[blind-chess] Annotated Game #138: Reuben Fine - Salo Flohr, Amsterdam 1938
- From: "Roderick Macdonald" <rjmacdonald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Blind-Chess Mailing List" <blind-chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 12:35:08 -1000
Annotated Game #138:
Reuben Fine - Salo Flohr, Amsterdam 1938
Adapted and Condensed from
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Contents:
++1. Reuben Fine
++1.A Biography
++1.A1 Teenage Master
++1.A2 U.S. Open Champion
++1.A3 Olympiad brilliance
++1.A4 North American successes
++1.A5 Narrow misses at U.S. Championship
++1.A6 International triumphs
++1.A7 AVRO showdown
++1.A8 Wartime years
++1.A9 After the war
++1.A10 1948 World Championship
++1.B Chess record
++1.B1 Lifetime scores against top players
++1.B2 Top ten for eight years
++1.B3 Notable games
++1.C Psychologist
++1.D Books by Reuben Fine
++1.D1 On chess
++1.D2 On psychology
++2. Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr
++2.A Early life
++2.B Early successes
++2.C World title contender
++2.D Excels in Chess Olympiads
++2.E Match results
++2.F Official challenger, personal crisis
++2.G Soviet citizen, recovers form
++2.H Achievements and legacy
++2.I Notable chess games
++2.J Writings and further reading
++3. Reuben Fine - Salo Flohr, Amsterdam 1938
++1. Reuben Fine
Reuben Fine (October 11, 1914 - March 26, 1993) was one of the
strongest chess players in the world from the mid-1930s through the
1940s, an International Grandmaster, psychologist and author of
books on both chess and psychology. Fine won five medals (four
gold) in three chess Olympiads. Fine won the U.S. Open Chess
Championship all seven times he entered (1932, 1933, 1934, 1935,
1939, 1940, 1941). He was the author of several chess books that
are still popular today, including important books on the chess
endgame, opening, and middlegame. He earned a bachelor's degree
from the City College of New York in 1932. After World War II, he
earned his doctorate in psychology, and wrote many successful books
in that field as well. Although he was regarded as a serious
contender for the World Chess Championship, he declined his
invitation to participate in the six-player 1948 match-tournament
to determine the World Champion after the death of reigning
champion Alexander Alekhine.
++1.A Biography
++1.A1 Teenage Master
Fine was born in New York City to a poor Russian-Jewish family. He
learned to play chess at age eight, and began tournament-level
chess at the famous Marshall Chess Club in New York City, stomping
grounds for many famous grandmasters such as Bobby Fischer, later
on. At this stage of his career, Fine played a great deal of blitz
chess, and he eventually became one of the best blitz players in
the world. Even in the early 1930s, he could nearly hold his own in
blitz chess against the then world chess champion Alexander
Alekhine, although Fine admitted that the few times he played
Alekhine's predecessor Jose Raul Capablanca, the latter beat him
"mercilessly".
Fine's first significant master-level event was the 1930 New York
Young Masters tournament, which was won by Arthur Dake. He narrowly
lost a 1931 stakes match to fellow New Yorker Arnold Denker. Fine
placed second at the 1931 New York State Championship with 8/11,
behind Fred Reinfeld. Fine won the 15th Marshall Chess Club
Championship of 1931 with 10.5/13, half a point ahead of Reinfeld.
He defeated Herman Steiner by 5.5-4.5 at New York 1932; this was
the first of three matches the two players would contest.
++1.A2 U.S. Open Champion
At seventeen, Fine won his first of seven U.S. Open Chess
Championships at Minneapolis 1932 with 9.5/11, half a point ahead
of Samuel Reshevsky; this tournament was known as the Western Open
at the time. Fine played in his first top-class international
tournament at Pasadena 1932, where he shared 7-10th with 5/11; the
winner was world chess champion Alexander Alekhine. Fine repeated
as champion in the 16th Marshall Club Championship, held from Oct.-
Dec. 1932, with 11.5/13, 2.5 points ahead of the runner-up. After
graduating from City College of New York in 1932, at age 18, where
he was a brilliant student, and where he captained CCNY to the 1931
National Collegiate team title, Fine decided to try the life of a
chess professional for a few years.
++1.A3 Olympiad brilliance
Fine won the U.S. Team Selection tournament, New York 1933, with
8/10. This earned him the first of three national team berths for
the chess Olympiads. Fine won five medals (including three team
golds) representing the United States; his detailed record follows
(from olimpbase.org). His totals are (+20 =19 -6), for 65.6 per
cent.
* Folkestone 1933: board three, 9/13 (+6 =6 -1), team gold,
board silver;
* Warsaw 1935: board one, 9/17 (+5 =8 -4), team gold;
* Stockholm 1937: board two, 11.5/15 (+9 =5 -1), team gold,
board gold.
