Chess Olympiads 1927 1968 by Arpad Foldeak –

Since the first unofficial Chess Olympiad took place in Paris (to coincide with the 1924 Olympic Games), the periodic confrontations between competing national teams have witnessed, in true Olympic fashion, intense rivalries, unusual styles of play, unex-pected debuts of youthful talent, and the occasional intervention of politics, both chess and international.

This volume is the only inexpensive, compact but comprehensive coverage of the Chess Olympiads. The author analyzes the 18 official Olympiads (also the Munich 1936 "extra" Olympiad) beginning with the FIDE (International Chess Federation)-sanctioned London 1927 games and extending through Lugano 1968. Each Olympiad receives detailed treatment: preliminary discussion of the site, the teams, the players, pre-match predictions and unusual occurrences, with relevant supplementary detail; then the statistics: team scores by sections for the first round and final matches; a run-down of each and every player's tally (games played, won, drawn, lost, total points and percentages) and finally the presentation of interesting matches, all diagrammed, complete and annotated (often by the participants in annotations gathered from their original sources all over the world).

Over 200 games are illustrated. Most of the great names in 20th-century chess face each other at one point or another: Maroczy vs. Réti (London 1927), Stahlberg vs. Alekhine (Hamburg 1930), Tartakower vs. Reshevsky (Buenos Aires 1939), Fischer vs. Euwe (Leipzig 1960), Szabo vs. Korchnoi (Lugano 1968) are only a few. Games interesting in other respects are also noted: Dr. Alekhine's 12-hour, 108-move marathon with England's Sultan Khan (Folkestone 1933), played out in sheer com-petitiveness and love for the beauty of chess. Political ironies are not lacking: in the Buenos Aires Olympiad, begun August 21st, 1939 and completed during the first days of World War 11, Germany is the victor over 2nd place Poland ; a member of that same German team, Eliskases, remains in Buenos Aires for the war and at Helsinki 1952 is a member of the Argentinian team.

Chess Olympiads 1927-1968 offers a historical view of the development of individual and team play, as well as the growth of schools, e.g. the rise of the American team in the thirties, and the sudden, decisive dominance of the Soviet school, beginning at Helsinki 1952. The games themselves, with superb annotation, provide a running picture of cosmopolitan chess at its best.

Introduction 7

London, 1927 —The 1st Olympiad 13

2 The Hague, 1928 — The 2nd Olympiad 29

3 Hamburg, i93o^The 3rd Olympiad 46

4 Prague, 1931 — The 4th Olympiad 68

5 Folkestone, 1933 —The 5th Olympiad 88

6 Warsaw, 1935 —The 6th Olympiad 107

7 Munich, 1936 —The Extra Olympiad 123

8 Stockholm, 1937 —The 7th Olympiad 140

9 Buenos Aires, 1939— The 8th Olympiad 160

10 Dubrovnik, 1950—The 9th Olympiad 181

11 Helsinki, 1952 —The 10th Olympiad 198

12 Amsterdam, 1954 —The nth Olympiad 218

13 Moscow, 1956 —The 12th Olympiad 240

14 Munich, 1958 —The 13th Olympiad 264

15 Leipzig, i960 —The 14th Olympiad 286

16 Varna, 1962 —The 15th Olympiad 311

17 Tel-Aviv, 1964 —The 16th Olympiad 332

18 Havana, 1966 - The 17th Olympiad 358

19 Lugano, 1968 - The 18th Olympiad 383

Appendix: Index of Players 411