Najdorf - Life and Games E-Book

Alexander Beliavsky

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 644

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Miguel Najdorf has been described as a flamboyant poet of the chessboard. A celebrated Grandmaster, his playing career spanned six decades. He is perhaps best known for the eponymous Najdorf opening variation of the Sicilian Defence – often used to good effect by Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. A highly influential chess writer he won many International tournaments although never played for the World Championship. Here we have an informed biography complemented by one hundred selected games that demonstrate his originality and brilliance. The games are fully annotated by the well-respected authors.

Leseprobe

Najdorf: Life and Games

Tomasz Lissowski, Adrian Mikhalchishin, with game commentaries by Miguel Najdorf

Translated by John Sugden

Contents

Foreword by Lilana Najdorf

Hero of Poland and Argentina by Thomas Lissowski

Najdorf’s Tournament and Match Record

Selected Games

Najdorf and the Endgame

Find the Winning Moves in Najdorf’s Games

Postscript

Index of Opponents

Index of Openings

Note on Authorship

The section Hero of Poland and Argentina is by Tomasz Lissowski. Annotations to the Selected Games are by Adrian Mikhalchishin unless otherwise acknowledged. Sixty-two games are given with notes by Najdorf himself or his contemporaries. Interpolations in italics are by Adrian Mikhalchishin unless a different source is named.

For permission to reproduce Miguel Najdorf’s writings, the publishers are indebted to his daughter Liliana, the author of his biography Najdorf by Najdorf. Special thanks are due to her for kindly supplying the foreword.

Foreword by Liliana Najdorf

In principle it is not difficult to write about my father; I have already written a book on his life, Najdorf by Najdorf, and I still have a great deal to say about him. Sitting in front of my screen, however, it occurs to me that anything I say will have a certain minus side, since if there is one quality that characterizes my father it is just this: everything about him was on the grand scale. He was indeed larger than life, in good things and bad, simple things and complex. Such a person lives with passion, loves with passion, suffers loss with passion and dies with passion – and such, dear readers, was my papa.

He lived in Buenos Aires but passed away in Malaga, Spain, in 1997. He had travelled to that city against the advice of his doctors, and in so doing he enacted his destiny: it was fated that death should find him playing in a casino and living life to the full in the way he understood it. “I’m not going to stay here just sitting down and hoping to die,” he used to say. “When my time comes, it’ll take five trucks to drag me out of this world, and death will have to come and find me in a place where chess is being played.” And so it was. A tournament was being held in Spain, and he was there. It was while playing in the casino that he began to feel unwell. The doctors said that if they didn’t operate on his heart urgently to replace a valve, he would not live. It was a delicate operation, and we all knew that for an eighty-seven-year-old with deteriorating health, the chances were not good. He decided to have the operation all the same, but not before asking the surgeon to make sure it was a good valve they put in him, as well as asking the assistant to tell my sister and me that even if he didn’t survive he would still be watching over us from wherever he was. I travelled to Malaga with my sister Mirta. By then he was out of the operating theatre, but his condition was very serious. We entered the intensive care unit to find him connected to a dozen machines, unconscious and with a thousand tubes protruding from his body. Rising above all the whirl and the clatter of the machinery, we could hear the sound of his breathing – hoarse, powerful, persistent. “He was sure it would take five trucks to carry him out of this life,” said Mirta when she saw him. A few hours later he was dead.

We made arrangements for the body to be sent to Buenos Aires. Four days later we were advised that the coffin was due to arrive the following day. The wake was to be held on the ground floor of the Argentine Chess Club premises. At the same time, on the first floor, there was to be a simultaneous display with all games opening with the Najdorf Variation. A few months earlier the army had awarded our father a cross for civil merit, and for that reason it was decided to bury him with honours due to a general and to mount a guard over the coffin. Though not in agreement myself, I knew that he would have liked all these honours; and with the soldiers, the flowers, the people who had come to take leave of him, and the television cameras, we prepared to keep watch over the body. Then the airport was closed because of bad weather, the plane couldn’t land, and the funeral was postponed by a day. So on that night we were left with a wake without a body, something García Marquez might well have thought up for one of his stories. I remember what everyone was thinking: that even after his death, “the Old Man” (as he was called) had played one of his old tricks on us. And everyone said that he had died as he lived – doing what he wanted, and doing it passionately.

