Peter Jonathan Winston was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player. He shared first prize in the 1974 U.S. Junior Chess Championship. Winston disappeared in mysterious circumstances in January 1978. His last published FIDE rating

Elo rating system

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....

 was 2220.

Disappearance

In late 1977, Winston attended a FIDE-rated tournament at Hunter College High School

Hunter College High School

Hunter College High School is a New York City secondary school for intellectually gifted students located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It is administered by Hunter College, a senior college of the City University of New York. Although it is not operated by the New York City Department of...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Despite being one of the highest rated players in the tournament, Winston lost all nine of his games. A few months later, on January 26, 1978, following further surprising game losses, Peter Winston vanished. He was 20 years old. According to some sources, Winston left his home without money, identification or luggage during a severe winter storm. Had he been involved in an accident, the lack of identification could have led to his being declared a "John Doe

John Doe

The name "John Doe" is used as a placeholder name in a legal action, case or discussion for a male party, whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown...

" and his fate a mystery.

Peter Winston has never been officially declared dead.

Theories

Theories abound that Peter Winston committed suicide in a way that would ensure his body would not be found. Many chess players who were close to—or acquainted with—Winston claim that the champion chess player's mental health had deteriorated, along with his game performance, in the last few years of his life, and that he had lost all control of himself, perhaps in part due to a rumored drug dependency.

Notable game

In the following game, Winston decisively defeats six-time U.S. Champion

U.S. Chess Championship

The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the national chess champion of the United States. Since 1936, it has been held under the auspices of the U.S. Chess Federation. Until 1999, the event consisted of a round-robin tournament of varying size...

 Walter Browne. Winston annotated the game in the October 1972 Chess Life & Review, pages 625–26.

Winston vs. Browne, 1972 1.d4 c5 2.d5 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.Bb5+ Nfd7 9.Bd3 O-O 10.Nf3 Na6 11.O-O Rb8 12.Nd2 Bd4+ 13.Kh1 Nf6 14.Nf3 Ng4 15.Bxa6 Bxc3 16.bxc3 bxa6 17.c4 Re8 18.e5 Rb4 19.h3 Nh6 20.Qd3 a5 21.Ba3 Ra4 22.Qb3 Bd7 23.Rfe1 Nf5 24.g4 Nh4 25.Ng5 dxe5 26.Ne4 exf4 27.Nxc5 Rxa3 28.Qxa3 Qc7 29.Rxe8+ Bxe8 30.Re1 Bd7 31.Nxd7 Qxd7 32.Qe7 Qxe7 33.Rxe7 f3 34.Kg1 Kf8 35.Rxa7 f5 36.c5 f4 37.c6 1-0

External links

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• Mystery of Peter Winston