++1.A4 North American successes
Fine repeated as champion at the U.S./Western Open, Detroit 1933,
with 12/13, half a point ahead of Reshevsky. Fine won the 17th
Marshall Club Championship, 1933-34, with 9.5/11. He defeated Al
Horowitz in a match at New York 1934 by 6-3. Fine shared 1st-2nd
places at the U.S./Western Open, Chicago 1934, on 7.5/9, with
Reshevsky. He then shared 1st-3rd places at Mexico City 1934, on
11/12, with Herman Steiner and Arthur Dake. At Syracuse 1934, Fine
shared 3rd-4th places, on 10/14, as Reshevsky won. Fine won his
fourth straight U.S./Western Open at Milwaukee 1935, scoring 6.5/9
in the preliminary round, and then 8/10 in the finals. Having had
outstanding successes in North America, Fine tried his first
European individual international tournament at Lodz 1935, where he
shared 2nd-3rd places with 6/9 behind Savielly Tartakower. Fine won
the Hastings 1935-1936 with 7.5/9, a point ahead of Salo Flohr.
++1.A5 Narrow misses at U.S. Championship
Although Fine was active and very successful in U.S. open
tournaments, he was never able to finish first in the U.S.
Championship, usually placing behind his great American rival,
Samuel Reshevsky. When in 1936 Frank Marshall voluntarily gave up
the American Championship title he had held since 1909, the result
was the first modern U.S. Championship tournament. Fine scored
10.5/15 in the U.S. Championship, New York 1936, a tied 3rd-4th
place, as Reshevsky won. In the U.S. Championship, New York 1938,
Fine placed 2nd with 12.5/16, with Reshevsky repeating as champion.
In the U.S. Championship, New York 1940, Fine again scored 12.5/16
for 2nd, as Reshevsky won for the third straight time. Then in the
1944 U.S. Championship at New York, Fine scored 14.5/17 for 2nd,
though losing to Denker, as the latter won. Fine tallied 50/64 in
his four U.S. title attempts, for 78.1 per cent, but was never
champion.
++1.A6 International triumphs
However, Fine's international tournament record in the 1930s was
superior to Reshevsky's. By the end of 1937, Fine had won a string
of strong European international tournaments, and was one of the
most successful players in the world. Fine won at Oslo 1936 with
6.5/7, half a point ahead of Flohr. Fine captured Zandvoort 1936
with 8.5/11, ahead of World Champion Max Euwe, Savielly Tartakower,
and Paul Keres. Fine shared 3rd-5th places at the elite Nottingham
1936 event with 9.5/14, half a point behind winners Jose Raul
Capablanca and Mikhail Botvinnik. Fine shared 1st-2nd places at
Amsterdam 1936 on 5/7 with Euwe, half a point ahead of Alekhine.
Fine placed 2nd at Hastings 1936-1937 with 7.5/9, as Alekhine won.
The year 1937 would be Fine's most successful. He won at Leningrad
1937 with 4/5, ahead of Grigory Levenfish, who would come joint
first in that year's Soviet Championship. Fine won at Moscow 1937
with 5/7. Those two victories make Fine one of a very few
foreigners to win on Russian soil. Fine shared 1st-2nd places at
Margate 1937 with Paul Keres on 7.5/9, 1.5 points ahead of
Alekhine. Fine shared 1st-3rd places at Ostend 1937 with Paul Keres
and Henry Grob on 6/9. At Stockholm 1937, Fine won with 8/9, 1.5
points ahead of Gideon Stahlberg. Fine then defeated Stahlberg by
5-3 in a match held at Goteborg 1937. Fine placed 2nd at the elite
Semmering/Baden 1937 tournament with 8/14, behind Paul Keres. At
Kemeri 1937, Fine had a rare relatively weak result, with just 9/17
for 8th place, as the title was shared by Reshevsky, Flohr, and
Vladimir Petrov. Fine shared 4-5th places at Hastings 1937-38 with
6/9 as Reshevsky won.
++1.A7 AVRO showdown
In 1938, Fine tied for first place with Paul Keres in the
prestigious AVRO tournament in the Netherlands, on 8.5/14, with
Keres placed first on tiebreak. This was one of the most famous
tournaments of the 20th century, and some believe to this day that
it is the strongest tournament ever staged. It was organized with
the hope that the winner of AVRO, a double round-robin tournament,
would be the next challenger to world champion Alexander Alekhine.
Fine finished ahead of future champion Mikhail Botvinnik, current
champion Alekhine, former world champions Max Euwe and Capablanca,
and Grandmasters Samuel Reshevsky and Salo Flohr. Fine won both of
his games against Alekhine.
++1.A8 Wartime years
As World War II interrupted any prospects for a world championship
match, Fine turned to chess writing. In 1941 he wrote Basic Chess
Endings, a compendium of endgame analysis which, more than 60 years
later, is still considered one of the best works on this subject.
His The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, though badly dated, is
still useful for grasping the underlying ideas of many standard
chess openings. During World War II, Fine worked for the U.S. Navy,
performing the task of calculating the probability of German U-
boats surfacing at certain points in the water. Fine also worked as
a translator.
Fine was unable to compete in Europe during the war, since it was
cut off by the German naval blockade. However, Fine did play a few
serious American events during World War II, and continued his
successes, but there was little prize money even for winning. He
won the U.S. Open at New York 1939 with 10.5/11, half a point ahead
of Reshevsky. In the 23rd Marshall Club Championship of 1939, Fine
won with 14/16. He won the 1940 U.S. Open at Dallas with a perfect
8/8 in the finals, three points ahead of Herman Steiner. Fine won
the New York State Championship, Hamilton 1941, with 8/10, a point
ahead of Reshevsky, Denker, and Isaac Kashdan. Fine won the 1941
Marshall Club Championship with 14/15, ahead of Frank Marshall.
