Today the blog will take a brief
look back to the chess olympiad
1936 in Munich. This was an olympiad
which was not organized by
FIDE. The Big German Chess
Organization had taken over the
control of the chesslife in Germany.
The Nazi ideology was not
accepted by FIDE, so the
Big German Chess Federation
had left FIDE. Still Germany
hoped to improve its relations
with FIDE and be taken up as
member at a later stage. This
was a very tough Olympiad with
21 teams playing 20 round in
some very hot summer weeks
in Munich in the end of August.
The tournament did not
receive so many spectators
although the Germans
brought in 3000 spectators
With train to the tournament
hall in Theresienhights.
The German team was to be
represented by only aryan
players. USA boycotted the
tournament. England, Russia
and Argentine also
did not participate. The
reason for Englands no
was that the big
Nottingham-tournament took
place at the same time.
Norway took part with
a team which ended up in
place 15. Hungary took
gold, winning all their
matches. Laszlo Szabo
scored 16,5 points
in 19 games for
Hungary and was
the big player in
this tournament.
GM Paul Keres was
the best 1st Board
player scoring
15,5 games in
20 games for his
country Estland.
Polen and the
host Germany took silver
and gold. Norway`s
best performance
was to beat Polen
4,5-3,5.
It must be said that
Polen played with
jewish players who
were forced
to take part in the
tournament.
In the matches
against the Nordic
neighbours Norway suffered
defeats. The Norwegian
champion from 1931,
Andreas Gulbrandsen
from Moss, took part
and I will take a look
at his game against
the Finnish player
Osmo Ilmari Kaila who
became International
Master in 1952.
The position in the game
Gulbrandsen-Kaila
after 21.0-0-0:
Black continued with 21.-Rxe6?
(21.-Ne5 was better although
white is still much better after
22.Bxe5 dxe5 23.exf7 Kxf7
24.c5). Now Gulbrandsen
got a chance to combine.
22.Qxe6! fxe6 23.Bxd6+
Qxd6 24.Rxd6 and white
won after 58 moves.1-0.
Gulbrandsen also played
in the Stockholm Olympiad
in 1937, but there he lost
all his four games. Later
in life he mostly played
club tournaments in
his club Moss and some
tournaments on regional
level in Ostfold. His last
big achievement was when
he beat IM Petter Haugli
in a tie break match for
the klubbmesterskap
in Moss Chessclub in
the late 1970s. Gulbrandsen
died in 1989, at the age
of 83. Gulbrandsen was
an expert in the rook endgame
and wrote a book called the
Rook in chess. This book
can be bought for 125 kr
in Antikvariat Sør
Sources:Kurt Richter,
Schach Olympia
München 1936.
1997.Edition Olms.
Zürich.
Wikipedia:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schach-Olympia_1936
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmo_Kaila
https://www.365chess.com/players/Andreas_Gulbrandsen
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=30227
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1598058
