8th Chess Olympiad

The 8th Chess Olympiad, organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), comprised an 'open'^[1] tournament, as well as a Women's World Championship contest. The main Olympiad event took place between August 21 and September 19, 1939 in Buenos Aires, Argentina and coincided with the outbreak of World War II.

Introduction

There was a record number of entries, with twenty-seven teams taking part. This compared with the nineteen nations participating at the previous Olympiad; the substantial increase being mostly due to the interest shown by other Central and South American nations, including Cuba, led by Jose Raul Capablanca on top board.

Due to certain political events, prominent Austrian players Erich Eliskases and Albert Becker were playing under the German flag and official sources referred to the Czechoslovak team as 'Bohemia & Moravia'. Regrettably, two of the teams that did not compete were those that finished first and second at Stockholm, namely the United States and Hungary. Indeed, some nations found the cost of sending a team such a distance for a lengthy period, prohibitively expensive.

Following the Preliminaries, the teams were split into Final Group A or Final Group B, with the former contesting the Hamilton-Russell Cup and the latter playing for the 'Copa Argentina', a trophy presented by the Argentine President.

Preliminaries

The preliminaries were played from August 21 - August 31, 1939. There were three groups of seven teams and a group of six. From an all-play-all format, the four top finishers in each group went forward to Final A, the remainder to Final B. Group winners were Bohemia & Moravia (tied with Poland, Group 1), Latvia (Group 2), Argentina (Group 3) and Sweden (Group 4).

Finals

The finals commenced on September 1, the date of the commencement of World War II. This led to much confusion amongst the European teams, although most players wanted to continue. The England team, despite having qualified for Final A, were the only team to return home immediately and their place was not filled. Concerning the remaining delegations, a crisis assembly was called to vote on how to proceed; this comprised team captains, the hosts and organisers. Leading roles were reportedly taken by Alexander Alekhine (France), Savielly Tartakower (Poland), Albert Becker (Germany) and the president of the Argentine Chess Federation, Augusto de Muro. The verdict was to continue with the Olympiad.^[2]

The political ramifications rumbled on however, when it became apparent that six of the scheduled Finals matches could not be played due to tensions aroused by the war. After considerable deliberation and negotiation, a total of six matches (GER-POL, GER-FRA, GER-PAL, B&M-POL, B&M-FRA, ARG-PAL) were declared 2-2 results by mutual forfeit and this allowed the remainder of the competition to be played out to a conclusion.^[3]

The results of the Finals were as follows:

Final A

#	Country	Players	Points
1	Germany	Eliskases, Michel, Engels, Becker, Reinhardt	36
2	Poland	Tartakower, Najdorf, Frydman, Regedziński, Sulik	35.5
3	Estonia	Keres, Raud, Schmidt, Friedemann, Türn	33.5
4	Sweden	Ståhlberg, Lundin, Bergkvist, Danielsson, Ekenberg	33
5	Argentina	Grau, Piazzini, Bolbochán Jac., Guimard, Pleci	32.5
6	Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia	Opočenský, Foltys, Pelikán, Skalička, Zíta	32
7	Latvia	Petrovs, Apšenieks, Feigins, Endzelīns, Melngailis	31.5
8	Netherlands	van Scheltinga, Cortlever, De Groot, Prins, De Ronde	30.5
9	Palestine	Czerniak, Foerder, Winz, Kleinstein, Rauch	26
10	France	Alekhine, Gromer, Kahn, Rometti, Dez	24.5
11	Cuba	Capablanca, López, Alemán, Blanco, Planas	22.5
12	Chile	Castillo, Flores, Letelier, Salas, Reed	22
13	Lithuania	Mikėnas, Vaitonis, Luckis, Tautvaišas, Andrašiūnas	22
14	Brazil	Trompowsky, Silva Rocha, Cruz W., Souza Mendes, Cruz Filho	21
15	Denmark	Enevoldsen, Poulsen, Christensen, Sørensen, Larsen	17.5
16	England	Team England (Alexander, Thomas, Milner-Barry, Golombek, Wood) withdrew due to the outbreak of war	–

Board 1-5 prizes for best individual results (Finals only) went to José Raúl Capablanca (Cuba), Heinz Foerder (Palestine/Israel) and Miguel Najdorf (Poland), Ludwig Engels (Germany), Gunnar Friedemann (Estonia), and Isaias Pleci (Argentina), respectively.