Fine won the 1941 U.S. Open at St. Louis, with 4/5 in the
preliminaries, and 8/9 in the finals.
Fine won the 1942 Washington, D.C. Chess Divan title with a perfect
7/7. He defeated Herman Steiner in match play for the second time
by 3.5-0.5 at Washington 1944. Fine won the U.S. Speed
Championships of both 1944 (10/11) and 1945 (10/11). In the Pan-
American Championship, Hollywood 1945, Fine placed 2nd with 9/12
behind Reshevsky. He played in the 1945 USA vs USSR Radio team
match, scoring 0.5/2 on board three against Isaac Boleslavsky. Then
Fine travelled to Europe one last time to compete, in the 1946
Moscow team match against the USSR, scoring 0.5/2 on board three
against Paul Keres.
++1.A9 After the war
As the war ended in late 1945, Fine was working on his doctorate in
psychology. Once he completed this, he again played some
competitive chess. He won at New York 1948 with 8/9, ahead of
Miguel Najdorf, Max Euwe, and Herman Pilnik. Fine drew a match by
4-4 against Najdorf at New York 1949. He participated in the 1950
radio match USA vs Yugoslavia, drawing his game. Fine was named an
International Grandmaster in 1950, on the inaugural list from the
FIDE, the World Chess Federation. His last significant tournament
was the Maurice Wertheim Memorial at New York 1951, where he scored
7/11 for 4th, as Reshevsky won.
++1.A10 1948 World Championship
After Alekhine died in 1946, FIDE (the World Chess Organization)
organized a World Chess Championship tournament to determine the
new champion. As co-winner in the AVRO tournament, Fine was invited
to participate, but he declined, for reasons that are the subject
of speculation. Fine had played a third match against Herman
Steiner at Los Angeles 1947, winning 5-1; this match was training
for his potential world championship appearance.
Publicly, Fine stated that he could not interrupt work on his
doctoral dissertation in psychology. Negotiations over the
tournament had been protracted, and for a long time it was unclear
whether this World Championship event would in fact take place.
Fine wrote that he didn't want to spend many months preparing and
then see the tournament cancelled. However, it has also been
suggested that Fine declined to play because he suspected there
would be collaboration among the three Soviet participants to
ensure that one of them won the championship. In the August 2004
issue of Chess Life, for example, GM Larry Evans gave his
recollection that "Fine told me he didn't want to waste three
months of his life watching Russians throw games to each other."
Fine's 1951 written statement on the matter in his book "The
World's Greatest Chess Games" was:
"Unfortunately for the Western masters the Soviet political
organization was stronger than that of the West. The U.S. Chess
Federation was a meaningless paper organization, generally
antagonistic to the needs of its masters. The Dutch Chess
Federation did not choose to act. The FIDE was impotent. The result
was a rescheduling of the tournament for the following year, with
the vital difference that now half was to be played in Holland,
half in the U.S.S.R. Dissatisfied with this arrangement and the
general tenor of the event, I withdrew."
Edward Winter discusses the evidence further in a 2007 Chessbase
column.
++1.B Chess record
++1.B1 Lifetime scores against top players
Fine had a relatively short career in top-level chess, but scored
very impressively against top players. He faced five World
Champions: Emanuel Lasker (+1 =0 -0); Jose Raul Capablanca (+0 =5
-0); Alexander Alekhine (+3 =4 -2); Max Euwe (+2 =3 -2); and
Mikhail Botvinnik (+1 =2 -0). His main American rivals were Samuel
Reshevsky (+3 =12 -4); Herman Steiner (+21 =8 -4); Isaac Kashdan
(+6 =6 -1); Albert Simonson (+6 =1 -1); Al Horowitz (+10 =7 -2);
Arnold Denker (+7 =7 -6); Fred Reinfeld (+10 =7 -5); and Arthur
Dake (a shocking +7 =5 -7, but three losses as a sixteen year old
against Dake in his twenties). Internationally, Fine faced the best
of his time, and usually more than held his own, with three
exceptions. He struggled against Paul Keres (+1 =8 -3); Milan
Vidmar (+0 =2 -1); and Isaac Boleslavsky (+0 =1 -1). But he handled
everyone else: Miguel Najdorf (+3 =5 -3); Savielly Tartakower (+2
=4 -1); Salo Flohr (+2 =7 -0); Grigory Levenfish (+1 =0 -0); George
Alan Thomas (+2 =3 -0); Erich Eliskases (+1 =2 -0); Viacheslav
Ragozin (+1 =1 -0); Vladimir Petrov (+2 =1 -1); Efim Bogolyubov (+1
=1 -0); Jan Foltys (+2 =0 -0); Salo Landau (+4 -0 =1); George
Koltanowski (+2 =1 -0); Igor Bondarevsky (+1 =0 -0); Giza Maroczy
(+1 =0 -0); William Winter (+4 =0 -0); Ernst Gruenfeld (+1 =0 -0);
Gideon Stahlberg (+4 =5 -2); Andor Lilienthal (+1 =0 -0); Laszlo
Szabo (+0 =1 -0); Vladas Mikenas (+1 =1 -0); Rudolph Spielmann (+0
=1 -0); and Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (+1 =3 -0). Finally,
against the new generation of American masters which emerged in the
late 1940s, Fine proved he could still perform well: Arthur
Bisguier (+1 =1 -0); Larry Evans (+0 =2 -0); George Kramer (+1 =1
-0); and Robert Byrne (+0 =1 -0).
