Berne 1932

     In 1932 the major news stories in the U.S. were unemployment reaching 24 percent with many people living in cars and shanty towns. Hooverville's, so-called, were named after President Hoover. These were shanty towns that appeared around the country built by homeless people using wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them.
     43,000 marchers, including 17,000 World War I veterans marched on Washington DC and set up campgrounds demanding early payments of cash bonuses to help survive the Great Depression. Lovable old General Douglas MacArthur's Army advanced with bayonets and sabers drawn under a shower of bricks and rocks and in less than four hours cleared out the Bonus Army's campground using tear gas then burned down the camp grounds. The veterans had been promised bonuses, but they were not to be distributed until 1945. Congress was able to successfully award the Bonus Army their early cash bonuses in 1936. 

A shanty town in New York's Central Park

     As governments usually do, they figured out ways to increase income. The Revenue Act raised United States tax rates across the board, with the rate on top incomes rising from 25 percent to 63 percent and the first federal gasoline tax applied at a rate of 1 cent per gallon. In an effort to stay afloat the Government and businesses implemented wage cuts up to 30 percent for those lucky enough to be employed. They also cut working hours for those employed hoping to provide more jobs for those who weren't. 
     The US government also forced hundreds of thousands of Mexicans out of the country during the recession years. Gangster Al Capone was convicted for income tax evasion, so he had a bad year, too. 
     Not everybody was suffering financially though; some celebrities, athletes, thieves and bottom feeders did quite well. 
* Baseball star Babe Ruth raked in $80,000 a year which is over $1.4 million in today's dollars. 
* Bank robber John Dillinger stole more than $3 million in today’s dollars 
* Film star James Cagney was a top money earner in Hollywood. Other Hollywood stars managed to do quite well: Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Jean Harlow, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Boris Karloff, Clarke Gable and Edward G. Robinson.
* Charles Darrow created the game Monopoly game and became the world’s first millionaire game-designer. 
* Oil man J. Paul Getty was busy snatching up depressed oil stocks with his inheritance and created a new petroleum empire. 
* Singing cowboy and movie star Gene Autry was making millions 
* Joe Kennedy Sr., the patriarch of the Kennedy family, made lots of money in various ways: stock speculation, real-estate, liquor and movies. 

     Towards the end of the year in November voters overwhelmingly kicked President Herbert Hoover out of office in favor of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 
     In 1932 the major tournaments were: Hastings-won by Salo Flohr Pasadena-won by Alekhine Mexico City-Alekhine and Kashdan shared first Bad Sliac-Salo Flohr and Milan Vidmar shared first.
     According to Chessmetrics the strongest tournament for the years 1932 and 1933 was Bern, 1932. This tournament included five of the top ten players in the world. The next-strongest tournaments were London, 1932 and Bad Sliac, 1932. 
     The Berne tournament also served as the Swiss Championship as ten Swiss players competed for the country's 36th Championship. The time limit was 40 moves in two and a half hours and for the second session, 25 moves in one and a half hours. There were no rest days or extra days for adjourned games. 

Bernstein

     World Champion Alexander Alekhine captured first, but lost a game to Bogoljubow in Round 10. The other favorites also met expectations and were joined by the almost inactive 49-year-old Dr. Ossip Bernstein. Of the Swiss players, the Johner brothers tied with 7 points and Hans Johner was awarded the Swiss championship based on Sonneborn-Berger tiebreaks. In addition to the main prizes, the players received 30 Swiss francs for each won game. 


1) Alekhine 12.05 
2) Euwe and Flohr 11.5 
4) Sultan Khan 11.0 
5-6) Bogoljubow and Bernstein 10.0 
7-8) Hans Johner and Paul Johner 7.0 
9-12) Henneberger, Naegeli, Rivier and Grob 6.0 
13) Colin 5.5 
14) Voellmy 4.5 
15) Gygli 3.5 
16) Staehelin 2.0 

Henneberger

     In the movie The Theory Of Everything Stephen Hawking is seen reading a chess book titled Chess: Advanced Chess Strategy. The book is fictional, but in the scene at Cambridge, the position shown is after Black's 28th move occurred in the game Alekhine and Sultan Khan at Berne. The game was published in Alekhine's My Best Games of Chess 1924-1937. 

Paul Johner

     There were a lot of brilliant games played in Berne, but the following is probably best described as “cute” when Alekhine defeated Dr. Adolf Staehelin (1901-1965) in a miniature. Staehelin was born in Basel, was Swiss champion in 1927 and passed away in Zurich in 1965. 

Hans Johner

     This is one of those typical Alekhine games where he gains the advantage almost effortlessly and concludes with a bang. It's an example of Spielmann's statement that he could see combinations as well as Alekhine, but lacked the ability to get the positions with the ease that Alekhine did.