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Thursday, August 16, 2018

Josef Lokvenc

Lokvenc
     In 1939 Germany won the Olympiad held in Buenos Aires and in conjunction with the Olympiad, Vera Menchik-Stevenson retaind her women's world championship title in tournament play by scoring an incredible +17 -0 =2. Sonja Graf, who was stateless at the time, finished second with 16 wins and three losses, no draws! 
     At the conclusion of the Olympiad many players decided to stay in Argentina or moved elsewhere in South America: Najdorf, Frydman, Stahlberg, Eliskases, Michel, Engels, Becker, Pelikan, Luckis, Czerniak and Graf, to name few. All members of the German team also chose not to return to Nazi Germany: Erich Eliskases, Paul Michel, Ludwig Engels, Albert Becker and Enrique Reinhardt 
     In December the American Chess Federation and National Chess Federation formed the United States Chess Federation. There were a lot of big tournaments: 

Hastings (won by Laszlo Szabo) 
Australian Championship (won by Gary Koshnitsky) 
Latvian Championship (won by Vladimirs Petrovs) 
Leningrad-Moscow (won by Salo Flohr) 
Dutch Championship (won by Salo Landau) 
Kemeri–Riga (won by Flohr) 
Warsaw (won by Najdorf ) 
Scottish Championship (won by Max Pavey) 
Margate (won by Paul Keres) 
USSR Championship (won by Mikhail Botvinnik) 
Paris (won by Nicolas Rossolimo) 
Yugoslav Championship (won by Milan Vidmar) 
Eliskases won tournaments at Bad Elster, Vienna, Bad Harzburg and the German Championship 
Bournemouth (won by Max Euwe) 
Montevideo (won by Alexander Alekhine) 
Buenos Aires (won by Paul Keres and Miguel Najdorf) 
US Championship (No tournament was held; Reshevsky was the title holder) 
     Hans Fahrni died as did Otto Blathy, known for creating the longest problem, 290 moves. Alexei Alekhine, Alexander's brother and also a strong chessplayer was murdered by the NKVD in the Soviet Union. 
     One of the strongest masters of the period was Josef Lokvenc (May 1, 1899 - April 2, 1974, an Austrian master. 
     Some of his better results included tying for 2nd-4th in Bad Elster in 1939 behind Eliskases and finishing second to Eliskases in the German Championship. In 1943 he won the German Chmpionship and Krynica-Zdrooj in Poland. 
     After World War II, he tied for 2nd-3rd in Vienna in 1947 and 1951/52 he tied for 2nd-4th in Vienna. He shared 1st in 1951 and won in 1953 the Austrian Championship. 
     Lokvenc played for Austria in nine Chess Olympiads: 1927, 1928, 1930, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, and 1962. He was awarded the International Master title in 1951. 
     Chessmetrics ranks him as number 21 in the world in 1930, but his highest rating assigned came in 1941 (2616). In 1930, the list was led by Alekhine, Capablanca, Nimzovich, Bogoljubow and Rubenstein. Lokvenc appears on the list in 21st place at 2595 just ahead of David Przepiorka and Paul Johner.
     Lokvenc's opponent in this game was Georg Kieninger (June 5, 1902 – January 25, 1975) who was a German IM. An avid cigar smoker, he was nicknamed "Eisernen Schorsch" (Iron Georgie) because of his fighting style. He won the German Championship in 1937, 1940, and 1947. He gets defeated handily by Lokvenc in the game.

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