++1.B2 Top ten for eight years
Although FIDE, the World Chess Federation, did not formally
introduce chess ratings for international play until 1970, it is
nevertheless possible to retrospectively rate players' performances
from before that time. The site chessmetrics.com, which specializes
in historical ratings throughout chess history, ranks Fine in the
world's top ten players for more than eight years, from March 1936
until October 1942, and then again from January 1949 until December
1950. Between those two periods, he was less active as a player, so
his ranking dropped. Fine was #1 in the world from October 1940
until March 1941, was in the top three from December 1938 until
June 1942, and reached his peak rating of 2762 in July 1941.
However, chessmetrics.com is missing several of Fine's major events
from its database.
++1.B3 Notable games
* Reuben Fine vs Mikhail Botvinnik, Amsterdam AVRO 1938, French
Defence, Winawer/Advance Variation (C17), 1-0 In the final
position, "Black does not have a single move, and Rf3 is
threatened. A combination of a splendid strategic idea with
tactical subtleties." (Botvinnik)
* Reuben Fine vs Salomon Flohr, Amsterdam AVRO 1938, French
Defence, Winawer/Advance Variation (C17), 1-0 Deep tactics in
an unusual variant of French Defense.
* Reuben Fine vs Herman Steiner, Pan-American champ, Hollywood
1945. Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical (D29), 1-0 Fine sees
further than his opponent in a sharp tactical position.
++1.C Psychologist
After receiving his doctorate in psychology from the University of
Southern California, Fine abandoned professional chess to
concentrate on his new profession. Fine continued playing chess
casually throughout his life (including several friendly games
played in 1963 against Bobby Fischer, one of which is included in
Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games). In 1956 he wrote an article,
"Psychoanalytic Observations on Chess and Chess Masters", for a
psychological journal. Later, Fine turned the article into a book,
The Psychology of the Chess Player, in which he provided insights
steeped in Freudian theory. (Fine is not the first person to
examine the mind as it relates to chess--Alfred Binet, the inventor
of the IQ test, had studied the mental functionality of good chess
players, and found that they often had enhanced mental traits, such
as a good memory.) He went on to publish A History of
Psychoanalysis (1979) and a number of other books on psychology. As
did many psychoanalysts of his day, Fine believed that
homosexuality could be "cured" (through conversion therapy), and
his opinions on the subject were cited in legal battles over
homosexuality, including the legislative battle over same-sex
marriage in Hawaii. Fine served as a visiting professor at CCNY,
the University of Amsterdam, the Lowell Institute of Technology,
and the University of Florence. Fine founded the Creative Living
Center in New York City.
++1.D Books by Reuben Fine
++1.D1 On chess
* Basic Chess Endings, by Reuben Fine, 1941, McKay. Revised in
2003 by Pal Benko. ISBN 0-8129-3493-8.
* The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, by Reuben Fine, 1943.
Revised in 1989. McKay, ISBN 0-8129-1756-1.
* Practical Chess Openings, by Reuben Fine.
* The Middlegame in Chess, by Reuben Fine. ISBN 0-8129-3484-9.
* Modern Chess Openings, sixth Edition, by Reuben Fine.
* Chess the Easy Way, by Reuben Fine, 1942. 1986 Paperback re-
issue. ISBN 0-6716-2427-X
* Chess Marches On, by Reuben Fine, 1946.
* Dr. Lasker's Chess Career, by Reuben Fine and Fred Reinfeld,
1935.
* Lessons From My Games, by Reuben Fine, 1958.
* The Psychology of the Chess Player, by Reuben Fine, 1967.
* Bobby Fischer's Conquest of the World's Chess Championship:
The Psychology and Tactics of the Title Match, by Reuben Fine,
1973. ISBN 0923891471
* The World's Great Chess Games, by Reuben Fine; Dover; 1983.
ISBN 0-486-24512-8.
++1.D2 On psychology
* Freud: a Critical Re-evaluation of his Theories, by Reuben
Fine (1962).
* The Healing of the Mind, by Reuben Fine (1971).
* The Development of Freud's Thought, by Reuben Fine (1973).
* Psychoanalytic Psychology, by Reuben Fine (1975).
* The History of nalPsychoaysis, by Reuben Fine (1979).
* The Psychoanalytic Vision, by Reuben Fine (1981).
* The Logic of Psychology, by Reuben Fine (1985).
* The Meaning of Love in Human Experience, by Reuben Fine
(1985).
* Narcissism, the Self, and Society, by Reuben Fine (1986).
* The Forgotten Man: Understanding the Male Psyche, by Reuben
Fine (1987).
++2. Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr
Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 - July 18, 1983) was
a leading Czech, and later Soviet, chess grandmaster of the
mid-20th century, who became a national hero in Czechoslovakia
during the 1930s. His name was used to sell many of the luxury
products of the time, including Salo Flohr cigarettes, slippers and
eau-de-cologne. Flohr dominated many tournaments of the pre-World
War II years, and by the late 1930s was considered a contender for
the world championship. However, his patient, positional style was
overtaken by the sharper, more tactical methods of the younger
Soviet echelon after World War II. Flohr was also a well-respected
chess author, and an International Arbiter.