He possessed the supreme power of a king, the elegance of a queen, the ubiquitousness of a bishop and the strength of a castle; he had a pawn’s tenacity and in his movements he would jump with the agility of a knight. Life for him was a game of chess. “Chess taught me to live because it taught me to lose,” he used to say.

A year later I published Najdorf by Najdorf. Since then, a great many people have approached me with new anecdotes, stories, events involving my father. I can confirm that there were few people with whom he never quarrelled, and yet all without exception spoke of him with praise and generosity.

For me, as perhaps for every daughter, my father was basically a great teacher – a Grand Master – and just as he promised before entering the operating theatre, wherever he is now he is still watching over us.

Liliana NajdorfBuenos AiresMarch 2005

Najdorf:Hero of Poland and Argentinaby Tomasz Lissowski

Preface

Grandmaster Najdorf was a unique personality in the history of the Royal Game. In the course of his long and rich career he had the opportunity to play tournament games, of a very high quality too, against no less than eleven World Champions who held the title during his lifetime: José Raoul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. Najdorf also played against the second official World Champion, Emanuel Lasker – but only in his dreams, as he later recalled with regret.

The attempt to trace our hero’s descent and describe the first thirteen years of his life proved an extremely complex task. There were numerous pitfalls and spurious clues lying in wait for the researcher. Suffice it to say that up until now, no official documents relating to Najdorf or his immediate family have come to light from the period before 1939. Everything, or almost everything, was destroyed in the war. However, at least some important information can be gleaned from our hero’s own reminiscences, even though they contain contradictions – evidently Najdorf’s memory let him down now and again.

Mendel-Moishe, Mieczysław, Miguel: these three forenames serve to characterize three lengthy stages in the life of this chess hero of Poland and Argentina – a grandmaster and realistic pretender to the chess throne, a businessman of stature, a friend of politicians and artists, a splendid husband and father. Though possessing less than a comprehensive picture, we will now endeavour to present his lifestory and follow the development of his chess career.

1: In Warsaw and Łódź

According to encyclopedia entries and biographical publications, the future chess grandmaster was born in Warsaw on 15 April 1910 as a subject of the Russian Tsar. His family lived at first in Sienna Street, later in Targowa Street in the Pradze district – the area of Warsaw on the right bank of the Vistula. It appears that the boy’s father Gedale traded in leather and was dreaming that his son would one day carry on the commercial traditions of the family.

The Warsaw Księga Adresowa (Address Book) for 1930 tells us that Gedale Najdorf, a trader, lived at 63 Nowolipki Street, with the telephone number 228-51; the Warsaw and district telephone directory for 1939-40 contains a similar entry.

The boy became acquainted with the mysteries of chess fairly late, at the age of ten. “I was taught to play chess”, Najdorf recalls, “by the father of my friend Ruben Friedelbaum, and you could say it happened by chance. He was bedridden at the time and very bored, and so when I came to visit him he asked me if I knew how to play chess. When I answered ‘no’, he brought out a chess set and started explaining the moves. That’s how I got infected with the chess bug.”

He soon had no equals either in his own family or even in his circle of close acquaintances. He began looking for rivals away from home, at first in nearby chess coffee-houses, most probably in Nalewki Street. (Nowolipie, Nowolipki and Nalewki streets were in the so-called Northern District of Warsaw and inhabited mainly by Jews. Nalewki Street was known as the ‘most Jewish” road in the capital. In 1940-43 it formed part of the Warsaw Ghetto and suffered total destruction.) Later on, inevitably, he visited the wellknown Leżański café, situated at 83 Marszałkowska Street. He also frequented the ‘Warsaw Association of Lovers of Chess” (Warszawskie Towarzystwo Zwolenników Gry Szachowej) at 8 Wierzbowa Street.

The boy appears to have attended secondary school and completed his studies successfully, but we haven’t managed to find out for sure which school it was. Some Polish authors claim it was the Stanisław Staszic Grammar School, but in the chronicle Szkoła im. St. Staszica 1906-1950 (Warsaw, 1988) the name of Najdorf does not figure among the lists of school leavers.

The inquiring reader may be wondering what we know about Gedale (or Gdalik) Najdorf and other relatives of our hero. We can only quote from the splendid narrative compiled by Isaac B.Singer. In this passage he begins by presenting Gedale’s father Zyskind:

Zyskind Najdorf was a cattle breeder and trader. He divided his time between the country, where he kept his cows, the town where he traded in leather, the synagogue where he assuaged his unenthusiastic religious conscience, and the social gatherings where he would show off his elegant wife Berta, only daughter of the leading furrier in the community.

