Zandvoort (1936) |
In the summer of 1936, between the events at Moscow and Nottingham, an international tournament was organized in Zandvoort, The Netherlands from July 18th to August 1st. Twelve chess masters from various countries, including the world champion, gathered to compete in the round robin format. The tournament was a strong event in a year of strong international competitions due to the fact that, in addition to Max Euwe's presence, former challenger for the world championship Efim Bogoljubov was also participating along with 66 year old Geza Maroczy who had once been favored as a potential challenger for Lasker. The star of Zandvoort, though, turned out to be the 21 year old American Reuben Fine who, through his "somersault" style (as Dr. Tartakower put it), won the tournament undefeated. This win would be the first of many successes for Fine that included Margate (1937) and culminated in his shared first at AVRO (1938) with Paul Keres. The final standings and crosstable:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
1 Fine * ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 8½
2 Euwe ½ * ½ 1 0 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 7½
=3 Tartakower 0 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 6½
=3 Keres 0 0 ½ * 1 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 6½
=5 Bogoljubov ½ 1 ½ 0 * ½ 0 1 0 ½ 1 1 6
=5 Maroczy 0 0 ½ 1 ½ * ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 6
=7 Gruenfeld ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 5½
=7 Spielmann ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 5½
=7 Landau 0 ½ 0 0 1 0 ½ ½ * 1 1 1 5½
10 Van Doesburgh ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * 0 1 4
11 Becker 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 1 * ½ 3
12 Prins 0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ * 1½ Wiener Schach-Zeitung: http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/a...Original collection: Game Collection: Zandvoort 1936, by User: suenteus po 147.
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page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 66 |
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Game |
| Result | Moves |
Year | Event/Locale | Opening |
1. Euwe vs Tartakower |
| ½-½ | 58 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D31 Queen's Gambit Declined |
2. Bogoljubov vs L Prins |
| 1-0 | 42 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D92 Grunfeld, 5.Bf4 |
3. S Landau vs G van Doesburgh |
| 1-0 | 36 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D26 Queen's Gambit Accepted |
4. Keres vs A Becker |
  | 1-0 | 40 | 1936 | Zandvoort | E64 King's Indian, Fianchetto, Yugoslav System |
5. Fine vs Maroczy |
  | 1-0 | 40 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D63 Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense |
6. Gruenfeld vs Spielmann |
| ½-½ | 30 | 1936 | Zandvoort | E17 Queen's Indian |
7. A Becker vs L Prins |
| ½-½ | 38 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D51 Queen's Gambit Declined |
8. Keres vs Euwe |
  | 0-1 | 31 | 1936 | Zandvoort | C02 French, Advance |
9. Maroczy vs S Landau |
| 1-0 | 39 | 1936 | Zandvoort | B02 Alekhine's Defense |
10. Spielmann vs Fine |
 | ½-½ | 34 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D38 Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin Variation |
11. Tartakower vs Gruenfeld |
 | ½-½ | 31 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D03 Torre Attack (Tartakower Variation) |
12. G van Doesburgh vs Bogoljubov |
| ½-½ | 59 | 1936 | Zandvoort | A50 Queen's Pawn Game |
13. Bogoljubov vs Maroczy |
| ½-½ | 24 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D63 Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense |
14. L Prins vs G van Doesburgh |
| 0-1 | 52 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D51 Queen's Gambit Declined |
15. S Landau vs Spielmann |
| ½-½ | 28 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D52 Queen's Gambit Declined |
16. Gruenfeld vs Keres |
| ½-½ | 24 | 1936 | Zandvoort | E15 Queen's Indian |
17. Fine vs Tartakower |
  | 1-0 | 37 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D37 Queen's Gambit Declined |
18. Euwe vs A Becker |
| ½-½ | 37 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D60 Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense |
19. A Becker vs G van Doesburgh |
| 1-0 | 42 | 1936 | Zandvoort | C13 French |
20. Tartakower vs S Landau |
  | 1-0 | 36 | 1936 | Zandvoort | C02 French, Advance |
21. Spielmann vs Bogoljubov |
| 0-1 | 40 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D45 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav |
22. Maroczy vs L Prins |
| ½-½ | 58 | 1936 | Zandvoort | B00 Uncommon King's Pawn Opening |
23. Keres vs Fine |
  | 0-1 | 63 | 1936 | Zandvoort | A09 Reti Opening |
24. Euwe vs Gruenfeld |
 | 1-0 | 28 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D28 Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical |
25. Bogoljubov vs Tartakower |
| ½-½ | 55 | 1936 | Zandvoort | D59 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower |
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page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 66 |
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Feb-10-15
 | | offramp: Voort is a fort which is a castle. Zandvoort means Sandcastle. |
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Feb-10-15
 | | Stonehenge: "Zandvoort is known to exist in 1100, called Sandevoerde (a combination of "sand" and "voorde", meaning ford)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zandvo... |
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Feb-10-15 | | whiteshark: Playing venue: <Grand Hotel Wust>;
photo: http://blogimages.seniorennet.be/za... Organiser: Zandvoortse Schaakclub
Photo of the participants: http://blogimages.seniorennet.be/za... Cover tournament book: http://blogimages.seniorennet.be/za... |
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Feb-10-15
 | | offramp: <whiteshark: Playing venue: <Grand Hotel Wust...>> An English translation of voort or ford could be wyke or wyche or wich. Wust is Frisian for sausage.