++2.A Early life
Flohr had a troubled childhood beset by personal crises. He was
born in a Jewish family in Horodenka in what was then Galicia,
Austria-Hungary (now in Ukraine). He and his brother were orphaned
during World War I after their parents were killed in a massacre,
and they fled to the newly-formed nation of Czechoslovakia.
Flohr settled in Prague, gradually acquiring a reputation as a
skilled chess player by playing for stakes in the city's many
cafes. During 1924, he participated in simultaneous exhibitions by
Richard Reti and Rudolf Spielmann, and he was still giving displays
well into his seventies.
++2.B Early successes
Flohr won the Kautsky Memorial tournaments of 1928 and 1929 which
were held in Prague, and made his international debut at the
Rohitsch-Sauerbrunn (Rogaska Slatina) tournament in Slovenia, where
he finished second to Akiba Rubinstein in the latter's final
success. Flohr had also taken a job as a chess journalist, and one
of his first assignments had been to cover the 1928 Berlin
tournament, where he continued to win money on the side by playing
chess.
++2.C World title contender
Flohr's playing ability peaked in the mid-1930s, when he became one
of the world's strongest players and a leading contender for the
world championship. He became champion of Czechoslovakia in 1933
and 1936 and played in many tournaments throughout Europe,
generally finishing amongst the top three. Notable victories were
at Bad Sliac in 1932, where he shared first place with Milan
Vidmar; Scheveningen in 1933; Bad Liebenwerda in 1934 with 9.5/11;
Barcelona in 1935 where he tied for first with George Koltanowski;
Moscow in 1935 where he came 1st= with future World Champion
Mikhail Botvinnik; Podebrady in 1936 with the score of +10 =6 -1;
and Kemeri in 1937 where he shared the top spot with Vladimir
Petrov and Samuel Reshevsky. During this period, he had several
other notable high finishes, such as Bern 1932 (tied for second
with 11.5/15, after world champion Alexander Alekhine); Zurich 1934
(tied for second with 12/15, again trailing Alekhine); and Parnu
1937 (second behind Paul Felix Schmidt).
Flohr also frequently visited England, regularly playing in the
Hastings tournaments of the 1930s. He was first in 1931-1932, 1932-
1933 and 1933-1934, finished 1st= with Max Euwe and Sir George
Thomas in 1934-1935, and was second behind only Reuben Fine in
1935-1936. He also won the Margate tournament of 1936 ahead of
former world champion Jose Raul Capablanca.
++2.D Excels in Chess Olympiads
His form for his adopted country in the Chess Olympiads was equally
impressive, according to the comprehensive Olympiad site
olimpbase.org. He made his debut at Hamburg 1930 on board one,
scoring a phenomenal 14.5/17 for the silver medal. On home soil at
Prague 1931, again on board one, he scored 11/18, and led
Czechoslovakia to a team bronze medal. At Folkestone 1933, he again
played board one, and made 9/14, helping Czechoslovakia to the team
silver, and earning a bronze medal for himself. At Warsaw 1935, on
board one he scored an unbeaten 13/17 for another individual gold
medal, and Czechoslovakia finished fifth. Then at Stockholm 1937,
once again on board one, he scored 12.5/16 for a third individual
gold medal. In five Olympiads, he won two individual gold medals,
a silver and a bronze. His aggregate was 60/82, for a fantastic 73
per cent against the top players in the world. However, it should
be noted that the Soviet Union did not compete during those years.
++2.E Match results
In addition, Flohr enjoyed a fair amount of success in match play,
and he played matches with two of his main rivals for the title of
challenger to reigning champion Alexander Alekhine. He drew a 16-
game match against Euwe in 1932 (+3 =10 -3) (who was soon to be the
champion, from 1935-37), and drew against Botvinnik in 1933 (+2 =8
-2). Flohr beat Gosta Stoltz by 5.5-2.5 in 1931 and, a year later,
beat Mir Sultan Khan, the 1932 and 1933 British Champion, by
3.5-2.5. Flohr also defeated Johannes van den Bosch at the Hague in
1932 by 6-2. In 1933, he won two matches in Switzerland, first over
Oskar Naegeli by 4-2 at Bern, and then by 4.5-1.5 over Henri Grob
at Arosa.
++2.F Official challenger, personal crisis
Flohr had married in 1935. By 1937, FIDE had nominated him as the
official candidate to play Alekhine for the World Championship.
However, with World War II looming, it proved impossible for Flohr
to raise the stake money in Czechoslovakia, so the plans were
dropped. The next year, Flohr was one of the eight elite players
invited to the great AVRO tournament of November 1938. He finished
last, and this put an end to his chances of a World Championship
match with Alekhine. AVRO may have been the only time in chess
history when the top eight players in the world contested an
important tournament.
While AVRO was an incredibly strong tournament, and Flohr's last-
placed finish was no disgrace, his result may also be explained by
his difficult personal circumstances at the time. The German
invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 had left Flohr, as a Polish-
Ukrainian Jew, in grave personal danger. Flohr remained in the
Netherlands in early 1939, playing in several small events. He tied
1st-3rd in Amsterdam KNSB with Max Euwe and Laszlo Szabo at 3.5/5.