The couple had one misfortune – their children. Three times Berta was pregnant, three times she gave birth, three times the child died before it was four months old. Nobody knew the reason. Zyskind wept bitter tears.

One day he was away on business. Friday arrived, and a Jewish family invited him to spend the sabbath at their house. Zyskind told them the story of his misfortune. They advised him to consult an old rabbi, famous for his wisdom. Though Zyskind was not a fervently religious man, he and Berta travelled 100 kilometres to see the rabbi in the town of Bialystok. After several days the rabbi was able to receive them. He asked some irrelevant questions, then said, “The more difficult the problem, the simpler the solution.” He then told them he would take a few days to think the matter over.

Seven weeks later he predicted: “Three more children will arrive – three male children. They will all survive. But you must give the first son the name of Gdalik. In the first year of his life he will be dressed only in white. Then he will be educated to be a rabbi.”

They did as he said. Gdalik was born in 1879. He wore white until he was one year old, and always knew what he was destined for. But the kind and generous child grew into a young man with a leaning towards the pleasures of the flesh, gambling, night life and similar frivolities. To avoid either breaking their promise or ruining their son’s life, the parents decided that their next son would be a rabbi; Gdalik would work with his father.

One day his father sent Gdalik to a port town near Warsaw, to buy cattle. He arrived the day before the fair began, entered a tavern and met a group of men playing poker. Unfortunately he began to gamble. The result was that he lost all the money his father had entrusted to him.

“My father will kill me,” he concluded. Of the many choices open to him, he decided to board the first ship to sail from the port. In this way he arrived in Argentina. He spent a few months in Buenos Aires, until his father forgave him and let him return.

One day Gdalik was sent on another errand to a nearby town, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, to collect a debt. There he saw a girl accompanied by an old lady. He followed them to find out where she lived, but he had no chance to talk to her. He couldn’t forget her after several days, so he remembered what the rabbi had said: “The more difficult the problem, the simpler the solution.” He went to her house and asked for a meeting with her father. Mr Sklarek received him. “I am Gdalik Najdorf, son of Zyskind and Berta. I live in Warsaw and work with my father. I ask your permission for a formal meeting with your daughter,” he said, all in one go.

“Which one? I have ten daughters!” the man answered in surprise. Gdalik didn’t know; the father called his ten daughters so that he could identify her. Her name was Raisa. Gdalik was allowed to marry her after paying the dowries of her older sisters. The couple had five children; their first son was Moishe, who was born in Warsaw on 15 April 1910.

Liliana Najdorf (the daughter of our hero) heard this story from her father, who had the following to add:

My parents used to argue about my name from the moment they discovered that Mum was pregnant. She liked the name Moishe, but the old man preferred Mendel. Their quarrel lasted the full nine months; eventually they registered me with both names, something unusual at that time.

Liliana comments, “Anyway, I don’t know why – they always called him Mikel.” In Polish sources, from the mid-1930s onwards, his name begins to be transcribed in the Polish manner – as Mieczysław.

It is difficult to establish the date when Mieczysław Najdorf began participating in tournaments. We may assume that at the end of the 1920s he was playing in Warsaw contests of the 3rd and 2nd category. At that time, unfortunately, the results of lowerranking contests were not reported in the press, so we possess no data on the subject. Subsequently Najdorf went to Łódź and made his appearance at the town chess club (Łódzkie Towarzystwo Zwolenników Gry Szachowej). In November 1928 he took part in the final of the Łódź championship. Among the thirteen contestants, he shared 8th-9th places with M.Frenkel. Some of his earliest extant game scores are from this event. The following game was published by David Przepiórka in the magazine Świat Szachowy (‘The World of Chess’) for 1928:

A.Szpiro – NajdorfŁódź Championship 1928

1 d4 ♘f6 2 c4 e6 3 ♘c3 d5 4 ♗g5 ♘bd7 5 e3 ♗e7 6 ♘f3 0-0 7 ♗d3 a6 8 a4 c6 9 0-0 dxc4 10 ♗xc4 ♘d5 11 ♗xe7 ♕xe7 12 e4?! ♘f4 13 ♕b3 e5 14 d5 ♕f6

