1956
January
Argentina: The former German Master H. Reinhardt won the memorial Caranza at Buenos Aires.
The top GM M. Najdorf achieved another success at the national championship with 16-3 and only one loss to Wexler. Rossetto 14,5 was second and E. Eliakases third with 13,5.
Belgium: The strong club of Belgrade Zeleznizar visited the Brussels CC and crushed the local team 6,5-0,5. O’Kelly was the only one to score (against A. Matanovic) ½ point.
Czechoslovakia: The tie-break for the 10th and 11th place of the last interzonal happened at Prague. Ilivicki beat L Pachman 3,5-2,5.
England: This year only young champions under 30 years old (with the exception of the English master H. Golombek) were invited. Surprisingly the benjamin of the tournament F. Olafsson (20) from Iceland. kept the lead together with the Soviet representative V. Korchnoi through the whole tournament. Korchnoi and Olafsson finished equal first 7-2, they were followed by B. Ivkov 6,5; M. Taimanov 6; K. Draga 4,5…
Finland: K. Ojanen 6/9 edged T. Salo at the Finnish championship held in Helsinki.
Holland: The old Swedish master G. Stahlberg won the traditional Beverwijk chess tournament after an early victory against his main Yugoslav rival A. Matanovic leaving only the Argentinian H. Pilnik to be fear with. But this one, after a surprising loss to the local H. Bouwmeester, came back a bit too short and finally finished second. F. Scafarelli and R. Toran finished equal third.
Hungary: The master P. Benko has won the memorial G. Nagy with 9,5-1,5 ahead of Bilek 8,5-2,5 and J. Flesch and Kluger together with 8 points.
Italy: An interesting match between the teams of Bayern and Italy which finished 13-7 in favour of the German.
New Zealand: This year, F. Fould was crowned as the national champion.
Poland: The last phase of the tri-annual tournament between Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland concluded this year in Warsaw. It began in 1954 and was play every year since in one of the main cities of the participating countries. Finally, Hungary won with 51 points followed by Czechoslovakia 42,5 and 3rd Poland 26,5.
In Krynica, B. Milic from Yugoslavia won the strong IT with 9,5/14 ahead of S. Puc, N. Karaklajic and W. Uhlmann with 8.5
Another team tournament with Yugoslavia, East Germany and Poland saw a big triumph of the Yugoslavian players.
Sweden: Lothar Schmid came first at a short tournament in Gothenburg with 8,5-0,5.
USA: A. Bisguier and L Evans shared first at second Rosenwald tournament with 6/10 ahead of S. Reshevsky 5,5.
The Marshall CC of New York beat the Capablanca CC of Havana 5,5-0,5.
USSR: Without V. Smyslov or D. Bronstein…who were preparing for the next Candidate’s Tournament, the young B. Spassky (19) was at the top of the 23rd Soviet championship held in Leningrad. Leading mostly the entire tournament, he was catch-up at the end by Y. Averbakh and M. Taimanov. They all finished with 11,5 followed V. Korchnoi 11, R. Kholmov, L. Polugaevski and M. Tal 10.
Yugoslavia: For the European Team Championship qualification, the national team of Yugoslavia beat Romania 13,5-6,5. On top boards S. Gligoric beat I. Balanel 2-0, Ivkov beat Ciocaltea 1,5-0,5 and Matanovic beat Gunsberg 2-0.
February
Argentina: Without any European player participating, J. Bolbochan and M. Najdorf 12,5-3,5 shared the first prize of the Mar del Plata tournament. E, Eliskases and R, Sanguineti finished 3rd equal with 11 points.
Costa Rica: Nicaragua won a team match vs. Costa Rica 10,5-9,5.
Holland: Dr. M. Euwe has regained his title of Dutch champion over Donner by 7-3.
Iceland: The playoff match for the title of Scandinavian Champion has been won by B. Larsen, who beat F. Olafson 4,5-3,5.
Roumania: Three players tied for first at the national championship: I. Balanel, V. Ciocaltea and Gunsberger.
Sweden: M. Johansson surprised every one at Stockholm with his first place over the young star B. Larsen, R. Toran and Horberg.
USA: M. Pavey, W. Lombardy and A. Pinkus are the top three at the Manhattan CC championship. Seidman, Mednis and Santasier top three at the Marshall CC ch.
Obituary:
Dr. X Tartakover: Polish chess Grandmaster (awarded in 1950) born in Russia but left the country at 12. He study laws then became an officer in the Austrian army untill the end of the 1st WW. He scored his first success in 1906 Vienna 1905 then Nuremberg in 1906. He started his professional chess career in the 20s and till 1955 won a dozen of good tournament. Member of the Polish team till 1939 he also played for France in 1950 after getting the citizenship. The author of A Breviary of chess, Hypermodern Schachpartie and 500 master games of modern chess.
