US Championship 1965/66 — New York
Incomplete record. This archive holds 63 of the 66 games played; 3 are missing.
Twelve players met at the Henry Hudson Hotel for the 17th US Championship, and Bobby Fischer took his seventh title despite the rarest of stretches for him: back-to-back losses to Robert Byrne and Samuel Reshevsky in rounds eight and nine. He still finished 8½/11, a full point clear of Byrne and Reshevsky, who tied for second and joined him in qualifying for the 1967 Interzonal at Sousse.
A championship and an Interzonal ticket
The 17th US Championship ran December 12–31, 1965, at the Henry Hudson Hotel: twelve players over eleven rounds — Fischer, Byrne, Reshevsky, William Addison, Bernard Zuckerman, Nicolas Rossolimo, Larry Evans, Pal Benko, Anthony Saidy, Arthur Bisguier, Karl Burger, and Duncan Suttles. Beyond the national title, the leading finishers would represent the United States at the 1967 Interzonal in Sousse, Tunisia, the next step of the world championship cycle.
Two losses, one title
Fischer's run had a crack in it that December: he lost to Robert Byrne in round eight and to Samuel Reshevsky in round nine, back-to-back losses in a tournament he still won comfortably. He finished on 8½/11, ahead of Byrne and Reshevsky on 7½, for his seventh US Championship. Even his hold on the title wasn't automatic. The following year, at the same hotel, he went through the 1966/67 field unbeaten to make it eight championships from eight starts.
Fischer, Byrne, and Reshevsky all went on to the 1967 Sousse Interzonal — the event Fischer would famously abandon mid-tournament, while still in contention, after a dispute with the organizers.
The games
The archive preserves 63 of the 66 games played in the round robin. The three pairings it cannot show are marked lost to history rather than left blank, and the standings shown here are the historical final table rather than a sum of the surviving games alone.
Final standings
The standings below are the historical final result. Only 63 of the 66 games played survive in our source; the remaining 3 are lost and appear as · in the cross table.
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fischer, Robert James | 8½/11 | +8 -2 =1 | games |
| =2 | Byrne, Robert Eugene | 7½/11 | +5 -1 =5 | games |
| =2 | Reshevsky, Samuel Herman | 7½/11 | +5 -1 =5 | games |
| =4 | Addison, William G | 6½/11 | +4 -2 =5 | games |
| =4 | Zuckerman, Bernard | 6½/11 | +3 -1 =7 | games |
| 6 | Rossolimo, Nicolas | 6/11 | +4 -3 =4 | games |
| =7 | Evans, Larry Melvyn | 5/11 | +4 -5 =2 | games |
| =7 | Benko, Pal C | 5/11 | +3 -4 =4 | games |
| =7 | Saidy, Anthony Fred | 5/11 | +4 -5 =2 | games |
| =10 | Burger, Karl | 3/11 | +1 -6 =4 | games |
| =10 | Bisguier, Arthur Bernard | 3/11 | +0 -5 =6 | games |
| 12 | Suttles, Duncan | 2½/11 | +1 -7 =3 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fischer, Robert James | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Byrne, Robert Eugene | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | |
| 3 | Reshevsky, Samuel Herman | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Addison, William G | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 5 | Zuckerman, Bernard | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | · | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | |
| 6 | Rossolimo, Nicolas | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | · | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | |
| 7 | Evans, Larry Melvyn | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Benko, Pal C | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | · | 1 | |
| 9 | Saidy, Anthony Fred | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | · | |
| 10 | Burger, Karl | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | |
| 11 | Bisguier, Arthur Bernard | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | · | ½ | ½ | ½ | |
| 12 | Suttles, Duncan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | · | 0 | ½ |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player. · = game played but lost (not preserved in our source).