The American Grandmaster, Larry Evens, born in Manhattan, March 23rd, 1932, is best known in the United Kingdom for his writings. However, his playing prowess gained him the grandmaster title aged 18, in the days when the title was awarded rather than granted on a numerical basis. His playing years were over shadowed by the emergence and success of Bobby Fischer, but he was equal with such American greats of the period in Reshevsky, Bisquier and the Byrne brothers, winning the USA Championship in 1951 ahead of Reshevsky, again in 1961 ahead of Byrne R and Seidman and 1968 ahead of Reshevsky, Byrne and Benko. His international tournament appearances were few, but he did manage fourth place in the 1949 Hastings tournament, fourth in the Capablanca Memorial of 1964, second in Vienna, 1967, sixth in San Antonio 1972 and first in Portimao in 1975. He also represented the USA in many Olympiads. His literary talents first came to public notice in the book "New Ideas in Chess", that demonstrated his penetrating analysis and lucid prose. For the first time the elements of chess were expounded by explanations of Pawn Structure, Time, Force and Space. This was followed in 1971 with "Chess Questions Answered" that continued the new method of presentation adopted in his first major work. Evans is probably best known by his friendship with Bobby Fischer and subsequent involvement in the publication of "My 60 Memorable Games." The extent of his involvement is rather vague but he certainly made a major contribution in the descriptions that introduce each game. When questioned on his relationship with Fischer, Evans answered that he felt like Jedebiah Leland in Citizen Kane, who said of his emplyer "Maybe I wasn't his friend, but if I wasn't he never had one". It is very likely that had not Evans been able to influence Fischer, the book may never have been published. In 1965, Modern Chess Openings was published having been completely revised by Evans. In those days this was a monumental task as computers were not available. During the whole of his career, Evans made considerable contributions to many chess periodicals. His Evans on Chess column found its way into many American newspapers. His very first book was self-published. Using a duplicating machine he published two mimeographed chess books, Vienna 1922 and David Bronstein's Best Games 1944-49. Fittingly, he was persuaded by Russell Enterprises to re-produce Vienna 1922 in updated form and this was duly published in 2011. Thus his first book also became his last. Attached are some of Larry Evans work. HERE A column from The Sunday Washington Post. HERE: A game from "Vienna 1922" |