March
Australia: Hanks won the Victoria state championship and Keliner the New South Wales state championship.
Belgium: H. Pilnik (ARG) won a VIP tournament at the E. Colle CC ahead of P. Limbos and F. Van Seters.
Czechoslovakia: Without top players like L. Pachman and M. Filip it is Sec who won the national title this year.
France: The chess club of Caissa of Paris beat Belgrade 3-1.
On 26th March, FIDE and FFE representatives and the family of A. Alekhine met for the inauguration of a monument in the memory of the World Champion A. Alekhine at his grave at Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.
Hungary: This year, L. Barcza 14-4 came out first at the national championship topping his eternal opponent L. Szabo 13-5 and Szilagy and P. Benko 12.5 –5,5 together third.
Iceland: F. Olafsson scored another victory this year with a success in the Sigurdsson memorial tournament with an exceptional 8-1 ahead of Ilivitsky and Taimanov 7,5.
Switzerland: The World Champion M. Botvinnik and S. Flohr were touring in different cities. A clock simultaneous match was arranged vs. the strongest players of Zurich. The champion scored 6.5-1,5 with only one loss to Zimmerman.
The team of Germany composed with Unzicker, K. Draga, L. Schmid and Niephaus won the traditional Clare Benedict tournament (6 teams) with 14 points ahead of Holland (with Euwe) 13 points.
USA: W. Lombardy won the New York Open championship with 6-7.
April
England: A. O’Kelly (BEL) was the winner at Bogner Regis international with 8 points ahead of V. Pirc, H. Lehman, D. Janosevic, S. Fazekas and H. Golombek 7 points…
Denmark: Another title for B. Larsen who finished the national championship with 9.5-1,5 ahead of C. Poulsen with 7.
Greece: T. Siaporas won the national championship with 7 points.
Holland: It was a Soviet affair for the Candidate tournament held in Amsterdam. V. Smyslov was the most regular despite an early loss to Spassky but he finished clear first with 11,5-6,5. P. Keres emerged second with 10; D. Bronstein, T. Petrosian, B. Spassky and L. Szabo (HUN) shared the third place with 9,5, then followed M. Filip (CZE) and O. Panno (ARG) with 8…
Hungary. P. Benko won his first major tournament at the Alekhine Memorial in Budapest, finishing first together with the young L. Portisch.
Indonesia. The Soviet GM Averbach was touring in the country and played successfully a match against the national champion Hutgalong with the score of 3,5-0,5. Y. Averbakh won also one of the strongest Asian tournament in Djakarta.
Israel: M. Czerniak collected another title of the national champion.
Norway: M. Tal (USSR) visited Bergen for a simultaneous play and a score of 21 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses.
Spain: J. Diez del Corral, Perez, Franco and Balbe will have to play tie-break matches for the national title.
Sweden: The city of Uppsala was holding the 3rd Student chess Olympiad with the participation of 16 teams including one from the USA and one from…Mongolia! After the 3rd round of the final stage, the tournament was already over after the Soviet team beat the Yugoslav 4-0. In the winning team, only L. Polugaevsky didn’t score 50%. V. Korchnoi, M. Tal and Antoshin scored 80%, E. Vasiukov 88% and Lutikov 90%. The final standing was: 1st USSR 21,5; 2nd Hungary 16,5; 3rd Yugoslavia and Bulgaria 15; Spain 12,5…
USSR: The play-off for the title of USSR Champion resulted in the victory for M. Taimanov 3-1; followed by Y. Averbach 2,5-2,5 and B. Spassky, ill during the contest scored only 0,5.
Yugoslavia: B. Larsen was invited to play two matches in Belgrade. In the first one, he drew with Vukcevic 3-3. and in the second he lost 2,5-1,5 to Lukic.
L. Evans (USA) and S. Gligoric shared the first prize at the Belgrade blitz championship.
May- June
Austria: After a victory at the Vienna championship, Duckstein won the national championship at Prein with 8-1.
Brazil: V. Toth was winner of the national.
Czechoslovakia: G. Fitchl won the international tournament in Prague with 9-4 ahead of Forintos (HUN) 8.
The 120 birthday anniversary of the 1st World Champion W. Steinitz was celebrated with a tournament at Marianske Lazne and Prague. M. Filip topped some favourite and finished first with 13-6. V. Ragozin (URS) came second with 12,5 then followed S. Flohr (URS) and L. Pachman (CZE) 12, G. Stahlberg (SWE) 11,5…
France: S. Simonovitch won the title of champion of Paris.