He tied 3rd-4th in Amsterdam VARA with 3/5, as Euwe and Salo Landau
won. He won Baarn I with 2.5/3. Then, he and his family fled, first
to Sweden, and then to Moscow with the help of his friend
Botvinnik. While in Sweden, he tied 1st-2nd at Goteborg with Rudolf
Spielmann on 10/11.
++2.G Soviet citizen, recovers form
Flohr was able to recover his form after reaching safety in Moscow.
He won Kemeri 1939 with a wonderful score of 12/15, also captured
the very strong 1939 Leningrad-Moscow tournament with 12/17, tied
for second at Margate 1939 with 6.5/9 behind only Paul Keres, and
then tied for second at Bournemouth 1939 with 8.5/11, behind only
former World Champion Euwe.
Flohr did not play in any official strong Soviet events from
1940-42. He did lose a 1942 match to Vladimir Makogonov in Baku by
2-0. He became a naturalized Soviet citizen in 1942, and developed
his writing career in his new country, contributing articles to a
number of Soviet newspapers and magazines, including Ogonek. As the
Soviet Union first stopped then reversed the Nazi invasion, some
chess activity started up again, and in 1943 Flohr won a small but
strong tournament in Baku. In 1944 he was again victorious in a
Bolshevik Society tournament at Kiev, tied with Alexei Sokolsky. He
withdrew from the 1945 USSR Championship after only three games.
After the War, he was still a contender for a possible World
Championship match, and finished 6th at the 1948 Interzonal in
Saltsjobaden, thereby qualifying to play in the 1950 Candidates
Tournament in Budapest. However, he finished joint last with 7 out
of 18, and never entered the World Championship cycle again,
preferring to concentrate on journalism, and he also developed a
role as a chess organiser. He did play periodically at high levels,
both within the Soviet Union and abroad, with some success, until
the late 1960s. He was awarded the title of International Arbiter
in 1963.
Salo Flohr died in Moscow on July 18, 1983.
++2.H Achievements and legacy
Flohr was one of Czechoslovakia's greatest chessplayers ever, and
proved virtually invincible at the Olympiads of the 1930s. His
tournament record was impressive, with his tactical skill and
excellent endgame technique securing him many famous victories.
FIDE awarded him the International Grandmaster title on its
inaugural list in 1950. He made a number of important contributions
to opening theory: a 'Flohr variation' can be found in no fewer
than six major openings, including the Caro-Kann Defense, the Ruy
Lopez, the English Opening, and the Gruenfeld Defence. The Flohr-
Zaitsev Variation of the Closed Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5
a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4
Re8) was taken up in the 1980s with success by World Champion
Anatoly Karpov.
Flohr was primarily a strategist who excelled in the endgame. He
favoured the Closed openings with White, and during the prime of
his career, he was especially deadly with the Queen's Gambit, as
the game selection shows. Flohr almost never opened with 1.e4. He
was one of the main developers of the Caro-Kann, which was an
obscure and poorly-regarded line as late as the 1920s when Flohr
took it up.
The Second World War killed off any chance he had of winning the
world title, and the stress of becoming a refugee for the second
time in his life affected his style of play. He became a much more
cautious player in his post-war games and earned a drawish
reputation, with many short draws which were hardly contested. He
could not keep pace with the new generation of Soviet stars which
emerged after World War II. Players such as Vasily Smyslov, David
Bronstein, Isaac Boleslavsky, Paul Keres, Alexander Kotov, Tigran
Petrosian, Efim Geller, Mark Taimanov, Yuri Averbakh, Boris
Spassky, Mikhail Tal, Viktor Korchnoi, and Leonid Stein dominated
the landscape with their sharper styles and innovative openings.
According to the site chessmetrics.com, which compares historical
ratings, Flohr was among the world's top 20 players from 1930 to
1951, except for the war years 1942-44 when he was largely
inactive; and his ranking peaked at #2 in the world in 1935.
But it is noteworthy that Flohr was never able to defeat Alekhine
head-to-head, losing five games and drawing seven in their 12
encounters. Alekhine had a sharp, tactical style, and he could also
play outstanding positional chess. It is highly unlikely that Flohr
could have won a match against him, had he been given the chance.
++2.I Notable chess games
* Salo Flohr vs Max Euwe, Amsterdam-Karlsbad match 1932, Queen's
Gambit, Exchange Variation (D36), 1-0 Virtually perfect game
by White showing optimal strategy in this variation.
* Mikhail Botvinnik vs Salo Flohr, Leningrad-Moscow match 1933,
Caro-Kann Defence, Panov-Botvinnik Attack (B13), 0-1 Botvinnik
adopts his favourite line, but has to concede defeat.
* Salo Flohr vs Isaac Kashdan, Folkestone Olympiad 1933, English
Opening, Flohr-Mikenas Attack (A18), 1-0 Flohr adopts one of
the lines which will eventually bear his name, with good
success here.
* Salo Flohr vs Paul Keres, Warsaw Olympiad 1935, Queen's Gambit
Declined, Exchange Variation (D37), 1-0 Keres was the 19-year-
old new star making his international debut, but he is out of
his league here.
* Salo Flohr vs J.R. Capablanca, Nottingham 1936, Queen's Gambit
Declined, Tartakower Variation (D59), 1-0 Even the phenomenal
Capablanca, former World Champion and joint winner of
Nottingham, can't defend against Flohr's Queen's Gambit.