15 ♖ad1 15...♘xg2! 16 ♔xg2 (16 ♘e2!?) 16...♘c5! 17 ♕c2 ♗h3+ (mate is inevitable) 18 ♔xh3 ♕xf3+ 19 ♔h4 g5+ 20 ♔xg5 ♔h8 21 ♖g1 ♖g8+ 22 ♔h4 ♕f4+ 0-1

An attractive miniature! It remains to be added that Łódź at that time was the second strongest Polish chess centre after Warsaw. The tournament was won by Regedziński with 9½ out of 11, followed by Appel (9) and Rozenbaum (8). Teodor Regedziński represented Poland in five Olympiads; Izaak Appel was a member of the national team in 1933 and 1937. Other well-known players who took part in the Łódź tournament included August Mund, Leon Kremer and Achilles Frydman. It was against Regedziński, an exceptionally tough opponent to beat, that Najdorf won a game which appeared in Świat Szachowy, annotated by M.Łowcki.

It remains an open question how long Najdorf’s stay in Łódź lasted, and whether he played in any other club tournaments. We would only be able to find out about this from the publication of game scores in the local press; interestingly enough, the Łódź period doesn’t figure at all in Najdorf’s own reminiscences. However, the following miniature in Romantic style was repeatedly published and annotated in the years that followed, by our hero and others. The same goes for Najdorf-Gliksberg (No. 2 in the Selected Games section).

Daniuszewski – NajdorfŁódź 1929

1 ♘f3 ♘f6 2 d4 b6 3 g3 ♗b7 4 ♗g2 g6 5 0-0 ♗g7 6 c3 0-0 7 ♘bd2 d5 8 ♘e5 ♘bd7 9 f4 c5 10 e3 ♘e4 11 ♘xd7 ♘xd2 12 ♘xf8 ♘xf1 13 ♕xf1 ♗xf8 14 dxc5 bxc5 15 ♕b5 ♕b6 16 ♕d3 ♖d8 17 ♕c2 e5 18 e4 c4 19 ♔h1 dxe4 20 fxe5 e3 21 ♕e2 ♗c5 22 b4

22...♕c6!! 23 ♗a3 (or 23 ♗xc6 ♗xc6+ 24 ♔g1 ♖d1+ 25 ♕xd1 e2+) 23...♖d2 24 ♗xc6 ♗xc6+ 25 ♔g1 ♖xe2 26 bxc5 ♖g2+ 27 ♔f1 e2+ 28 ♔e1 ♖g1+ 0-1

The player who had White here had taken part in an amateur tournament in St Petersburg in 1909 (where he won a game against the young Alekhine). We emphasize this because in some publications, including Polish ones, the date of the above game and the loser’s name are given incorrectly. Daniuszewski was a press correspondent for Łódź Chess Club. Later he was to be an inmate of the Łódź ghetto.

An overall appraisal of Mieczysław Najdorf’s performance in Łódź tournaments – including the fantastic win against Gliksberg, in which White sacrifices four pieces – was given by the editor Jan Kleczynski in the pages of the Kurier Warszawski. His conclusion is: “The games of Najdorf, the young 19-year-old chessplayer from Łódź who has now moved to Warsaw, testify to his outstanding talent which combines vision with positional understanding.” This was the first piece to be devoted to Najdorf in the Polish daily press.

In 1929, he won two tournaments for players of the second category, organized by the ‘Warsaw Association’.

Najdorf – MargolinWarsaw 1929

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 ♘c3 ♘f6 4 ♗g5 ♗e7 5 ♗xf6 ♗xf6 6 ♘f3 0-0 7 ♗d3 c5 8 e5 ♗e7 9 h4 f6

10 ♘g5!? fxg5 11 ♕h5 h6 12 ♕g6 ♖f5 13 g4 cxd4 14 gxf5 exf5 15 hxg5 ♗xg5 16 ♘e2 ♘c6 17 f4 ♗h4+ 18 ♔d2 ♘xe5 19 fxe5 ♗g5+ 20 ♔e1 ♕e7 21 ♕d6 ♕f7 22 ♘xd4 ♗e7 23 e6 ♕f6 24 ♕xd5 ♕g5 25 ♘xf5 1-0

Najdorf’s success meant that in 1930 he could already participate in the Warsaw Championship. Prior to that event, he played in one more secondcategory club tournament. The Katowice newspaper Polska Zachodnia (‘Western Poland’), with its chess column conducted by Eustachy Wolański and Tadeusz Rybiński, reported on 7 February 1930:

Warsaw. The result of the ‘A’ tournament for the strongest players of the 2nd category was as follows:

(1) Jagielski, 8 pts from 9 games;

(2) Mùnek (17 years old) 7;

(3) Klepfisz 6½;

(4) Najdorf 5;

(5) Czerniak 4½;

(6) Dobrański 4;

(7-8) Meùamed and Zahorski 3;

(9) Chojnacki 2½;

(10) Glücksberg 11/2.