In Vichy, the French national team could avoid defeat against Yugoslavia in a match for the qualification to the European team championship. Yugoslavia won 13,5-6,5. On the top board, Dr. O. Bernstein drew with S. Gligoric 1-1, A. Muffang and C. Bouteville lost 0,5-1,5 to A. Matanovic and B. Ivkov.
Finland: B. Larsen and Rantanen tied first in Helsinki.
Germany: Soviet victory at the international of Dresden. Y. Averbakh and R. Kholmov tie for first with 2 points ahead of V. Ciocaltea 10,5. L. Pachman 9, W. Uhlmann 8,5…
In Hamburg, P. Keres had not too much difficulty to beat W. Ulhmann with a fine score of 6-2.
Holland: Austria has won the Olympiad for railways teams.
Ireland: Another victory for A. O’Kelly this time at Dublin ahead of JH Donner and H. Golombek.
Portugal: his year Dr. Olivra topped J. Durao at the national championship but for the Lisbon championship the final ranking was reversed.
Switzerland: M. Blau won the national championship.
USSR: In a selective tournament for the USSR championship at Kislovodsk L. Shamkovich was the winner.
USSR. In a training match in Moscow, M. Botvinnik beat Y. Averbakh 3-2.
Yugoslavia: Yugoslavia met West Germany in Bled and scored a convincing victory with 12,5-7,5. On top boards, W. Unzicker drew with S. Gligoric 1-1; K. Draga drew with A. Matanovic 1-1; L. Schmid beat B. Ivkov 1,5-0,5…
In a match at Belgrade between the two strongest teams in the world, the Soviet without M. Botvinnik and D. Bronstein confirmed their supremacy with a victory by 38-26. Eight rounds were played and except for the round one, which finished 4-4, the Soviet team won all the remaining matches. No Soviet players score less than 50%. V. Smyslov and E. Geller were top scorers with 5,5-2,5. Among the Yugoslavs S. Gligoric was the best with 5-3.
Another national title won by S. Gligoric at the Yugoslav championship. He finished with 14-5 ahead of A. Matanovic 13,5 and B. Ivkov 13.
July and August
Austria: A match between Austria and East Germany was won by the last 11,5-8,5. On top board W. Uhlmann beat Duckstein 2-0..
Belgium: The Belgian’s best player A. O’Kelly regained the national title with 7/9 ahead of A. Dunkelblum and G. Thibaut 6,5. A few weeks early A. O’Kelly won the Federation championship.
Bulgaria: A very good score for Bulgaria who held Yugoslavia at Sofia 10-10. A. Matanovic beat B. Minev 1,5-0,5; B. Ivkov beat Kolarov 1,5-0,5..
Chile: R. Flores scored 11-3 and became the national champion.
China: The first chess magazine is published in Canton.
Colombia: Miguel Cuillar Gacharna is the national champion.
Denmark: Another crushing victory for the young world star B. Larsen who won easily the national championship.
England: The 43rd British Championship was organized with 32 players at Blackpool. Without the participation of H. Golombek, it was C.H. Alexander with 9,5-1,5 who won the title ahead of F. Parr with 9, B. Wood and M. Haygarth with 7,7 and L. Barden with 7…
England won the traditional Glorney Cup ahead of Ireland.
Holland: The German master Diemer won the Dutch Open Championship.
Hungary: Honfi won Miskolc tournament.
Ireland: O’ Sullivan was the national champion.
Italy: G. Porreca won the national title.
Dimc (YUG) won the international tournaments of Ancona and San Benedetto.
Norway: O. B. Morcken won the national championship.
Roumania: The national title, after a tie- break match between I. Balanel and V. Ciocaltea went to the first player after his victory 3-1.
Scotland: Ninth national title for Aitken who won the Scottish championship with 8,5-0,5.
Spain: B. Larsen (DEN) won the strong tournament of Gijon with 7,5 ahead of K. Draga 7 and JH. Donner and A. O’Kelly 6,5.
Sweden: N. Padevski (BUL) ahead of Maric (YUG) won the little tournament of Gavle.
In a play-off match, A. Stenberg beat J. Johansson and won the final of the Swedish championship.
USSR: V. Simagin and T. Petrosian shared first the place at the Moscow ch. , I. Vistaneckis won the Lithuanian ch., G. Veresov won the Belarus ch., L. Aronin was the champion of Azerbaijan, P. Kondatiev won the Leningrad ch., Y. Yakovlev won the Kazakhstan ch., V. Smagin won the Armenian ch, M. Shishov won the Georgian ch, Lipniski won the Ukrainian ch., and Suetin and Nei shared the first place at the Baltic ch.,
USA: Fouth success for A. Santasiere at the New York State Open Championship played at Buffalo.
