Swinemünde 1936

Swinemünde 1936: Left-right, standing: Michel, Lange, von Hennig, Hahn, Richter, Ernst, Koch, Wächter. Left-right, sitting: Zollner, Eliskases.
Left-right, standing: Michel, Lange, von Hennig, Hahn, Richter, Ernst, Koch, Wächter.
Left-right, sitting: Zollner, Eliskases.

A continuation of the article by Jan Kalendovský (Swinemünde 1936 | Swinemünde 1936), including additional games,

by Alan McGowan

This event, the last of a number of training tournaments prior to the Munich Olympiad was held June 14-21 in a popular Baltic Sea resort (now Świnoujście in Poland). The town had hosted a chess event every year since 1930: international tournaments in 1930 and 1932; the 1931 German Championship; a Berlin Chess Association tournament in 1933; preliminary rounds for the German Team Championship 1934 and a zonal qualifying tournament for the 1935 German championship.

The event was held in the Dresdener Hof, a hotel located at Wilhelmstrasse 9, a few steps from the Kurhaus and the sea.

The earlier training tournaments at Stadtprozelten am Main and Bad Elster were purely German affairs, but the events at Bad Nauheim and Dresden included several foreign visitors. Bad Nauheim had Alekhine, Keres and Ståhlberg (they also played at Dresden), Prof. Vidmar and van den Bosch, while Dresden included Maróczy and Grob. Swinemünde, however, had only one guest master, Eliskases of Austria.

Swinemünde 1936 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pts
1 Eliskases, Erich ** 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 7
2 Richter, Kurt 1 ** 0 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 0 1 6
3 Ernst, Wilhelm 0 1 ** 0 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1
4 Koch, Berthold 1 ½ 1 ** 0 1 0 ½ 1 0 5
5 Lange, Wilfried 0 0 0 1 ** ½ ½ 1 ½ 1
6 Michel, Paul 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ** 1 1 1 ½
7 Zollner, Hans 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 ** 0 1 1 4
8 Hahn, Eduard 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 1 ** ½ ½ 3
9 von Hennig, Heinrich 0 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ** ½ 3
10 Wächter, Paul 0 0 0 1 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ **
The cross-table was shown in the earlier article but is repeated here for convenience.

Eliskases dominated, despite losing against the Berlin masters Koch and Richter.

Richter had been seriously ill for some time before this tournament and had been ‘forced’ by his brother to take the only real holiday of his life. He began in uncertain form. with 1⁄2/3, but recovered to score 51⁄2 in the remaining six rounds.

Pairing numbers: 1. Zollner 2. von Hennig 3. Koch 4. Lange 5. Michel 6. Ernst 7. Wächter 8. Hahn 9. Eliskases 10. Richter.

Games marked ■ were shown in Jan Kalendovský’s earlier article.

Round 1

Zollner – Richter ½-½
von Hennig – Eliskases 0-1
Koch – Hahn ½-½
Lange – Wächter 1-0
Michel – Ernst ½-½
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B141936[Die Hohe Schule des Schach, p.8 of unidentified issue, courtesy of Ulrich Tamm.]
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B251936[Volksgemeinschaft: Heidelberger Beobachter 29.08.1936, p. 14]
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D521936[Volksgemeinschaft: Heidelberger Beobachter 29.08.1936, p. 14]

Round 2

Richter – Ernst 0-1
Wächter – Michel ½-½  
Hahn – Lange 0-1  
Eliskases – Koch 0-1
Zollner – von Hennig 1-0  

Two of the favourites lost in this round; Richter against Ernst and Eliskases against Koch, the latter game one of the finest in the tournament.

Round 3

von Hennig – Richter 1-0
Koch – Zollner 0-1
Lange – Eliskases 0-1
Michel – Hahn 1-0
Ernst – Wächter 1-0

Sometimes, Richter’s va banque style was successful, but sometimes it got him in to serious trouble. It seems remarkable that he could have survived the early stages of the following game, but survive he did. After his opponent missed the best opportunities, Richter turned the tables completely only to lose on time, perhaps for only the second time in his playing career.

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B011936[Magyar Sakkvilág 1936, p. 197.]

Round 4

Richter – Wächter 1-0
Hahn – Ernst ½-½  
Eliskases – Michel 1-0  
Zollner – Lange ½-½  
von Hennig – Koch 0-1  
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B7417.06.1936[Score and comments from Koch’s notebook.]

Round 5

Koch – Richter ½-½  
Lange – von Hennig ½-½  
Michel – Zollner 1-0  
Ernst – Eliskases 0-1
Wächter – Hahn ½-½  
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D0518.06.1936[Koch notebook]
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C6418.06.1936[Magyar Sakkvilág 1936, p. 198]

Round 6

Richter – Hahn 1-0  
Eliskases – Wächter 1-0  
Zollner – Ernst 0-1  
von Hennig – Michel 0-1
Koch – Lange 0-1  
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B881936[Volksgemeinschaft: Heidelberger Beobachter 05.12.1936, p. 19]

Round 7

Lange – Richter 0-1  
Michel – Koch 0-1  
Ernst – von Hennig ½-½  
Wächter – Zollner 0-1  
Hahn – Eliskases 0-1
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D941936[Magyar Sakkvilág 1936, p. 198]

Round 8

Richter – Eliskases 1-0
Zollner – Hahn 0-1  
von Hennig – Wächter ½-½  
Koch – Ernst 1-0  
Lange – Michel ½-½  

Richter – Eliskases opened 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Bxf6 Bxf6 6.e5 Be7 7.Qg4 0–0. In round two against Wächter Richter continued 8.Bd3, but was ‘stung’ by his opponent’s use of an idea proposed by Eliskases in 1935 which involved an early ...Qa5 by Black, which interefered with White’s usual plan of development. Eliskases hoped to enter the same line, but Richter chose to continue with 8.0–0–0, going on to win an outstanding game.

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C281936[Deutsche Schachblätter 1936, pp. 252–3; Magyar Sakkvilág 1936, pp. 197–8]

Round 9

Michel – Richter 0-1
Ernst – Lange 1-0
Wächter – Koch 1-0
Hahn – von Hennig ½-½
Eliskases – Zollner 1-0
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A481936[From an undated column by Sämisch, likely the Berliner Nachtausgabe.]

The following game, the only win by the tail-ender Wächter, is of particular interest because the opening moves follow those of Eliskases – Koch from the second round.

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D341936[Notes from those of P. Wächter from newspaper cutting.]

All previously known games from Swinemünde 1936 (19 games):

swinemuende1936.pgn (24.2 KiB)

[Update 2019-08-13] Jan Kalendovský has found further moves from the game Richter-Hahn. The game was published in 1936 in the newspaper Volksgemeinschaft: Heidelberger Beobachter. In addition, three other, already known, games of the tournament was published in the same newspaper (Lange-Wächter, von Hennig-Eliskases and Richter-Wächter). The annotated games were replaced and added to the game collection at the end of the article. [/Update]

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