Peter Biyiasas

Peter Biyiasas (born November 19, 1950) is a Canadian chess grandmaster. He was Canadian champion in 1972 and 1975, represented Canada with fine success on four Olympiad teams, and played in two Interzonals. He moved to the United States in 1979, settling in California. He has been retired from competitive play since the mid-1980s, and works as a computer programmer. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was a frequent training partner of Bobby Fischer, who stayed at his home in San Francisco for extended periods.

Biyiasas was born in Athens, Greece, moved to Canada as a young boy, and grew up in Vancouver. He won the first of his four British Columbia chess championships in 1968; he would repeat in 1969, 1971, and 1972. He played in the 1969 Closed Canadian Chess Championship in Pointe Claire, and finished in the middle of the field, as Duncan Suttles won. Biyiasas was of National Master strength by this time. He represented Canada as second reserve on its bronze medal-winning team at the 1971 World Students' Olympiad in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, where he scored 5/7 (+4 −1 =2). He graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He won the first of his three British Columbia Open titles in 1972, and repeated in 1976 and 1978.

Biyiasas won the Zonal Closed Canadian Championship, Toronto 1972, with 12/17, half a point ahead of Lawrence Day and George Kuprejanov. For this, he earned the International Master title, as did Day and Kuprejanov. It marked an enormous leap in class for him in just one year, from second reserve on the Canadian student team to national champion.

Biyiasas tied for 1st–4th places at Norristown 1973 at 7½/11, along with Kenneth Rogoff, Bruno Parma, and Herman Pilnik. He struggled in his first super-strong tournament, the 1973 Petropolis Interzonal, with 6½/17, for 15th place, as Henrique Mecking won. But he stayed on in Brazil for the São Paulo event, and placed respectably with 6½/13. Biyiasas won the British Columbia Diamond Jubilee Open in 1973, and repeated in 1974 and 1976.

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