It may have been in this very tournament that the ‘Polish Immortal’ game was played (years later it was given the erroneous date of 1935). See No. 3 of the Selected Games.

In the 1930 Warsaw Championship, our hero finished 6th-7th. Considering that he was new to such strong company, this result should on the whole be rated positively. He was outdone only by the battleseasoned Paulin Frydman, Kazimierz Makarczyk, Leon Kremer, Mojżesz Łowcki and Samuel Glocer.

This performance raised Najdorf to the First Category. Afterwards he played a short match against Paulin Frydman, the top national master. This earnest duel ended with the score of 2½:2½. It was no doubt this result that secured Najdorf a permanent place among the country’s chess elite, seeing that his opponent was a trusty member of the national Olympiad team which had recently taken the gold medals at Hamburg.

The year 1931 saw the first true flowering of Najdorf’s exceptional talent. There were no longer any annoyances such as a report in the newspaper Dzień Polski (‘Polish Day’), where we read: “Najdorf may become the hope of Polish chess. However, he needs to mature a little and learn to evaluate positions more objectively.”

Najdorf – P.FrydmanWarsaw 1931

1 ♘f3 ♘f6 2 d4 e6 3 e3 d5 4 ♗d3 c5 5 c3 ♘bd7 6 ♘bd2 ♗d6 7 0-0 0-0 8 e4 cxd4 9 cxd4 dxe4 10 ♘xe4 ♘xe4 11 ♗xe4 ♘f6 12 ♗c2 b6 13 ♗g5 ♗b7 14 ♕d3 g6 15 ♖fe1 ♗e7 16 ♗h6 ♖e8

17 ♗a4 ♘d7 18 ♕b5 ♘f6 19 ♕e2 ♘d7 20 ♕b5 ♘f6 21 ♕b3 ♗d5 22 ♕d3 ♘d7 23 ♘e5 ♘xe5 24 dxe5 ♗b4 25 ♖ed1 ♕h4 26 ♗xe8 ♕xh6 27 ♗a4 ♗c5 28 ♗b3 ♗c6 29 a3 a5 30 ♗c4 ♕g7 31 ♕g3 a4 32 ♖d2 ♕f8 33 ♖ad1 b5 34 ♗a2 b4 35 axb4 ♗xb4 36 ♖c2 ♗e4 37 ♖c7 a3 38 bxa3 ♖xa3 39 ♕h4 ♖xa2 40 ♕xe4 ♗c5 41 ♕c4 1-0

In February and March of that year, Akiba Rubinstein toured Poland. As a consequence of his health problems, the famous grandmaster was in difficult material circumstances. A number of organizers headed by the Polish Chess Federation (Polski Związek Szachowy) therefore arranged a series of simultaneous displays in the country’s major centres (Warsaw, Łódź, Katowice, Królewska Huta, Wielkie Hajduki, Sosnowiec, Kraków, Tarnopol, Lwów, Częstochowa, Lublin, Warsaw again, and Poznań), with the aim of popularizing the Royal Game at the same time as bringing financial support to Poland’s greatest-ever chessplayer.

On the premises of the ‘Warsaw Association’ the grandmaster did battle with a trio of opponents in consultation. One of them was Samuel Elper, proprietor of the Dom Handlowy (‘House of Commerce’) at 24A Żurawia Street and for many years a well-known sponsor of the Warsaw Championships.

Rubinstein – Najdorf, Elper and I.Towbin(notes by Towbin)

1 d4 ♘f6 2 ♘f3 e6 3 ♘bd2 d5 4 e3 c5 5 a3

A move adopted by Rubinstein in tournaments, with varying success.

5...cxd4 6 exd4 ♘bd7 7 ♗d3 ♗d6 8 0-0 0-0 9 ♖e1

Beginning a fight for the square e5.

