Robert Eugene Byrne was an American chess player and chess author who held the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). He won the U.S. Championship in 1972, and was a World Chess Championship Candidate in 1974. Byrne represented the United States nine times in Chess Olympiads from 1952 to 1976 and won seven medals. He was the chess columnist from 1972 to 2006 for The New York Times, which ran his final column on November 12, 2006. Byrne worked as a university professor for many years, before becoming a chess professional in the early 1970s.
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik". One of the strongest non-Soviet players from the early 1960s into the late 1980s, he participated in twelve consecutive Interzonals from 1962 through 1993, qualifying for the World Chess Championship Candidates Cycle a total of eight times. Portisch set several all-time records in Chess Olympiads. In Hungarian Chess Championships, he either shared the title or won it outright a total of eight times. He won many strong international tournaments during his career. In 2004, Portisch was awarded the title of 'Nemzet Sportolója', Hungary's highest national sports achievement award.
Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek was a Czech-American chess player. He was awarded both the International Master and International Grandmaster titles by FIDE in 1965. He won two Czechoslovak and three U.S. championships, and was ranked as the world's No. 10 player in 1974. He was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2001. Kavalek was also a chess coach, organizer, teacher, commentator, author and award-winning columnist.
Andrew Jonathan Mestel is a British mathematician and chess grandmaster. He holds the position of Professor of Applied Mathematics at Imperial College London. He worked on magnetohydrodynamics and biological fluid dynamics. He obtained his PhD with the thesis "Magnetic Levitation of Liquid Metals" at University of Cambridge.
Miguel Ángel Quinteros is an Argentine chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1973.
Yair Kraidman is an Israeli chess grandmaster.
Victor Ciocâltea was a Romanian chess player. He was awarded the International Master title in 1957 and the International Grandmaster title in 1978. Among his notable games is the one at the 15th Chess Olympiad, held in Varna in 1962, where he defeated Bobby Fischer.
Raúl Carlos Sanguineti was an Argentine chess Grandmaster. He won the Argentine Chess Championship seven times, in 1956, 1957, 1962, 1965, 1968, 1973 and 1974. Raúl Sanguineti played for Argentina in seven Chess Olympiads. He won two individual gold medals at Moscow 1956 and Varna 1962, and two team bronze medals at Munich 1958 and Varna 1962. In total, he represented his country in seven Olympiads with an aggregate of over 70 per cent. He played in the World Chess Championship Interzonals at Portorož 1958 and Biel 1976. Important tournament victories included São Paulo 1957, Bariloche 1960, Buenos Aires 1963, Punte del Este 1964, Buenos Aires Open 1968, Fortaleza Zonal 1975, Mar del Plata 1976, Buenos Aires 1977, and Santos Lugares 1977. During his competitive career, which ran from 1954 to 1977, he very rarely finished in the bottom half of the tournament table. In 1980 he won the Konex Award as one of the 5 best chess players of the decade in his country.
Arturo Pomar Salamanca was a Spanish chess player. He was the first Spanish player to be awarded the title of grandmaster (GM), and was a seven-time national champion.
Michael Francis Stean is an English chess grandmaster, an author of chess books and a tax accountant.
Albin Planinc was a Slovenian-Yugoslavian chess Grandmaster.
Hans-Joachim Hecht is a German chess player and twice the West German national champion. His first name is often abbreviated to Hajo.
Jorge Szmetan was an Argentine chess player. He received the FIDE title of International Master (IM) in 1976.
Helmut Pfleger is a German chess grandmaster and author. He was one of the most promising chess players in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1977 until 2005, Pfleger hosted a series of chess programs on German public TV, including Chess of the Grandmasters, often together with grandmaster Vlastimil Hort. By profession, he is a doctor of medicine.
Eugenio "Eugene" Torre is a Filipino chess grandmaster. In 1974, at 22 years old, he became the first Filipino and non-Soviet Asian to qualify for the title Grandmaster. Torre did this by winning the silver medal in the 21st Chess Olympiad in Nice, France. He is considered the strongest chess player the Philippines produced during the 1980s and 1990s, and played for the Philippines on board 1 in seventeen Chess Olympiads. In 2021, Torre was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.
Katarina Blagojević, also known as Katarina Blagojević-Jovanović was a Serbian chess player who held the title of Woman Grandmaster. She shared 4th–5th place in the Women's World Chess Championship Candidates Tournament in 1964. She was a three-time winner of the Yugoslav Women's Chess Championship and won a team silver medal and bronze individual medal at the Women's Chess Olympiads in 1963 and 1966, respectively.
Luben Spasov was a Bulgarian chess Grandmaster (GM) (1977), World Senior Chess Championship winner (2005), Bulgarian Chess Championship medalist, European Team Chess Championships individual medalist.
Nino Kirov was a Bulgarian chess Grandmaster (GM) (1975), two-times Bulgarian Chess Championship winner.
Bulgaria 