Peter Fyfe died in Glasgow, Frantisek Schubert died in Bohemia, Kalikst Morawski, a Polish master, died probably in Siberia. Willi Schlage, Wilhelm Hilse and Walter John died in Germany.
Despite the growing war tensions and the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 chess continued to become popular in Holland and there was a steady round of interesting master events that took place.
Quite a few of the leading papers published
long accounts of all the games of the 1939/40 Keres-Euwe match with each game appearing with detailed notes the day after it was played; Keres won 7.6-6.5.
There was a quadrangular tournament held in Delft. The participants were:
Hans Kmoch (1894-1973), an Austria, Dutch, Aerican IM. After the war was over Kmoch and his wife moved to the United States, settling in New York City. Kmoch served as the Secretary and manager of the Manhattan Chess Club and was a popular columnist for Chess Review magazine. In 1956, he wrote his most famous book, Pawn Power in Chess which, I think, is still worth reading.
Max Euwe (1901-1981) was world champion from 1935-1937. I am not sure of the year, but sometime in the late 1950s Dr. Euwe visited Cleveland, Ohio and I was pleased to get his autograph; he was a very gracious gentleman.
Johannes van der Bosch (1906-1994) was a Dutch nobleman, lawyer, banker and chess master. He thrice represented The Netherlands in the Olympiads in the 1930s. He was born in Austria-Hungary and for many years was Holland’s number two players behind Euwe.
Salo Landau’s story is sickening. Born in Austria-Hungary in 1903, for many tears he was Holland’s leading player behind Euwe. In September 1942, Landau tried to escape the clutches of Nazis by by fleeing to Switzerland with his family, but they were caught on September 28th in Breda, The Netherlands near the border with Belgium and sent to Westerbork transit camp.
From there Landau was sent to a concentration camp in Graditz. He died there sometime between December 1943 and 31 March 1944. His wife and young daughter, whose hiding place was betrayed, were sent to Auschwitz in September 1944, where they were gassed on October 12, 1944.
Max Euwe–Salo Landau1–0B74Delft1940Stockfish 16
B74: Sicilian Dragon 1.e4 c5 2.f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 g6 6.e2 g7 7.0-0 0-0 8.e3 c6 9.f4 d7 10.h1 c8 11.b3 a6 12.f3 c7 12...b5 as in Anuprita,P (2081)-Foudzi,S (2162) Bikaner 2004 leads to
equality after 13.a3 e6 14.d4 xd4 15.xd4 c7 16.f2 fd8 17.d2 d7 18.xg7 xg7 13.d5 xd5 14.exd5 a5 14...b8 Intending toi reposition
the N. 15.c3 a5 16.a4 a6 17.e2 c5 with equal chances. Parma,B (2540)
-Velimirovic,D (2520) Belgrade 1978 15.xa5 xa5 16.c3 c4 17.d2 b5 18.fe1 fc8 So far all the moves have been routine. At the time this move was
questioned because it was believed that Landau had overlooked the following
reply which wins material. Perhaps that is true, but the position remains
equal after this move. The real mistake comes later. That said, therr was a
better move. 18...b4 This gives black a more active position than he gets
after the text. 19.cxb4 xb4 20.ac1 xd2 21.xd2 a4 22.xe7 b5 23.c3 xa2 19.f2 Threatening Bb6. d8 Here is the mistake that lands black in
trouble...his position becomes too passive. 19...b4 20.b6 b5 21.e2 bxc3 22.b3 8c5 This hidden resource saves the day! 23.xc4 23.xc5 is
innacurate... xc5 24.xc5 xc5 and black is better. 23...xb6 24.xe7 c2 25.c1 d8 26.e2 f5 Black has a solid position and here is no way for
white to force an advantage even though he is the exchange uo. 20.e2 a4 21.d1 White has all the play. e4 The plan is to sacrifice
the exchange which eliminates his poorly placed R and white's well positioned
B. 21...ac4 is adequately met by 22.b3 4c7 23.b6 22.c2 xe3 22...ec4 does not work out well... 23.b6 f8 24.b3 23.xe3 This
small slip allows black to equalize. 23.xe3 b4 24.xe7 bxc3 25.b4 b5 26.xd8+ xd8 27.e7 with a promising position. 23...b4 Grabbing his share
of counterplay and leading to an exciting finish. 24.f5 White
counters on the K-side. 24.cxb4 d4 25.e1 xe3 26.xe3 xc2 and wins. 24...bxc3 25.fxg6 How should black recapture? It's a case of make the wrong
decision and lose or make the right decision and make it a dog fight. cxb2
This is the wrong decision! The P on b2 turns out to be no real
threat. 25...hxg6 could have resulted in a whole other outher outcome after
26.f1 e8 27.e1 cxb2 28.xe7 d8 29.fxf7 Double Rs on the 7th rank...
what could be better than that for white? Black has at least two continuations;
both result in head whirling complications. xe7 29...f8 30.xd7 e8 31.f1 xc2 32.c7 e2 33.b7 with equal chances. 30.xe7 xc2 31.xg7+ xg7 31...h8 32.h7+ xh7 33.e7+ 32.e7+ with a draw. 26.gxf7+
...and wins. f8 27.ae1 f6 28.xh7 c1 29.g3 g7 30.b1 xe1+ 31.xe1 a5 32.f1 c3 33.g6 Black resigned. 33.g6 b5 34.h7 e6 35.g8+ e7 36.f8+ xf8 37.xf8+ d7 38.f7# 1–0
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