (with Bent Larsen and Rafael Vaganian). A top competitor at blitz chess, in 1988 he formed the World Blitz Association. Browne was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in 2003. Up until the time of his death, he still competed successfully in top-level American open tournaments. He died suddenly in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 24, 2015, having just tied for 9th-15th at the National Open. *United States Championship (1974), United States Championship (1975), United States Championship (1977), United States Championship (1980), United States Championship (1981), United States Championship (1983). Wikipedia article: Walter Browne http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Play... Last updated: 2023-11-18 07:21:30

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page 1 of 73; games 1-25 of 1,814  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. F Wilson vs Browne ½-½ 51 1963 Marshall Chess Club Weekend Tournament, New City, C21 Center Game 2. Browne vs I Zalys 0-1 57 1963 Correspondence B28 Sicilian, O'Kelly Variation 3. Browne vs W Lukowiak 1-0 19 1964 USA Amateur ch B12 Caro-Kann Defense 4. C Steir vs Browne   0-1 25 1964 New York jr ch B99 Sicilian, Najdorf, 7...Be7 Main line 5. Browne vs A Soltis 0-1 35 1964 New York jr ch C01 French, Exchange 6. A Soltis vs Browne 1-0 34 1964 Marshall CC Preliminaries C69 Ruy Lopez, Exchange, Gligoric Variation 7. Browne vs J Sherwin   0-1 31 1965 Marshall CC ch B35 Sicilian, Accelerated Fianchetto, Modern Variation with Bc4 8. C Rehberg vs Browne   0-1 33 1966 Marshall CC ch D25 Queen's Gambit Accepted 9. F M Howard vs Browne   0-1 23 1966 67th US Open D20 Queen's Gambit Accepted 10. Browne vs B Hochberg   1-0 47 1966 67th US Open D80 Grunfeld 11. L Jackson vs Browne 1-0 47 1966 67th US Open D25 Queen's Gambit Accepted 12. Browne vs J Wolfe   1-0 22 1966 67th US Open A56 Benoni Defense 13. Browne vs R M Bond   1-0 24 1966 67th US Open B14 Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack 14. Browne vs Juris Ozols   ½-½ 72 1966 67th US Open C00 French Defense 15. B Sperling vs Browne   0-1 29 1966 67th US Open D04 Queen's Pawn Game 16. Browne vs J B Kelly 1-0 32 1966 67th US Open B43 Sicilian, Kan, 5.Nc3 17. P O'Gorman vs Browne   0-1 48 1966 67th US Open A07 King's Indian Attack 18. J Hanken vs Browne   ½-½ 44 1966 67th US Open A05 Reti Opening 19. W Goichberg vs Browne   ½-½ 51 1966 67th US Open B43 Sicilian, Kan, 5.Nc3 20. S Matera vs Browne   0-1 40 1967 US Junior Ch A61 Benoni 21. B Sperling vs Browne 0-1 28 1967 68th US Open A48 King's Indian 22. Browne vs J Westbrock   1-0 48 1967 68th US Open C43 Petrov, Modern Attack 23. Browne vs J F Shaw 1-0 22 1967 68th US Open C00 French Defense 24. A Karklins vs Browne 1-0 52 1967 68th US Open B43 Sicilian, Kan, 5.Nc3 25. J Davies vs Browne 0-1 46 1967 68th US Open B76 Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack  page 1 of 73; games 1-25 of 1,814

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 16 OF 16 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jan-10-20    Cheapo by the Dozen: Browne wasn't just a jerk during time pressure. I still remember him screaming insults at Anthony Saidy when they were analyzing a position between rounds. "You know nothing about endgames, Saidy!" This was when I was a kid. Browne was basically the only grandmaster I thought badly of. Jan-10-20    saffuna: <He'd grimace, constantly check the clock, calculate with depth, move pieces at light speed, and then defeat his opponents. > There was more to it from that, if the videos I've seen are to be believed. Jan-11-20    OhioChessFan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qan... Amazing how the nodding stops when he realizes he's in trouble.... Feb-16-21    Caissanist: If the Daily Mail is to be believed, Larry Kaufman says that the Benny Watts character in <Queens Gambit> was based on Browne: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowb... Feb-16-21    Granny O Doul: I'd heard that same suggestion from Maxim Dlugy a while back. He may have got it from Kaufman. Anyway, it could be true, I suppose. Feb-16-21    savagerules: I remember a last round at a Swiss tournament Browne was in his usual time pressure in a complicated position and he had his hands over his ears (probably to stop the non- existent noise in the room), furiously rocking back and forth, looking at the board then at the clock, then at the board, then at the clock, then a flurry of moves and illegible writing and he claims time control has been reached. Then he talks loudly to the arbiter (who is probably a C player at best) who is checking the score sheet while other games are still going on and Browne has to be hushed by other players that are still playing to keep his voice down..to no effect. Feb-17-21    monopole2313: <Murky> Did he have a gray Porsche? Many years ago I was crossing the street at Lawrence Hall of Science, and I thought I saw him driving up the hill. Mar-19-21    Spinifex2222: As a 17 year old in 1971, I had a draw against Browne in a simul at the Roselands mall in Sydney. A news report of the event, with some interesting background on the youthful Browne, can be found here: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/496... albeit it glosses over the fact that Browne did not defeat everyone! As Browne points out in the article, the conditions were very-sub-optimal. The boards were set-up at the base of several escalators, with throngs of shoppers milling about, and music and announcements blaring out continually. In our game, Browne blundered a minor piece early in the game, to his great annoyance, and I was somehow able to hang on until he offered the draw. He pointed out quite politely that the game was inevitably heading to that conclusion. Apr-07-21    J. Adoube: Murky - is there anywhere one can go to get back issues of Blitz Chess? As I recall the