US Championship 1959/60 — New York
The twelfth US Championship nearly went ahead without its champion: Fischer withdrew before the first round because the pairings had been drawn in private, and a replacement had already been chosen when he changed his mind. He then won the tournament by a point on 9/11, without losing a game for the third consecutive year, while at the other end of the table Robin Ault lost all eleven of his.
The pairings dispute
The pairings were drawn behind closed doors. Fischer objected, refused to play unless they were drawn again in public, and dropped out; the organizers, led by Hans Kmoch, refused, and lined up the 22-year-old pre-med student Anthony Saidy to replace him. Fischer came back anyway. The New York Times covered the dispute on December 16 and 19, 1959.
Larry Evans and William Lombardy both turned down invitations to this championship. Tickets cost two dollars, about two hundred spectators watched the final round, first prize was 1,000 dollars and last place paid 50.
A race for second
Fischer started slowly, adjourning each of his first three games, and did not record a clean win until he beat Denker in round four. In that same round Reshevsky lost to Herbert Seidman, and after that the tournament was effectively a fight for the places behind Fischer. Robert Byrne took second on 8, undefeated himself; Reshevsky finished third on 7½ — the first time in nine US Championships that he had placed lower than second. Benko was fourth on 7, Bisguier fifth on 6½.
In the last round Byrne beat Ault and Reshevsky accepted a draw from Fischer, leaving the champion on 9 out of 11 with seven wins, four draws and no losses. Across his first three US Championships — thirty-five games in all — Fischer had now scored twenty-one wins, fourteen draws and not a single defeat.
He had come to New York straight from the 1959 Candidates tournament in Yugoslavia, and appeared at the board in a suit, white shirt and tie for the first time; Benko had talked him into buying suits in London and having them altered by a Hungarian tailor in New York.
“I just changed my mind.”
Robin Ault's eleven
Ault was invited as US Junior Champion, the automatic seat the junior title then carried, and lost every game he played. He remains the only player to have gone through a US Championship round robin without scoring — the perfect zero would not be matched until the knockout championships of 1990 and 1991 — and the result ended the junior champion's automatic invitation, which was not restored until the late 1970s.
All 66 games of the round robin are preserved here, Ault's eleven among them.
Final standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fischer, Robert James | 9/11 | +7 -0 =4 | games |
| 2 | Byrne, Robert Eugene | 8/11 | +5 -0 =6 | games |
| 3 | Reshevsky, Samuel Herman | 7½/11 | +6 -2 =3 | games |
| 4 | Benko, Pal C | 7/11 | +5 -2 =4 | games |
| 5 | Bisguier, Arthur Bernard | 6½/11 | +4 -2 =5 | games |
| 6 | Weinstein, Raymond Allen | 6/11 | +5 -4 =2 | games |
| 7 | Seidman, Herbert | 5½/11 | +4 -4 =3 | games |
| 8 | Sherwin, James T | 5/11 | +2 -3 =6 | games |
| 9 | Mednis, Edmar John | 4½/11 | +3 -5 =3 | games |
| 10 | Bernstein, Sidney Norman | 4/11 | +3 -6 =2 | games |
| 11 | Denker, Arnold Sheldon | 3/11 | +2 -7 =2 | games |
| 12 | Ault, Robin | 0/11 | +0 -11 =0 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fischer, Robert James | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Byrne, Robert Eugene | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Reshevsky, Samuel Herman | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 4 | Benko, Pal C | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 5 | Bisguier, Arthur Bernard | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 6 | Weinstein, Raymond Allen | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | Seidman, Herbert | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Sherwin, James T | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | |
| 9 | Mednis, Edmar John | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 10 | Bernstein, Sidney Norman | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 11 | Denker, Arnold Sheldon | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 12 | Ault, Robin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player.