Final B

#	Country	Players	Points
17	Iceland	Möller, Ásgeirsson, Guðmundsson, Þorvaldsson, Arnlaugsson	28
18	Canada	Morrison, Yanofsky, Opsahl, Holowach, Helman	28
19	Norway	Rojahn, Larsen, Rebnord, Austbø	27
20	Uruguay	Rotunno, Hounie Fleurquin, Gulla, Roux-Cabral, Olivera	26
21	Bulgaria	Tsvetkov, Neikirch, Kiprov, Kantardzhiev, Karastoichev	25.5
22	Ecuador	Ponce, Morales, Sierra, Suarez Dávila, Ayala	21
23	Guatemala	Vassaux, Asturias, Cruz Bulnes, Salazar	15.5
24	Ireland	O'Hanlon, O'Donovan, Kerlin, Minnis, Nash	15.5
25	Peru	Dulanto, Pinzón Solis, Castro de Mendoza, Soto, Cayo	14
26	Bolivia	Cordova, Baender, Rodríguez Hurtado, Zavala, Reyes Velasco	10
27	Paraguay	Díaz Pérez, Espínola, Laterza, Boettner, Aponte	9.5

In descending order, the board 1-5 prizes for best individual results in Final B went to Ernst Rojahn (Norway), Daniel Yanofsky (Canada), Jón Guðmundsson (Iceland), Mikhail Kantardzhiev (Bulgaria) and Guðmundur Arnlaugsson (Iceland).

Women's World Chess Championship

The seventh Women's World Chess Championship took place during the Olympiad. The final results were as follows:^[4][5][6]

#	Player	Points
1	Vera Menchik (England)	18
2	Sonja Graf (Germany)	16
3	Berna Carrasco (Chile)	15.5
4	Elfriede Rinder (Germany)	15
5	Mona May Karff (United States)	14
6	Milda Lauberte (Latvia)	12
7	María Teresa Mora (Cuba)	11
8	Catharina Roodzant (Netherlands)	11
9	B. Janečkova (Czechoslovakia)	9
10	Paulette Schwartzmann (France)	9
11	Ingrid Larsen (Denmark)	8.5
12	Dora Trepat de Navarro (Argentina)	8
13	Ingeborg Andersson (Sweden)	7.5
14	Maria Berea de Montero (Argentina)	7
15	Salome Reischer (Palestine)	7
16	Marianne Stoffels (Belgium)	7
17	M. A. de Vigil (Uruguay)	6
18	Elena Raclauskiene (Lithuania)	3.5
19	Ruth Bloch Nakkerud (Norway)	3
20	Anabelle Lougheed (Canada)	2

Political refugees

At the conclusion of events, many participants decided to stay in Argentina or moved elsewhere in South America, rather than face an uncertain future by returning to Europe in the midst of a World War. The players affected included Miguel Najdorf, Paulino Frydman, Gideon Stahlberg, Erich Eliskases, Paul Michel, Ludwig Engels, Albert Becker, Heinrich Reinhardt, Jiří Pelikán, Karel Skalička, Markas Luckis, Movsas Feigins, Ilmar Raud, Moshe Czerniak, Meir Rauch, Victor Winz, Aristide Gromer, Franciszek Sulik, Adolf Seitz, Chris De Ronde, Zelman Kleinstein, Sonja Graf and Paulette Schwartzmann.^[7] Most of them were Jewish and had come to Buenos Aires in August 1939 on the ship "Priapolis". The ship has therefore come to be regarded as the epitome of Noah's Ark for a generation of chess players. Significantly, all members of the German team (Eliskases, Michel, Engels, Becker, Reinhardt) also chose not to return to Nazi Germany.

Notes

References

• 8th Chess Olympiad: Buenos Aires 1939 OlimpBase
• Chess Olympiads, Arpad Foldeak (Corvina Press, 1966) - pp. 160-180

See also

1st unofficial Chess Olympiad (Paris 1924)
2nd unofficial Chess Olympiad (Budapest 1926)
3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad (Munich 1936)