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Bournemouth (1939) At the 1939 British Chess Federation Congress at Bournemouth, the proximity of war meant that the British Championship itself was not at stake. With the uncertainty of the time, and the absence of the players competing in the Buenos Aires Olympiad (Harry Golombek, Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, George Alan Thomas, Philip Stuart Milner-Barry, and Baruch Harold Wood), the men’s championship was scrapped in favor of a general Premier Tournament. This consisted of a "12 man American", pitting six foreign masters (Euwe, Flohr, Landau, König, Klein and Mieses) against six home players (Conde, Aitken, Wallis, Thomas, Kitto and Abrahams). William Winter withdrew in the last minute and was replaced by Wallis. The foreign masters won by 27.5 to 8.5. Bournemouth, England, 14-25 August 1939 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 1 Euwe * ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 =2 Flohr ½ * ½ ½ 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8½ =2 Klein ½ ½ * ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 8½ =4 König 0 ½ ½ * ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 6½ =4 Landau ½ 1 0 ½ * 1 ½ 1 0 0 1 1 6½ 6 Conde ½ 0 ½ 1 0 * ½ 0 1 1 ½ 1 6 =7 Aitken 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ 0 1 1 1 5 =7 Wallis 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 ½ * 1 0 1 1 5 9 Thomas 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 1 0 * 0 1 1 4½ 10 Mieses 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 * ½ 0 3½ 11 Kitto 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ * 1 2 12 Abrahams 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 * 1 The concurrent British Women's Championship was won by 13-year-old Elaine Saunders Pritchard, who had nine wins and two draws. Tournament book: Plymouth 1938 and Bournemouth 1939 by A. J. Gillam (Chess Player, 2007). This introduction was partly taken from http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/HTML/Pi... and http://www.keverelchess.com/categor...  page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 66  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. P Wallis vs A R Thomas 1-0 34 1939 Bournemouth E22 Nimzo-Indian, Spielmann Variation 2. F Kitto vs J Mieses ½-½ 55 1939 Bournemouth A41 Queen's Pawn Game (with ...d6) 3. G Abrahams vs E Klein   0-1 47 1939 Bournemouth E01 Catalan, Closed 4. J M Aitken vs Flohr 0-1 29 1939 Bournemouth B13 Caro-Kann, Exchange 5. I Koenig vs Euwe 0-1 58 1939 Bournemouth D94 Grunfeld 6. S Landau vs A G Conde   1-0 76 1939 Bournemouth E25 Nimzo-Indian, Samisch 7. E Klein vs P Wallis   1-0 30 1939 Bournemouth D26 Queen's Gambit Accepted 8. Flohr vs F Kitto   1-0 28 1939 Bournemouth E38 Nimzo-Indian, Classical, 4...c5 9. A R Thomas vs S Landau 1-0 31 1939 Bournemouth D11 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 10. I Koenig vs J M Aitken   ½-½ 44 1939 Bournemouth A13 English 11. Euwe vs A G Conde ½-½ 55 1939 Bournemouth E17 Queen's Indian 12. J Mieses vs G Abrahams 0-1 95 1939 Bournemouth A07 King's Indian Attack 13. F Kitto vs I Koenig   0-1 29 1939 Bournemouth C02 French, Advance 14. Euwe vs J M Aitken 1-0 36 1939 Bournemouth D40 Queen's Gambit Declined, Semi-Tarrasch 15. A G Conde vs A R Thomas   1-0 57 1939 Bournemouth E11 Bogo-Indian Defense 16. S Landau vs E Klein 0-1 52 1939 Bournemouth E20 Nimzo-Indian 17. G Abrahams vs Flohr 0-1 25 1939 Bournemouth D93 Grunfeld, with Bf4 & e3 18. P Wallis vs J Mieses   0-1 34 1939 Bournemouth B00 Uncommon King's Pawn Opening 19. J Mieses vs S Landau   1-0 28 1939 Bournemouth A07 King's Indian Attack 20. A R Thomas vs Euwe 0-1 33 1939 Bournemouth B58 Sicilian 21. J M Aitken vs F Kitto 1-0 27 1939 Bournemouth C67 Ruy Lopez 22. I Koenig vs G Abrahams   1-0 50 1939 Bournemouth D31 Queen's Gambit Declined 23. E Klein vs A G Conde   ½-½ 47 1939 Bournemouth E37 Nimzo-Indian, Classical 24. Flohr vs P Wallis   1-0 30 1939 Bournemouth D46 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 25. S Landau vs Flohr 1-0 35 1939 Bournemouth E56 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line with 7...Nc6  page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 66    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)   Apr-23-16    offramp: Gerald Abrahams was 32 at the time of this tournament and I am baffled at how he did so badly. He was a very skilful author and wrote a bucketful of chess books. But here his only win was against the 102-year-old Mieses: Mieses vs G Abrahams, 1939. He lost to Euwe in only 14 moves! He also managed to lose F Kitto vs G Abrahams, 1939. Very odd! Apr-23-16    Chessical: Mieses was 74 years, 5 months old not 102. Apr-23-16    JimNorCal: What is a "12 man American"? Please, no "lightbulb" jokes... Apr-23-16    PhilFeeley: <He lost to Euwe in only 14 moves!> Can't expect much else from 1...b5. Apr-12-18    offramp: <JimNorCal: What is a "12 man American"?> I think I have heard of that in a cycling race. People play as individuals but results are also calculated for teams. The intro makes it sound as if there were 6 teams of 2, but there might have been 2 teams of 6. The recent series of Staunton Memorials were run on a similar system. Apr-12-18    Retireborn: <offramp> I think you've hit it. The intro lists 5 people from the "home country" and presumably the "just settled" Koenig also represented "home". Apr-12-18    Tabanus: This is one of my first intros if not *the* first. Utter crap. It was thought by then that the intros would be edited later. I made a few changes. NB: Conde was British. The newspapers are rather silent about the "team match" but mentions it at the start of the event. Apr-12-18    Retireborn: <Tab> Thanks for clearing that up. Apr-13-18    offramp: The foreign masters won the team match by a landslide. NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion. Please observe our posting guidelines: No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts. 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