Munich 1941 chess tournament

The Second Europaturnier was held from 8 to 14 September 1941 in Munich. The event was organised by Ehrhardt Post, the Chief Executive of Nazi Grossdeutscher Schachbund. The First Europaturnier had taken place in Stuttgart in May 1939.

Results edit

The event was won by Gösta Stoltz,[1] who scored a spectacular victory with 1½ points ahead of Alexander Alekhine and Erik Lundin. Stoltz won 1,000 Reichsmarks and received a trophy that was donated by Bavarian Ministerpräsident at the time Ludwig Siebert. The trophy was made of Meissen porcelain and worth close to $1,000.[2]

The results and standings:[3][4]

# Player Country 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Total
1 Gösta Stoltz   Sweden x ½ 1 0 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 12
2-3 Alexander Alekhine   France ½ x ½ 1 0 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ 0 1 1 1 10½
2-3 Erik Lundin   Sweden 0 ½ x 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 10½
4 Efim Bogoljubow   Germany 1 0 1 x ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1
5-6 Bjørn Nielsen   Denmark 0 1 ½ ½ x 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 1 9
5-6 Kurt Richter   Germany 0 0 0 1 0 x ½ 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ½ 9
7 Jan Foltys   Germany (  Bohemia and Moravia) 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ x 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 1 ½ 8
8 Pál Réthy   Hungary ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 1 0 x 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1
9-10 Braslav Rabar   Independent State of Croatia 0 0 ½ 1 1 0 ½ 1 x ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 7
9-10 Georg Kieninger   Germany ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ x ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 7
11 Géza Füster   Hungary 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ x 0 1 0 0 1
12 Paul Mross   Germany (General Government) 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 1 x ½ 1 ½ 1 6
13 Karel Opočenský   Germany (  Bohemia and Moravia) 0 1 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ x ½ 1 ½
14-15 Ivan Vladimir Rohaček   Slovakia ½ 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ x ½ 0
14-15 Nicolaas Cortlever   Netherlands 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ x 1
16 Peter Leepin    Switzerland 0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 x 3

Max Euwe's rejection edit

Former world champion Max Euwe declined the invitation due to "occupational obligations" as manager of a groceries business. He would later decline the invitation to a similar event, Salzburg 1942 chess tournament due to illness. It is speculated that the real motive was the invitation of Alexander Alekhine, who had written antisemitic articles. Among others, Alekhine had written about the "Jewish clique" around Euwe in the World Chess Championship 1935.[5][6]

References edit

  1. ^ Alekhine's account of the Munich tournament
  2. ^ "Chess Notes by Edward Winter". Chesshistory.com. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
  3. ^ [1] Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ All matches played at Munich 1942.
  5. ^ "Salzburg 1942". Endgame.nl. 1942-06-18. Archived from the original on 2012-08-03. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
  6. ^ "Alekhine and the Nazis". Web.archive.org. 2009-10-28. Archived from the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved 2014-01-24.