Hugh Myers

Hugh Edward Myers (January 23, 1930 – December 22, 2008) was an American chess master and author.

Myers was born in Decatur, Illinois on January 23, 1930.

At age 10, he learned to play chess from Lasker's Manual of Chess, a famous treatise by former world champion Emanuel Lasker.

The book had a lasting influence on him, including Lasker's "encouragement regarding the openings, 'the ground trodden above is yet rather new, and you may explore it as well as anyone else.' " After his father brought home the December 1943 issue of Chess Review, Myers began visiting the Decatur Chess Club weekly.

In 1946, he played in his first chess tournament, finishing second in the Decatur high school championship.

In 1950–52, he won the Decatur city championship thrice consecutively by lopsided scores, scoring 14.5 out of 16 possible points, 15 out of 16, and a perfect 14 out of 14, respectively.

He won or tied for first in the state chess championships of Illinois (1951), Wisconsin (1955), Missouri (1962), and Iowa (1983), as well as the USCF Region VIII (Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Nebraska) championship (1983).

Myers majored in history and political science at Millikin University, graduating in 1951.

While in college, he became obsessed with chess.

In 1951, Myers tied for first in the Illinois championship with Kimball Nedved and John Tums, each scoring 6 out of 7 possible points in the Swiss system tournament, but Nedved won on Sonneborn–Berger tiebreaking points.

Myers then challenged Nedved to a match, which Myers won in 1952 with 3.5 out of 4.

Myers won the 1955 Wisconsin state championship with 6.5 out of 7, drawing in the last round with Arpad Elo.

Myers was a natural chess teacher demonstrated by the impact of his 1957 short lesson at the Manhattan Club to Michael Morrisroe who used the exact technique to defeat Erich Marchand in the quarter finals of the 1960 New York State Championship.

In 1962, Myers won the Missouri Open championship on tiebreak over J. Theodorovich of Toronto, each scoring 5 out of 6.

From 1965 to 1968, Myers was the top-rated player in the Dominican Republic.

He played for the Dominican Republic in the 1968 and 1976 Chess Olympiads.

Myers is best known for his writings on unusual chess openings such as the Nimzovich Defense (1.e4 Nc6).

The eccentric opening 1.c4 g5 is known as Myers' Defense because of his advocacy of it in his writings and games.

Myers wrote numerous editions of his book on the Nimzovich Defense, as well as three other books on the openings.

He played for its national chess team at the Chess Olympiads at Lugano 1968 (scoring 4, 5 draws, and 6 ) and Haifa 1976 (scoring 3 wins, 3 draws, and 5 losses).

He published the books New Strategy in the Chess Openings (1968), The Nimzovich Defense (1973; French edition 1979; revised editions 1986, 1993, and 1995), Reversed King Pawns, Mengarini's Opening (1977), and Exploring the Chess Openings (1978).

His most important opening work was on the Nimzowitsch Defense, on which he was considered the foremost authority.

He edited and published the Myers Openings Bulletin in 1979–1988 and the New Myers Openings Bulletin in 1992–1996.

From 1979 to 1988, Myers edited and published 38 issues of the Myers Openings Bulletin.

In 1983, Myers tied for first with Mitch Weiss in the Iowa State Championship, a round robin, each scoring 3.5 out of 4.

Later that year, Myers and Weiss also tied for first in the USCF Region VIII (Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Nebraska) championship, each scoring 4.5 points in the 5-round Swiss.

Myers also involved himself in the controversy over FIDE President Florencio Campomanes' termination of the 1984–85 World Championship match between Karpov and Kasparov, and was instrumental in helping Campomanes secure reelection in 1986.

Nine double-sized issues, called the New Myers Openings Bulletin, came out in 1992–96.

The ChessBase.com obituary of Myers observes that in the Myers Openings Bulletin, Myers offered:

"...a remarkable diet of deeply-researched openings articles (no opening seemed too abstruse for consideration), historical features, book reviews and topical commentary. He included contributions from many writers who later gained prominence in their own right, and the Bulletin built up a loyal, affectionate readership throughout the world."

FIDE Master Allan Savage observes that the Bulletin "became a cause celebre for practitioners of unusual openings, a forum for airing of opinions of diverse chess writers, and a target for those conformists who would malign the very existence of offbeat ideas."

Savage calls Myers "a trailblazer, iconoclast, original thinker, curmudgeon, and at his peak, a strong master".

Probably Myers' best-known contribution to opening theory is the eccentric line 1.c4 g5, a sort of Grob's Attack (1.g4) with colors reversed.

Between 1993 and 2003, his rating fell from 2219 to 2054.

Myers is best known for his writings on unorthodox chess openings.

In 1994, Myers played third board for "Fear Itself", the team that won the U.S. Amateur Team Championship.

Myers' autobiography, A Chess Explorer, was issued in 2002.

Myers died in Davenport, Iowa on December 22, 2008.

Myers achieved an Elo rating of 2350 while living in the Dominican Republic.

In the United States, he first attained a rating over 2200 (National Master level) in 1983 and kept it over 2200 for ten years.