1954

January

England. The Hastings International Congress ended with a shared victory of C.H. Alexander ENG and D. Bronstein (USSR) with 6,5, followed by A. O’Kelly (BEL) with 5,5, A. Matanovic (YUG), F. Olafsson (ISL), Teschler GER and Tolush USSR with 4,5 points..…
Finland. O. Kaila became the 21st Finnish champion with 8/11.
Netherlands. The Dutch H. Bouwmeester and the Yugoslav V. Pirc shared the victory at the Beverwijk Tournament, having scored 6 points out of 9 and ahead of L. Prins with 5,5, T. van Scheltiga with 5…
Sweden. S. Gligoric won the Goteborg tournament with 6/7 ahead of C. Carlsson.
Yugoslavia: Fuderer, V. Pirc and B. Rabar with 11,5 points were equal first at the Yugoslavian Championship played at Agram.
In Belgrade, D. Vasiljevic won the Branka Medenice Memorial ahead of B. Ivkov an D. Djaja.
Norway. The team match Norway-Sweden was held in Norway on 6-7 January and was won by Sweden.

February

Australia. An invitation tournament at Adelaide was won by L. Steiner who scored 10,5 points out of 11, followed by Endzelins with only 7,5 points.
USA. In New York, A. Denker won the 66th Manhattan CC ch and J. Collins the 37th Marshall CC ch.
USSR. The Soviet’s Women’s Championship was won by Zvorykina who scored 13 points out of 17, followed by Rudenko with 12 points.

March

New Zeeland. O. Sarapu with 10,5 points out of 11 won again the championship of New Zealand.
Netherland. In Utrecht, Netherland beat West Germany 10,5-9,5.
Romania. the 22-year-old V. Korchnoi (USR)won the strong Budapest tournament with 13 points out of 18 possible. R. Nezhmetdinov (USR) and R. Kholmov (USR) took the second and third place with 12,5 and 12 points.
Spain. The IT at Tarragona ESP held in  ended with a victory of L. Prins (NED) who scored 9,5 points out of 11, followed by R. Toran ESP with 9 and Mora with 8,5.
Sweden. G. Stoltz became the Swedish Champion after his victory in the play-off match from Nilsson – 6-4.
USA. J.Collins became the winner of the Marshall Club Championship USA with 9,5 points out of 12.
USSR. Y.Averbach won the 21st USSR Championship held in Kiev with 14,5 points, ahead of V. Korchnoi and M. Taimanov with 13 points.
The opening ceremony of the World Championship match Botvinnik-Smyslov took part in Moscow on March,14. And the actual play began on March 16 with more than 2000 spectators.
Yugoslavia. R. Maric shared first with A. Matulovic at the Slavija ch. in Belgrade.

April

Argentina. Senora Celia de Moschini with 11,5 points out of 13 became the winner of the Argentina Women Championship.
Czechoslovakia. L. Pachman became the Czechoslovakian Champion for the second time since 1946 after his won 3,5-2,5 in the play-off for the national title.
Denmark. The young B. Larsen won the 45th Danish championship ahead of A. Nielsen.
France. 14-1 was the final score of the match France-USSR held in Paris. A. Muffang and J. Plante where the only French players to save the honors after drawing a game M. Taimanov and I. Boleslavsky.
Germany. The match for the national title between W. Unzicker and L. Schmid ended with a victory of W. Unzicker 3,5-2,5 who became the German Champion.
Hungary. A team tournament was held at Budapest where the Hungarian team A took the first prize with 15 points, HUN team B was the second with 13,5 points, CZE with 11 and Poland with 8,5.
England. L. Barden (ENG) and A. O’Kelly shared first at the 2nd Stevenson Memorial at Bognor Regis.
Mexico. A small IT held at Mexico City in February saw the victory of the American veteran E. Lasker with 6 points out of 7 ahead of  J.Araiza with 4.
Philippines. Meliton Borja became the winner of the Philippines National Championship, held in Manila in March.
Romania. Balanel won the play-off match with 6 points from Voiculescu with 3,5 and Troianescu with 2,5  and became the Romanian Champion.
Madrid. L. Prins and Queimadelos with 3,5 points shared the victory at the IT at Madrid, ahead of Bordell and Diez del Corral with 2,5 points, Rodrigo with 2 and Durao with 1 point.
Netherlands. The team match Holland-West Germany ended with a victory of the Dutch team – 10,5-9,5.
Uruguay. The team of USSR crushed Uruguay in a friendly match in Montevideo 19.5-0,5. Only A. Kotov lost a half point to L. Ibarburu.