annotations were (before computers) incredibly interesting. Apr-07-21    perfidious: I have never seen back numbers of the magazine available, and I agree as a longtime subscriber; there was some interesting stuff in them. Jan-10-22    Murky: <monopole2313> Nope; never saw Browne in a gray Porsche. <J. Adoube> I've got duplicates of issues #1 and #2. You want 'em? I'll need a contact email. When the first issue of Blitz Chess went into print in May 1988, Browne hosted a chess party at his home in Berkeley hills. DeFirmian, Dlugy, Grefe, and a number of other people were present. Someone produced a hand written letter, allegedly written by Fischer, and sections of the letter were read aloud. Some of the text sounded a bit crazed, with accusations of one sort or another being leveled. I commented that it was good to hear that Fischer was alive and well. As best I recall DeFirmian replied, "Alive, but not necessarily well." Jan-10-22    HartmannGBamberg: Hello J. Adoube, could you please send me the Blitz Chess duplicates #1 and #2. Many thanks in advance. Jun-29-23    FSR: <Petrosianic: <"I could have beaten him. I think, but I thought I'd settle for a draw and get him next time, not knowing, of course, that he'd retire".> It's true that he had chances to win that game, but only Browne thought that he deliberately chose not to win it.> He settled for a draw in Browne vs Fischer, 1970 after a mere 98 moves, in a position that at that point was dead drawn. Jun-29-23    perfidious: <saffuna: <He'd grimace, constantly check the clock, calculate with depth, move pieces at light speed, and then defeat his opponents. > There was more to it from that, if the videos I've seen are to be believed.> After sitting across the board from Browne, I can vouch for all this; he was a bundle of nervous energy. Aug-29-24    areknames: < Walter Browne at a Los Angeles tournament in time pressure when a cat saunters up to his table and starts rubbing up against his leg. Next thing people see is Walter launching the cat into airborne status across the room, as if he was shooing away a fly. > What a p.o.s. throwing or kicking a cat if this story is true. Absolutely appalling stuff. Aug-29-24    areknames: In the 5/1988 issue of Schacknytt Swedish GM Tom Wedberg provides an excellent account of his participation in the New York Open earlier that year (he was still only an IM). Amongst others, he annotates his game against Browne, which I don't think is in this database. It's an exciting game, a modern Benoni where the American gets a winning advantage but blunders in zeitnot and eventually loses. After the game Browne is very upset and screams "this was just a piece of sheet, I had a clear advantage after the opening, all I had to do was play d6 and d7 and I would have won easily". Wedberg then asks him, with typical Swedish composure, why he didn't do that, to which Browne can only mumble something about time trouble and strange time controls. Rude and unsportsmanlike, what a piece of work this guy was. Aug-29-24    perfidious: Found the encounter between those players, but it does not quite jibe with the account given: https://www.365chess.com/game.php?g.... Not at all difficult to believe though that Browne would go clear off the rails. A few years after the above game was played, I had an encounter with Browne at the World Open blitz event. Before we played, he went on about the colours. During the game itself, I got a much better, nearly winning position but lost on time. Browne had nothing more to say about who had which colour, but knowing his tendencies, I imagine he would have run to the TD had the result not been to his liking. Another time I was at a New York Open (ca 1985) and witnessed the post-mortem after Browne lost to Pia Cramling. Did the pieces ever fly as he reeled off one line after another to justify his play. Not sure young Pia ever got a word in edgewise. Aug-29-24    areknames: <perf>, the game that your link leads to is not the game that I am referring to. Aug-29-24    perfidious: That was the point of the first sentence of my post. Dec-01-24    Nosnibor: No mention here of Browne winning the World Open Championship in New York from June 30th 1973 to July 4th 1973 scoring 9 points from 11 games. Other scores included Kaplan second with 8.5, third to fifth places shared by Bellin,Tan Lian Ann and Webb with 8 points and sixth to eleventh were Benko, Mestel,Peters, Seidmann, Weinstein and Pilnk with 7.5 points. Dec-01-24    FM David H. Levin: <<Nosnibor>: No mention here of Browne winning the World Open Championship in New York from June 30th 1973 to July 4th 1973 scoring 9 points from 11 games.> According to http://www.chesstour.com/wo73s.htm, the event was 10 rounds (which would be consistent with a major 5-day swiss). Hence, Browne's result was even more impressive. Dec-01-24    perfidious: Browne indeed made 9-1 in that event, which was held at the Hotel McAlpin, the premier site for tournaments in the mid 1970s. Lot of familiar names in that crosstable; one I recall was John Thornley, a talented young expert from Rhode Island, who lost his life in an auto accident weeks after the event. Dec-02-24    sakredkow: Great respect for Browne. Interesting to speculate what the pressure of living in Bobby Fischer's shadow can do to someone with a ferocious ego. Dec-03-24    HeMateMe: I remember seeing bill Lombardy at a chess club and asking a question about Bobby Fischer. I got a short, angry answer. No happy reminiscing. Some players take it to the grave with them Dec-04-24    Granny O Doul: At the time of his demise Bill had been amassing notes for a book that was going to tell the Fischer story, or stories. Alas.... Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 16) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 16 OF 16 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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