Echesspedia

U.S. Grandmaster (1957) who was a leading American player in the 1950s and 60s. Evans won the US Championship in 1951 (at 19), 1961-2 and 1968; was equal first in 1980; was 2nd (to Fischer) in 1963-4 and 1966. He won the US Open in 1951, 1952 and 1954, and was equal first in 1955. He played on eight US Olympiad teams between 1950 and 1976, scoring 90% on board 5 in 1950.

He played more frequently in US events that in Europe, but his foreign successes include equal 4th at Buenos Aires 1960, equal 2nd at Venice 1967 (equal with Tigran Petrosian and Hans Donner), 1st at Portimao in 1975. He beat Mark Taimanov 2½-1½ in the 1954 at USA-USSR radio match; reached the 1956 Interzonal in Amsterdam, where he made only a moderate score; beat Lombardy 5½-4½ in 1962. Evans never made it to the Candidates level.

He contributed work on several versions of Chessmaster, one of the best-selling computer program. Author of New Ideas In Chess (1958), The 10 Most Common Chess Mistakes, Test Your Chess I.Q, and Modern Chess Brilliancies. His long-running Q&A column remains one of the most popular features in Chess Life, the official organ of the USCF, and in 1994 he was inducted into the Chess Hall of Fame.

In 1972 he covered the Fischer-Spassky match for Time and ABC’s Wide World of Sports, later serving as senior commentator at Kasparov vs. Short in 1993 and Kasparov vs. Kramnik in 2000. Best ELO: 2555 in 1977.