Arthur Bisguier

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Arthur Bisguier : biography

8 October 1929 –

At the Olympiads

Bisguier represented the United States at five Chess Olympiads. His detailed results, from olimpbase.org, follow. His totals over 82 games are (+29 −18 =35), for 56.7 per cent.

  • Helsinki 1952, board 4, 7/15 (+3 −4 =8);
  • Munich 1958, board 3, 8.5/17 (+6 −6 =5);
  • Leipzig 1960, board 4, 11.5/16 (+9 −2 =5), team silver medal;
  • Tel Aviv 1964, board 4, 11.5/18 (+8 −3 =7);
  • Skopje 1972, board 4, 8/16 (+3 −3 =10).

Sample game

The following game is Bisguier’s sole win against Bobby Fischer, their first game played. (Their second game was a draw, then Bobby won 13 straight—perhaps the longest unbroken winning streak between grandmasters in history.) Fischer, although only 13 at the time of this game, was decidedly no pushover: in the same tournament he defeated Donald Byrne in his celebrated Game of the Century.

Bisguier–Fischer, Rosenwald Memorial, New York 1956: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3 c5 7.Be2 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6 9.Nc2 Bd7 10.0-0 Rc8 11.Be3 Na5 12.b3 a6 13.e5 dxe5 14.fxe5 Ne8 15.Nd5 Rc6 16.Nd4 Rc8 17.Nc2 Rc6 18.Ncb4 Re6 19.Bg4 Rxe5 20.Bb6 Qc8 21.Bxd7 Qxd7 22.Bxa5 e6 23.Nd3 Rh5 24.N3f4 Rf5 25.Bb4 exd5 26.Bxf8 Bxa1 27.Qxa1 Kxf8 28.Qh8+ Ke7 29.Re1+ Kd8 30.Nxd5 Qc6 31.Qf8 Qd7 32.Rd1 Rf6 33.Qxe8+ 1–0

U.S. Champion, Grandmaster

After a poor performance in the U.S. Open in 1953, he entered the Philadelphia Candidates’ Tournament for the U.S. Championship and came through with a first place finish and another over-2600 performance. His meteoric rise culminated with a winning score in the 1954 United States Chess Championship at New York. He also won the 2nd Pan American Chess Championship at Los Angeles 1954. In 1956 at Oklahoma City, he added the U.S. Open Chess Championship title to his U.S. Championship. Bisguier was made an International Grandmaster in 1957. He tied with Bobby Fischer for first–second places at the U.S. Open at Cleveland 1957, but Fischer was awarded the title on tiebreak (The Games of Robert J. Fischer, by Robert Wade and Kevin O’Connell, London, Batsford 1972).