May

Argentina. The team match between USSR and Argentina took place in Buenos-Aires and ended with a victory of the Soviet team 20,5-11,5.
Ireland. In the tournament at Cork, A. O’Kelly (BEL) scored another success ahead of R. Wade (ENG).
Italy. V. Nestler and C. Staldi shared first at the 17th Italian ch.
Yugoslavia. V. Pirc after the play-off match became the Yugoslavian Champion.
Sweden. The team match between Sweden and Finland held at Stockholm ended with a victory of the home team 12-7.
USSR. In Moscow, the match for the World Champion title between M. Botvinnik and V. Smyslov finished in a tie 12-12, as per regulation M. Botvinnik retained his title.

June

Netherlands. JH. Donner became the Dutch Champion having scored 8 points out of 11, followed by N. Cortlever and M. Euwe with 7.
Sweden. Without the participation of the top players, B. Horberg won the 38th national championship.
Switzerland. 12 participants took part in the second Clare Benedict Tournament which was held at Zurich and ended with a victory of L. Schmid(GER)  with 8,5 points, E. Nievergelt with 8 points was the second, there followed Dr. M. Euwe with 7,5 points…
Norway. The third international Student Team Championship was held in Oslo and was won surprisingly by the Czechoslovakian team who scored 29,5 points, the second was USSR with 28,5 points, the third Bulgaria with 26, England with 23…The CZE team took an early lead from the USSR and beat their main opponent 2,5-1,5.

July

Indonesia. Hutagalung with 11 points out of 12 became the winner of the Indonesian championship held at Tegal.
Greece. G. Gaitanaros won the 6th national championship.
Switzerland. J. Kupper surprised H. Grob and won the national championship.
USA. A. Bisguier, with 10 points out of 13, became the winner of the national championship and Zonal tournament held in New York.
In Hollywood, A. won the 2nd Pan-American Chess Congress ahead of L. Evans and N. Rossolimo.
Yugoslavia. Mrs. Nedelkovic won the West European zonal.
B. Ivkov and M. Trajkovic shared first at the Serbian ch.

August

Argentina. The World Junior Champion O. Panno became the winner of the South American Zonal Tournament held at Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires. He scored 17,5 points ahead of Najdorf who scored 17 points, Guimard and Pilnik with 16,5, Eliskases with 16.
Bulgaria. After a play-off match for the national title N. Minev who won with a score 4,5-3,5 from O. Neikirch, became the Bulgarian Champion.
England. In Nottingham, L. Barden is the new British Champion. He finished with 8 points together with A. Phillips and a half point above 3 other players.
Czechoslovakia. The Eastern and Northern Europe Zonal tournament was held at Marianske Lazne and Prague, L. Pachman CZE became the winner with 15 points, the second was L. Szabo with 14,5 points, B. Sliwa POL with 13, Filip and G. Stahlberg SWE with 12,5 points…
Denmark. The Danes beat without any problem Norway in a match held at Copenhagen – 13,5-6,5.
Sweden: The match Sweden- USSR played at Stockholm in July ended with  a victory of Soviets 13-3.
USSR. V. Soloviev acted the first with 9,5 points at the Moscow Championship, A. Ufimtsev won the Kazakhstan ch., A. Buslaev won the Georgian ch., S. Khalilbeili was the winner in the Azerbaijan ch., J. Klovans won the Latvian championship, S. Giterman won the Moldovian ch., L. Shamkovich the RSFSRch. and A. Khavin won the Ukrainian ch.
West Germany. The Western Europe Zonal Championship was held in Munich, W. Unzicker (GER) with 15 points became the winner, followed by JH. Donner (NED) and B. Rabar (YUG) with 14,5 points…

