Oscar Panno

Óscar Roberto Panno ( born March 17, 1935 in Buenos Aires ) is an Argentine chess master and one of the most successful South American chess player.

Life

1953, at the age of 18 years, Panno won the national championship of Argentina and the World Youth Championships. Two years later he qualified for the interzonal tournament in Gothenburg, where he finished third behind David Bronstein and Paul Keres and the Candidates tournament in Amsterdam, a year later, qualified. He was awarded in 1955 for this great success the title of Grand Master awarded by the World Chess Federation FIDE. At the Candidates tournament in Amsterdam in 1956, he was ninth.

Panno, who pursued a civilian job and never has been a professional chess player, still managed four times the leap into the interzonal tournament: 1958, 1970, 1973 and 1976, but remained the result of 1955 his best. He achieved considerable success in international tournaments: In 1958 he won in Bogotá before William Lombardy and Miguel Najdorf. In 1971 he won along with Ljubomir Ljubojević in Palma de Mallorca.

Panno was several times a member of the Argentine selection at the Chess Olympiads. He played from 1954 in Amsterdam to the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila eleven times for Argentina. He brought with the team in 1954 and a silver (1958 and 1962), two bronze medals. In 1966 Havana he achieved the best result on the second board. He won the championship again in Argentina 1975 ( shared with Najdorf ) and 1985.

After Panno, who still actively participates in tournament chess, two variants are named in the King's Indian Defense:

His current Elo rating is 2438 (as of January 2012). His best historical Elo rating was 2680 in October 1955.