Venezuela: Former Spanish player Medina won the national title.
September:
Canada: The Americans L. Evans won the Open Championship with 8-2 together with W. Lombardy.
Belgium: The city of Ostende tried to remember its chess glory with the organization of a new master tournament. A. O’Kelly was the best with 6-2 ahead of JH. Donner 5,5; H. Golombek and Dr. Lehmann 4,5. Among the participant was the old French Grandmaster Dr. O. Bernstein who was already concurring at the same venue in 1906!
Bulgaria: At Sofia, Roumania beat Bulgaria 13-11.
France: The team of Yugoslavia was too strong for France at Vichy. The friendly match finished with a clear Yugoslav victory of 13,5-6,5. O. Bernstein drew with S. Gligoric 1-1; A; Matanovic beat Muffang and B. Ivkov beat C. Boutteville 1,5-0,5…
Germany: Dr. Lehmann won the Berlin championship.
Italy: Poreca is the new national champion.
USA: A new star is rising, the 13th-year-old R. Fischer won the US Amateur Championship with 8,5-1,5.
Manhattan CC won the Metropolitan league after a victory vs. the Marshall CC.
Mrs. Sonia Graf won the US Lady championship with 6,5.
Before his match against D. Bronstein, S. Reshevsky played a training match with the young master W. Lombardy and won 3,5-2,5.
Uruguay: In a tournament with the representative of South America, M. Najdorf (ARG) finished first with 10-1, E. Eliskaeses (ARG) followed with 9 points.
USSR: Thirty-four countries participated at the 12th Olympiad in Moscow. The Soviet team which was composed with M. Botvinnik, V. Smyslov, P. Keres, D. Bronstein, M. Taimanov and E. Geller won for the third time Hamilton Cup. The team triumphed with 31 points so 4,5 more than Yugoslavia and Hungary who finished second with 26,5. Argentina was fourth and West Germany 5th
During the 26th FIDE Congress in Moscow, FIDE decided to implement a new system of qualification for the next word championships. For the future, it will include zonal tournaments, an Interzonal tournament, a Candidate’s tournament and a Final match. The European continent will be divided in four zones as well Americas.
For the next world championship, A. Lilienthal will second V. Smyslov and S. Flohr will work for M. Botvinnik.
Yugoslavia: The team of Partizan of Belgrade won a first European Club Cup held in Belgrade, which include 9 teams from different countries. Dresden was second and Vienna third.
October-November
East Germany: R. Fuchs was the winner of the 7 GDR championship.
Holland: Dr. Euwe is giving up his teaching job at the end of the year to be a mathematical adviser.
Hungary. After a long illness, Dr. L. Asztalos died in Budapest.
Switzerland: H. Johner won the Swiss Cup. He was already the winner of the first edition in…1940.
Poland. K. Plater won the 14th national championship with 14,5/19.
USA: In Oklahoma city, Arthur Bisguier won on tie-break the US Open equal with J. Sherwin. The young R. Fischer (13) finished 4th equal with some other players. Mrs. S. Graf won the women title.
S. Reshevsky decided not to go to Moscow for the Alekhine Memorial as the Soviet refused to pay his entry fee of $2,000!
USSR: The world championship match between M. Botvinnik and Smyslov is announced for March 1957.
Like in 1935, the Soviet authorities setup another super tournament with the leading players of the world named this time the Alekhine Memorial. The World Champion M. Botvinnik (USSR) and the world challenger V. Smyslov (USSR) shared the first place with 11/16 ahead of M. Taimanov (USSR) 10,5 , S. Gligoric (YUG) 10 and D. Bronstein USSR 9,5.
December
Czechoslovakia: without the participation of the best players, L. Alster won the national championship.
Holland: The old E. Diemer from Germany won the Dutch Open championship.
T. Van Scheltinga won a small tournament in Groningen.
Romania. In Bucarest, O. Troianescu won the 9th Romanian championship.
Portugal: With an exceptional 6,5-0,5, J. Durao achieved another success at the national championship
USSR: In Moscow, the Soviet player Mrs. O. Rubtsova has been crowned Women World Champion after her victory in the final tournament with included also E. Bykova and L. Rudenko. With a margin of ½ point she took the title. E. Bykova finished with 9,5 and Rudenko 4,5.
T. Petrosian won the play-off for the title of Moscow champion by ending the match vs. V. Simagin 4,5-1,5.