It is said that after his first Olympiad in Dubrovnik (1950), the president of Argentina back then, Juan Perón, invited the Olympic team, which had finished as runner up, to a welcome reception. He accepted the invitation and went along with the other members of the team. Once there, and as a token of gratitude for the Olympic team's achievments at the Olympiad in Dubrovnik, the Argentine president, who was accompanied by his wife Eva Duarte, offered a gift to each member of the team. It was a gift they could choose, so each of them was asked what they wanted. One of them said he wanted a life insurance for the president himself, another one said he wanted a house. When it was Pilnik's turn, he walked up to the first lady Eva Duarte and said to her he wanted "a kiss from you".

Pilnik was on his way to the tournament by car at night (he was a replacement, if I remember rightly) and he crashed into a truck without its lights on. He woke up in hospital and was, not surprisingly, a few days late.

A near tragedy preceded the start of the tournament. GM Herman Pilnik of Argentina was met at Philadelphia International Airport by one of the local chess organizers and his wife. While driving to the playing site, their car was struck and overturned with part of it hanging over the edge of a steep embankment. Pilnik emerged from this brush with death with many bruises and cuts but without serious injury. The other occupants both were hospitalized with broken bones. It is a tribute to Pilnik's fighting spirit that he started his first round as scheduled, and won, against no less a player than Soltis!

A response to this last assertion from another thread:

<May-13-08 brankat: <whiteshark> I used to know some people who, in turn, had known Fuderer. GM Ivkov, among others. They were good friends. Apparently, Fuderer's failure in 1955 was not the reason for his quitting a "professional" chess career. Even before, he had already planned to devote himself to scientific pursuits.

In 1955 he turned 24, and it coincided with his university graduation, upon which he proceeded with the post-graduate studies.

I remember Ivkov saying that Fuderer had, and I quote: "..his own philosophical reasons..". Ivkov didn't elaborate on this.

My feeling has been that, when it became apparent how much work, study, time, energy, it would require to reach and maintain the highest level of mastery in (just) a Game, Fuderer decided to devote the same to what he perceived as a more "worthy" pursuit.

I couldn't help but notice ChessBase really hyping the present Mar del Plata tournament in Argentina. It doesn't seem to have elite players, but they are treating it as a super tournament.

Best World Rank: no. 12 in 1945 (according to Chessmetrics by Sonas). Best Elo Rating: 2670. Pilnik was an active and regular Top Twenty to Top Fifty player during the 1940s and 1950s, then a Top Forty to Top Hundred+ player during the 1960s (last historical Top Fifty rank in 1964).

Pilnik’s game victories over elite players such as Euwe, Smyslov, Petrosian (World Champions), Bronstein, Stein, Szabo, Portisch, Vidmar, Kostic, Ivkov, Matanovic, Pirc, Pachman, Stahlberg, F. Olafsson, Uhlmann, Unzicker, Donner, Kashdan, Browne, plus Najdorf (+3=11-12, according to Chessgames statistics), Panno, Eliskases, Guimard, among others, demonstrate his skill and talent.

Missing out Keres (four losses, two draws), Fischer (two losses), Spassky (two losses, one draw), Reshevsky (one loss, three draws), Botvinnik (one loss), Larsen (one loss), Tal & Korchnoi (both never played). Pilnik did not well with globetrotter O’Kelly (in nine games no win, negative score, stats may be incomplete).

Pilnik was known for moving and travelling extensively. Somehow forgotten today, Pilnik is one of the greatest Argentinian chess players ever in history.

Best international results:

equal second at Mar del Plata 1942 (with Stahlberg, Najdorf won), winning <Mar del Plata 1944> (the only player to be unbeaten, together with Najdorf, ahead of 3./4. Michel, Guimard, 5. Stahlberg, 16 players), equal second at Mar del Plata 1945 (again with Stahlberg, Najdorf won), equal third at New York 1948-49 (Fine won, Najdorf runner-up, Euwe and Pilnik shared third, incl. Horowitz, Kashdan, Bisguier, Denker, H. Steiner),

sole second at Bled 1950 (Najdorf winning, O’Kelly third, Fuderer fourth, incl. youngsters Ivkov, Matanovic, and veterans Vidmar, Kostic, Pirc, Stoltz, Tartakower), winning <Lucerne 1950/51> (together with Euwe as best on tie-break), winning <Beverwijk Hoogovens 1951> (ahead of 2. O’Kelly, 3./4. Kieninger, Kramer, incl. Rossolimo and Donner), winning <Vienna 1951/52> (above 2.-4. Lokvenc, Matanovic, Milic, 5. Rellstab, incl. Canal),

winning <Belgrade International 1952> (20 players, incl. Bogoljubov in his last tournament), arguably Pilnik’s biggest career success, see below for more,

winning <Stuttgart 1954>, sole third at Buenos Aires CA 1955 (Ivkov won, above Najdorf, 18 players, incl. Szabo, Pachman, Panno, Bisguier, Donner), <winning Brussels (Colle Memorial Quadrangular) 1956>, sole second at Beverwijk Hoogovens 1956 (Stahlberg won outright, 2. Pilnik, 3./4. Toran Albero, Scafarelli, 5.= Matanovic), sole third at Santiago de Chile 1959 (above Fischer, winners were Ivkov and Pachman, 13 players), amongst others.

Most prominent win:

The first international chess tournament in Belgrade was held in 1952 and won by Herman Pilnik in a strong field of twenty players including Matanovic, Udovcic, Pirc, Puc, O’Kelly de Galway, Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, Stoltz, Golombek, Ernst Grünfeld, legendary Efim Bogoljubov, with Fuderer and Milic as joint runners-up. Then, Grünfeld and Bogoljubov were GM.

<IM Pilnik, got the GM title for this win>. Four further players, then all IMs, namely Pirc (1953), Stoltz (1954), Matanovic (1955), and O’Kelly (1956), got the GM title during the mid-1950s, plus Janosevic (IM 64, GM 65) later. Full standings: https://www.belgianchesshistory.be/...

Pilnik became a <Candidate> in the Interzonal at Gothenburg 1955, sharing seventh place with IM Filip and IM Spassky, thus both automatically awarded the GM title, as IM Panno who finished clear third in the IZT, while Najdorf missed a qualification spot for the Candidate's; Reshevsky did not enter the IZT in 1955, playing at the 56th US Open (1955) instead.

In the Candidate's 1956 that followed, Pilnik did rather badly, a tenth and last place (ten players, but none of West Europe or the USA, six from the Soviet Union, two from Argentina (Panno & Pilnik), and one each from Hungary and Czechoslovakia). Smyslov won again the Candidate's in 1956 in Amsterdam as already in 1953 in Zurich, thus challenged Botvinnik after 1954 a second time in 1957, and this time dethroned the Patriarch, well, for a year (re-match clause).

Euwe vs Pilnik, 1950

Pilnik vs Petrosian, 1952

Pilnik vs Smyslov, 1952

However, his only win in Amsterdam Candidates, against Szabo, is my favorite. In which Pilnik demonstrated the power of rook pair when a free pawn comes to their aid.