Legacy and Writings
Some chess openings he pioneered are named for him:
- The Benko Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5), which he popularised, and played with great success from the mid-1960s.
- Benko's Opening (1.g3), which he introduced at the 1962 Candidates Tournament, defeating Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal with it.
He wrote a book on the Benko Gambit for RHM Publishing in the early 1970s.
Benko is a noted authority on the chess endgame. For decades, he has had a column on endgames in Chess Life magazine, which is published by the United States Chess Federation. In 2003 he revised the classic book Basic Chess Endings, by Reuben Fine. In addition to his success as a player, Benko is a composer of endgame studies and chess problems. He was awarded the title of International Master of Chess Composition by FIDE.
Benko was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1993.
Read more about this topic: Pal Benko
Famous quotes containing the words legacy and/or writings:
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“In this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)