* Salo Flohr vs Emanuel Lasker, Moscow 1936, Reti Opening (A06),
1-0 Solid positional performance in one of the fashionable
hypermodern variations.
* David Bronstein vs Salo Flohr, USSR Championship, Moscow 1944,
Ruy Lopez, Open Variation (C82), 0-1 The 20-year-old Bronstein
was making his debut at the top Soviet level, but learns a
lesson here.
* Salo Flohr vs Tigran Petrosian, USSR Championship, Moscow
1949, Old Indian Defence (A54), 1-0 The 20-year-old Petrosian
was making his debut at the top Soviet level, and learns a
positional lesson.
* Salo Flohr vs Efim Geller, USSR Championship, Moscow 1950,
Reti Opening (A05), 1-0 Another young Master learns that the
veteran Flohr still packs a punch.
* Leonid Stein vs Salo Flohr, Ukrainian Championship, Kiev 1957,
Caro-Kann Defence, Flohr-Smyslov Modern Variation (B17), 0-1
Another smooth positional massage from the Master of the
'Roach'.
* Salo Flohr vs Bent Larsen, Noordwijk 1965, Sicilian Defence,
Accelerated Dragon Variation (B39), 1-0 Flohr takes off one of
the Candidates of that time in his last great victory.
++2.J Writings and further reading
* 12th Chess Tournament of Nations (Moscow 1956 Olympiad), by
Salomon Flohr, Moscow, Fiskultura i Sport, 1957 (Russian).
* Salo Flohr's Best Games of Chess, by Salomon Flohr (translated
from the Russian by Gregory S. Donges), Davenport, Iowa,
Thinker's Press, 1985, ISBN 0-938650-34-3.
* Grandmaster Flohr, by Viktor D. Baturinsky (Hg), Moscow,
Fiskultura i Sport, 1985 (Russian).
* Salo Flohr und das Schachleben in der Tschechoslawakei, by
Helmut Wieteck, Hamburg, Neu-Jung Verlag, 2005, ISBN
3-933648-26-2 (German).
++3. Reuben Fine - Salo Flohr, Amsterdam 1938
AVRO Tournament, Amsterdam 1938, Round 5
White: Reuben Fine
Black: Salo Flohr
Result: 1-0
ECO: C17 - French Defense, Paulsen Variation, Winawer Variation, Advance
Variation
Notes by R.J. Macdonald
1. e4 e6
(The French Defense.)
2. d4 d5
3. Nc3
(The Paulsen Variation.)
3. Bb4
(The Winawer Variation.)
4. e5
(The Advance Variation.)
4. ... c5
5. Bd2
(White played 5. dxc5 in the first round of this tournament. 5. a3 is also
frequently played here.)
5. ... Ne7
6. Nf3 Nf5
(6. ... 0-0 7. a3 Bxc3 8. Bxc3 b6 9. a4 Nbc6 10. Bd3 Ng6 11. 0-0 f5 12. exf6
gxf6 13. Re1 Qd6 14. Bxg6 hxg6 15. Qd3 Kf7 16. h4 cxd4 17. Nxd4 Nxd4 18. Qxd4
e5 19. Bb4 Qc6 20. Qd2 Rh8 21. f4 1/2-1/2 in 39 moves, as in the game A.
Schmitt (2350) - D. Knoedler (2255), Wuerttemberg 1994.)
7. dxc5
(Other possibilities include (a) 7. Bd3 Nxd4 8. Nxd4 cxd4 9. Nb5 Bxd2+ 10. Qxd2
0-0 11. Nxd4 Nc6 12. Nf3 f6 13. Qe2 fxe5 14. Nxe5 Qg5 15. Nxc6 bxc6 16. f3 e5
17. 0-0 Rb8 18. c3 Bh3 19. Kh1 Bf5 20. b3 Rbe8 21. Bxf5 Qxf5 1/2-1/2 in 44
moves, as in the game E. Paoli - V. Castaldi, Sorrento 1950; (b) 7. Be3 Nxe3 8.
fxe3 cxd4 9. exd4 Qc7 10. Bb5+ Bd7 11. Bxd7+ Nxd7 12. Qd3 Rc8 13. Kd2 f6 14.
Rae1 fxe5 15. Nxe5 Nf6 16. Qb5+ Ke7 17. Qxb4+ Ke8 18. Qa4+ Kd8 19. Rhf1 Rf8 20.
g4 a6 21. g5 b5 1-0 in 32 moves, as in the game V. Rasputnis (921) - D. Adomeit
(1316), Dortmund 2004; and (c) 7. g4 Nxd4 8. Nxd4 cxd4 9. Nb5 Be7 10. Nxd4 Nc6
11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Bd3 Qb6 13. Qe2 Bb7 14. c3 c5 15. 0-0 Bc6 16. Rfb1 Rd8 17. b4
c4 18. Bc2 d4 19. Qxc4 Bb5 20. Qb3 d3 21. Bd1 Qc7 1-0 in 61 moves, as in the
game M. Hoekstra (2162) - A. Gorlin, Saint Paul 2000. Another possibility is 7.
a3 Bxc3 8. Bxc3 cxd4 9. Nxd4 Nc6, where white has a slight advantage.)
7. ... Bxc5
8. Bd3
(White has an active position.)
