Walter Shawn Browne (10 January 1949 – 24 June 2015) was an Australian-born American chess and poker player.

Browne had dual Australian and American citizenship until he was 21,[2] and represented Australia for a short time.

His zonal result earned him an invitation to an international grandmaster tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

There, he gained the Grandmaster title by tying for 2nd–4th places, with Bruno Parma and Arthur Bisguier, behind reigning world champion Boris Spassky.

Browne played first board for Australia at the 1970 and 1972 Chess Olympiads, before switching to representing the United States in 1974.

His international firsts include Venice 1971, Wijk aan Zee 1974, Winnipeg 1974 (Pan American Championship), Lone Pine 1974, Mannheim 1975, Reykjavík 1978, Wijk aan Zee 1980, Chile 1981, Indonesia 1982 (shared with Ron Henley in a 26-player round-robin tournament), the 1983 New York Open, Gjøvik 1983, and Naestved 1985.

In December 2014, he won the Pan-American Senior Championship in the 65+ age category, held in São Paulo, Brazil.

[5][6] On 22 June 2015, Browne played in the 50th Anniversary National Open Chess Championship at the Westgate Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

That same weekend, Browne took byes in the National Open so he could play in the 2015 Senior Event at the World Series of Poker.

[citation needed] After a week of chess and poker, Browne stayed at the home of a lifelong friend in Las Vegas, and died in his sleep on 24 June 2015.

Always noted for his fighting spirit, there had been a number of occasions when his allegedly unsporting behaviour had offended both organizers and players alike.

But the new Browne, while retaining his competitive and aggressive spirit, was more amenable to tournament discipline and in consequence a more formidable grandmaster.