April 01 1963
Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Monday, April 01, 1963
Master in Chess to Conduct Lecture And Exhibition Match in Hazleton
Donald Byrne, chess coach at the Pennsylvania State University and an international master in chess, will conduct a lecture-simultaneous exhibition match on chess at the Hazleton Campus of the University on Friday, April 5.
His appearance is one of the series for the Commonwealth Campuses of the University to stimulate student interest in the areas of art, music, drama, literature, and related subjects.
Mr. Byrne, who is also instructor in English at Penn State, was U.S. Open champion in chess in 1953 and several times was U. S. Speed champion, averaging ten seconds a move.
He was a member of the USA Chess Team for the USA-USSR match in New York in 1954 and again in Moscow in 1955 and last year was a member of the USA team playing in the World Chess Team championship, in Bulgaria. In this event, he had the highest score on the USA team and was 5th highest scorer among 100 players in the event.
Mr. Byrne is also the only USA player with a plus score against the Russian players who are recognized as the best chess players in the world.
A member of the Penn State faculty since 1961 and, also Penn State chess coach since that time, Mr. Byrne is a graduate of Yale University with a bachelor of arts degree in English literature and a minor in philosophy. His master of arts degree in the same area of study was conferred by the University of Michigan.
He has served on the faculty of the University of Michigan, of Olivet College in Olivet, Mich., and prior to his appointment at Penn State in 1961 served three years on the faculty of Valparaiso in Valparaiso, Ind.
Mr. Byrne is a member of the Michigan English Association, the Indiana English Association, and also the Modern Language Association.