8. ... Nh4
(Black threatens to win material: Nh4xg2. 8. ... Nc6 9. 0-0 gives white a
slight edge.)
9. 0-0
(White has a very active position. 9. Na4 Nd7 (9. ... Nxg2+?? - the pawn
contains a lethal dose of poison - 10. Kf1 is decisive for white) 10. Bb5 Nxf3+
(10. ... Nxg2+? fails to 11. Kf1 Ne3+ 12. Bxe3 Bxe3 13. fxe3 with a decisive
advantage for white) 11. Qxf3 Be7 offers equal chances.)
9. ... Nc6
(White has a slight advantage. Black should quickly conclude development.)
10. Re1 h6
(Covers g5. 10. ... Bd7 11. Na4 Nxf3+ 12. Qxf3 gives white a slight edge.
Weaker is 12. gxf3 Be7, with a solid advantage for black.)
11. Na4
(White has a solid advantage.)
11. ... Bf8
(11. ... Nxf3+ 12. Qxf3 (12. gxf3 is weaker, as 12. ... Be7 gives black a
slight edge) 12. ... Be7 13. Qg4 gives white a solid advantage.)
12. Rc1
(12. a3 g6 is strong for white.)
12. ... Bd7
(12. ... Nxf3+ 13. Qxf3 (13. gxf3 is weaker, as 13. ... Bd7 gives black a
slight advantage) 13. ... g6 14. Qg3 gives white a strong position.)
13. Nxh4 Qxh4
14. c4 dxc4
(Better is 14. ... Nb4!? 15. Be2 d4 with a decisive advantage for white.)
15. Rxc4
(White's position is now very strong.)
15. ... Qd8
16. Qh5 Ne7
(16. ... Bb4 17. Nc3 (17. Bxb4?! Nxb4 18. Rf4 Rf8 19. Rxb4 Bxa4 is very strong
for white; or 17. Rxb4?! Nxb4 18. Bxb4 Bxa4, which leads to equality) 17. ...
Kf8 18. Be3 gives white a very strong position.)
17. Rd4
(17. Nc5!? keeps an even firmer grip after 17. ... Nd5 18. Nxb7 Qb8 19. Nd6+
Bxd6 20. exd6 Kf8 with a decisive advantage for white.)
17. ... g6
(17. ... Rc8 18. Nc3 Qc7 19. Bf4 is decisive for white.)
18. Qf3
Key Move Diagram:
r2qkb1r/
pp1bnp2/
4p1pp/
4P3/
N2R4/
3B1Q2/
PP1B1PPP/
4R1K1
Position after white's 18th move.
18. ... Qc7?
(However, 18. ... Nc6 19. Rf4 Qe7 20. b4 is also very strong for white.)
19. Nc3 Nf5
(19. ... 0-0-0 does not improve anything: 20. Qxf7 Nc6 21. Rc4 is still very
strong for white.)
20. Nb5
(After 20. Rxd7!? White can relax: 20. ... Kxd7 (20. ... Qxd7?? 21. Bb5 0-0-0
22. Bxd7+ Rxd7 23. Nb5 is decisive for white) 21. Rc1 Rd8 with a decisive
advantage for white.)
20. ... Qb6
(20. ... Qc6 21. Qxc6 bxc6 (21. ... Bxc6?? 22. Nc7+ Ke7 23. Bb4+ Nd6 24. Rxd6
is decisive for white) 22. Nc7+ Kd8 23. Bxf5 Kxc7 24. Ba5+ Kc8 and white should
win easily.)
Key Move Diagram:
r3kb1r/
pp1b1p2/
1q2p1pp/
1N2Pn2/
3R4/
3B1Q2/
PP1B1PPP/
4R1K1
Position after black's 20th move.
21. Rxd7!
(An unpleasant surprise.)
21. ... Kxd7
22. g4
(22. Ba5 makes it even easier for White: 22. ... Qc6 23. Qd1 Ke7 with a
decisive advantage for white.)
Key Move Diagram:
r4b1r/
pp1k1p2/
1q2p1pp/
1N2Pn2/
6P1/
3B1Q2/
PP1B1P1P/
4R1K1
Position after white's 22nd move.
22. ... Nh4??
(The position was bad, and this mistake simply hastens the end. 22. ... Qc6 is
comparatively better: 23. Qh3 Bc5 24. gxf5 gxf5, but white still has a decisive
advantage.)
23. Qxf7+ Be7
24. Bb4 Rae8
25. Bxe7 Rxe7
26. Qf6 a6
(26. ... Reh7 is aa fruitless try to alter the course of the game: 27. Rc1 a6
28. Rc7+ Qxc7 29. Nxc7 Kxc7 30. Qxh4 and white should win easily.)
27. Rd1
(27. Qxh4?! is a bad alternative: 27. ... g5 28. Qg3 axb5 allows black to
equalize.)
27. ... axb5
(27. ... Nf3+ is one last hope: 28. Kg2 axb5 29. Qxh8 Nd4, but again white
should win easily.)
28. Be4+
(Black resigned. 28. Be4+ leads to mate: 28. ... Kc8 29. Qxh8+ Re8 30. Qxe8+
Kc7 31. Qd8#. 28. Qxh4 succumbs to g5 29. Be4+ Kc8 and a solid advantage for
black.)
1-0
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