Thursday, February 6, 2020
Podebrady 1936
The year 1936 began with the 16th Annual Hastings Christmas Congress ending on January 4th. The winner of the Premier Section was Reuben Fine followed by Flohr, Tartakower and Koltanowski.
Adele Rivero won the U.S. Women’s Championship which was held at the Marshall Chess Club from January 26 to April 5. Alexander Kevitz defeated Albert Simonson in a playoff to win the Manhattan Chess Club Championship.
The first U.S. Chess Championship Tournament was held in New York from March 30 to May 16 and was won Samuel Reshevsky ahead of Albert Simonson, Reuben Fine and George Treysman (tied) and Isaac Kashdan.
The Premier Tournament at Margate, England was won by Salo Flohr ahead of Capablanca and Stahlberg. An international tournament in Moscow was won by Jose Capablanca followed by Flohr, Lilienthal, Ragozin and Emanuel Lasker.
Alexander Alekhine and Paul Keres tied for 1st place at Bad Nauheim, Germany. Aleklhine also finished first at Dresden. He was followed by Engels, Maroczy and Stahlberg (tied) and Bogoljubow.
At the international tournament in Zandvoort, Holland the winner was Reuben Fine followed by world champion Euwe, Keres and Tartakower (tied).
The really big tournament of the year was the great Nottingham tournament which was held August 10-28, 1936. Botvinnik and Capablanca tied for 1st place and were followed by Euwe, Fine and Reshevsky (tied), Alekhine, Lasker and Flohr (tied).
The American Chess Federation Congress (forerunner of the U.S. Open) was held in Philadelphia. Al Horowitz won it. Arthur Dake and Arnold Denker tied for second ahead of Isaac Kashdan and Abraham Kupchik.
From August 17-31, 1936, an Olympic Team Tournament was held in Munich, Germany. The Hungarians won and were followed by Poland and Germany. This event wasn;t sponsored by FIDE so it was an unofficial Olympiad.
In Poughkeepsie, New York Isaac Kashdan defended his title with 10 wins and 1 draw to remain state champion. 2nd-3rd was a tie between Herman Helms and George Shainswit. We know all of that thank's to Bill Wall's wonderful site to which there is a link on the left!
Pretty much lost to history was the tournament in Podebrady, an historical spa town in the Czech Republic about 31 miles east of Prague. It was also the 14th Czechoslovak Championship and was held from July 5-26, 1936. It was organized as an international event with the title going to the top Czech finisher. You can see the photo of the players and a couple of autographed postcards on page 42 HERE.
Flohr and Alekhine were the two world championship caliber players and after nine rounds Alekhine was at 7-2 and Flohr 6-3, but the surprise of the tournament was Paulino Frydman, the Polish master, who was in first with a score of 8-1 thanks to a six game winning streak in rounds 2-7.
After that Frydman collapsed and didn’t win another game for the rest of the tournament. In his round 14 game with Flohr, Frydman was still only one point behind Alekhine and Flohr when he resigned in a position that he probably could have won. Rumor had it that he suffered a nervous breakdown as a result, but see Edward Winter’s post on the affair HERE.
In the final round, Flohr played a safe 17-move draw while Alekhine went all out against Petrov and narrowly avoided losing. Flohr lost one game, to Eliskases while Alekhine was undefeated. His draws with Skalicka and Thomas turned out to be very costly.
1) Flohr 13.0
2) Alekhine 12.5
3) Foltys 11.0
4-5) Stahlberg and Pirc 10.5
6-7) Eliskases and Frydman 9.5
8-9) Richter and Pelikan 9.0
10-11) Petrov and L. Steiner 8.5
12) Opocensky 8.0
13) Menchik 7.0
14) Zinner 6.5
15-16) Treybal and Skalicka 6.0
17-18) Fazekas and G.A. Thomas 4.0
Karel Opocensky (born February 7, 1892 _ November 16, 1975, 83 years old) was the Czech champion in 1927, 1929 and 1938. He was awarded the IM title in 1950 and was the chief arbiter at the Botvinnik - Bronstein World Championship Match in 1951 and the Botvinnik - Smyslov match in 1954.
Dr. Karel (Carlos) Skalicka (November 1, 1896 – December 10, 1979, 83 years old) was born in the Czech Republic; he also used the pseudonym Karoly Mitovsky. He remained in Argentina following the outbreak of World War II.
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