So Hotel Wust, Zandvoort means 'Hotel Sausage Sandwich.' |
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Feb-10-15
 | | keypusher: <Reuben Fine who, through his "somersault" style (as Dr. Tartakower put it)> Care to elaborate, Dr. Tartakower? |
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Feb-10-15 | | whiteshark: Here's a fine gallery with old photos from the Zandvoort 'Boulevard': http://www.zandvoortvroeger.nl/boul... For <Grand Hotel Wüst> scroll halfway down. |
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Sep-19-16 | | ughaibu: "former challengers for the world championship [ ] Geza Maroczy" Was that a forgotten FIDE weekend in a casino event? |
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Sep-19-16
 | | Retireborn: <ughaibu> According to Hooper & Whyld, Lasker and Maroczy did sign an agreement in April 1906 to play a World championship match six months later; the match fell through for various reasons. Maroczy's tournament results between 1899-1908 certainly made him a worthy challenger, although I'm not sure he would have worried Lasker any more than Marshall, Janowski, and Tarrasch. |
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Sep-19-16 | | ughaibu: <the match fell through for various reasons> So, to be nit-pickingly precise, Maroczy wasn't a challenger, was he? |
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Oct-28-16
 | | perfidious: <Retireborn> It still seems a loose usage of the term 'challenger' to thus style a man who never actually got to play a match for the title. |
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Oct-28-16
 | | Retireborn: <perfidious> Certainly bracketing him with Bogoljubow could well give a misleading impression. The writer wants to emphasize the strength of the tournament, but that seems clear enough without mentioning that Maroczy had been one of the best players in the world 30 years earlier. I have a soft spot for Maroczy, who was apparently a nice guy, at least by the standards of chess players(!) |
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Jan-23-23
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Reuben Fine played with a "Somersault" style? Pardonnez-moi?! |
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Mar-12-23 | | Morphy number 4: Is it too late to correct all these linguistic inexactitudes?
For the sake of science, and realising fully well that I am asking for abuse by the twitterati, I proffer the following insights: • Zand (in Dutch) = sand (so that’s correct); • Voort = ford (NOT fort) = a shallow water or river crossing; • wyk (or rather wijk) = VICUS (Latin, used to indicate the merchant's neighbourhood outside a town) and indeed equals the English "wich" as in Ipswich, or Norwich (Dutch “Noordwijk”). • Wust in NOT a Frisian word for sausage, that would be “worst” (Dutch), “woarst” (Frisian) or “wurst” (German); anyway the hotel’s u spots am “umlaut” = ü, so it is called Wüst, a common family name (e.g. multiple Olympic gold medalist and world champion Irene Wüst). Pedantic? Yes.
Correct? Also true.
Sorry, chessmates. In future, just ignore this auld man. Beannachd leibh. |
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Mar-12-23
 | | moronovich: A fine lesson <Morhpy number 4> , thanks. In my lanquage (danish) wijk = vig. And that is the root for vi(g)kings ! |
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