September

Argentina. Senora Moschini  ARG won the South America Women’s Zonal Tournament.
Austria. Duckstein with 9,5 points out of 12 won the Austrian Championship which was played at Baden bei Wien.
Belgium. J. Gobert became the Champion of Belgium this year, having scored 7 points out of 9, ahead of A. O’Kelly and R. Dunnkelblum.
Germany. The Berlin Championship was won by 20-year-old K. Darga who made 10,5 points out of 13.
Italy. The Austrian player Muller with 8 points out of 11, became the winner at the San Benedetto ITA tournament followed by Janosevic and Porreca with 7,5, Paoli with 7.
Italy. Nestler and Staldi shared the victory at the Italian Championship played at Trieste.
South Africa. Dr.Euwe visited the South Africa and gave three simultaneous displays with 105 wins, 13 draws and 2 losses.
Spain. Perez made 14,5 points out  of 17 and won the Spanish Championship.
Switzerland. 22-year-old Kupper became the winner of the Swiss Championship.
USA. The 1st Pan-American Tournament was held at Long Beach in USA, California. Bisguier made 11,5 points and took the first place, followed by Evans with 11, Rossolimo and Steiner with 10,5, Pomar and Sherwin with 10…
USSR. N. Kopylov, A. Tolush and S. Furman shared first at the 27th Leningrad championship.
Several weeks later, the young B. Spassky won in Leningrad a mixed tournament between Masters and Candidate Masters ahead of L. Polugaevsky and A. Cherepkov.
In Riga for the USSR Clubs ch., Spartak won the championship ahead of Nauka and Medik.

October

Chili. M. Letelier became the national Champion.
Netherlands. The 11th Olympiad aHamilton-Russell Cup was held in Amsterdam. The Russian team had a very strong squad with –V. Smyslov, D. Bronstein, P. Keres, A. Kotov, E. Geller, S. Flohr, I. Bondarevsky, A. Lilienthal and M. Botvinnik.
Finally, USSR won easily the final section; the tournament was already over one round before the end , Argentine seriously finished 2nd topping Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
Hungary.  K. jr. Honfi won the Istvan Gecsey Memorial at Budapest.
Poland. In Lodz, B. Sliwa and S. Witkowski shared first at the 12th Polish championship.
USA. R. Siemms became the 1954 US Junior Champion in Long Beach.

November

East Germany. In Meerane, W. Uhlmann add a new title of East German champion.
France. Boutteville won the French Championship held at Marseilles in August.
Iceland. In the absence of F. Olafsson, the national championship of Iceland was won by G. Gudmundsson with 6 points out of 6.
Italy. Nestler won the play-off match for the Italian Champion title with a score 4-2.
USA. L. Evans won the United States Open Championship at Orleans which attracted 109 players, he shared the victory with A. Pomar, but was considered to be a winner on the Berger System There followed M. Steinmeyer and A. Bisguier with 9 points.
USA. Mrs. Gresser with 8 points became the winner of the U.S. Women’s Open Championship.
Uruguay. In the international tournament of Montevideo, the Chilian M. Letelier surprised M. Najdorf (ARG) and O. Bernstein (FRA).

December.

Belgium. The team match at Ghent, between Belgium and the Czechoslovak Republic ended with a loss for the host team – 5-2.
Bulgaria. N. Padevsky is the new Bulgaria Champion.
Czechoslovakia. M. Filip edged L. Pachman to win the national championship.
Cuba. Dr.Gonzales with 8,5 points out of 11 became the winner of the Cuban championship.
France. Dr. X. Tartakower and Simonovic made the same score at the IT at Paris- “Coupe Russe”- 7 points out of 8, followed by Popel with 6 points.
France. Simonovic became the winner of the tournament held in December at Paris. He made 8,5 points, ahead of  Czerniak and Dr. Tartakower with 6,5 points, Raizman with 6, Burnstein and Mazzoni with 5,5, Nora with 4,5, Boutteville with 3…
East Germany. W. Uhlmann with 13 points became the winner of the Eastern German Championship.
Hungary. L. Szabo became the 10th Hungarian Champion ahead of P. Benko.
Romania. O. Troianescu became the 18th Romanian Champion.
Yugoslavia. A strong tournament at Belgrade ended with a victory of B. Bronstein USSR with 13,5, A. Matanovic (YUG) with 13, P. Trifunovic (YUG) with 12,5, B. Ivkov (YUG) and T. Petrosian with 11,5, then S. Gligoric (YUG) and H. Pilnik (ARG) with 11 points.

Obituary

The Russian-born, Paris-domiciled master Znosko-Borovsky (born in St. Petersburg, 16.10.1884), Eugene died on 31st of December. He was known as a good player, lecturer and a chess writer, an author of The Middle-game in Chess, How not to Play Chess, How to Play Chess Openings and The Art of Chess Combination.