9...♕c7 10 ♕e2 b6 11 ♘e5 ♗b7 12 f4 ♖ac8 13 c3 ♖fd8

A useless move.

14 ♘df3 ♖f8

White was threatening 15 ♘xf7 ♔xf7 16 ♘g5+.

15 ♘g5

If 15 ♘xf7, then 15...♖xf7 or 15...♗xf4!.

15...♖ce8

Again preventing the knight sacrifice on f7.

16 ♕c2

16...♘e4!

After 16...h6 17 ♘gxf7 ♖xf7 18 ♘xf7 ♔xf7 19 ♗g6+ White would have a winning position, while 16...g6 17 h4 would also give him a very strong attack. Black therefore decides on a pawn sacrifice to reduce White’s pressure on the e-file.

17 ♘xd7 ♕xd7 18 ♘xe4 dxe4 19 ♗xe4 ♗xe4 20 ♖xe4 f6! 21 a4 e5 22 fxe5 fxe5 23 ♗e3 ♕f5 24 d5 ♖f6 25 h3 ♖ef8 26 a5 ♖g6 27 axb6 axb6 28 ♔h2 ♗e7 29 c4 ♗h4 30 b4 ♗g3+ 31 ♔h1

If 31 ♔g1, then 31...♗f4 32 ♗xf4 exf4 33 ♖e2 (the problem-like 33 ♖a8, with a view to 33...♖xa8? 34 ♖e8+, fails against 33...♖xg2+ 34 ♔xg2 ♕g6+) 33...♕f6 34 ♖f1 ♕d4+ 35 ♖ef2 f3 with the better game for Black.

31...♖h6! 32 c5

White underestimates his opponents’ attack. With 32 ♖c1 he could have defended satisfactorily, with good prospects of ultimate success.

32...♖ff6!

33 cxb6?

The decisive mistake. He should have taken perpetual check with 33 ♖a8+.

33...♖xh3+! 34 gxh3 ♕xh3+ 35 ♔g1 ♗f2+ 0-1

In his reminiscences Najdorf repeatedly refers to exhibitions by Alekhine, and claims to have won a game with Black by means of an attractive rook sacrifice on the h-file, against the World Champion playing blindfold. No one has ever managed to verify such an episode, and we may surmise that Najdorf was confusing an Alekhine exhibition with the above consultation game.

In the 1931 Warsaw Championship, Najdorf came second, ahead of Makarczyk, Łowcki and Kremer among others. First place, as was traditional, went to Paulin Frydman. “Second prize was unexpectedly won by the young and talented Najdorf, who had some intelligent and attractive chess to show,” was the comment in Świat Szachowy. The Polish Chess Federation recognized Najdorf’s remarkable success by awarding him the master title.

The continued development of Najdorf’s career was due not only to his own native abilities and diligence, but also to the interest taken by the management of the Federation, particularly by its Vice-President Dawid Przepiórka. To participate in the 1931 Olympiad in Prague, Najdorf was still too young and too little known, and, most importantly, he still lacked adequate solidity as a player. On this occasion he was not even short-listed. It was only natural that Colonel Marian Steifer, the Federation’s sporting director, should select the gold-winning team from Hamburg to send to the city on the Vltava.

L.Kremer – NajdorfWarsaw 1931(notes by Najdorf)

22...♘d4!

Not 22...♘e5 23 ♘d2 ♘g4 24 ♘f3, when White has an adequate defence.

23 ♖e3

Now White dare not play 23 ♘d2 on account of 23...♘c2 24 ♖xd8+ ♖xd8 25 ♕e7 ♖f8 26 ♖c1 ♕e2 27 ♕d6 ♘e1!, threatening ♕e2xd2 followed by ♘e1-f3+.

23...♖xd6?

Black should have played 23...f5 24 ♘c3 f4 25 ♖d3 (or 25 ♖e4 ♘f3 26 ♔g2 ♘g5 27 ♖xf4 e5 28 ♖h4 ♕f3+ 29 ♔g1 ♖f8 30 ♖d2 ♕b7 and White must lose the exchange) 25...♘f3+ 26 ♔f1 ♖xd6 27 ♕xd6 ♕h3+ 28 ♔e2 ♘xh2, winning easily.

If instead 23...♘c2?, White has 24 ♖ed3! (but not 24 ♖xd8+? ♖xd8 25 ♖d3 ♕d1+ 26 ♖xd1 ♖xd1+ 27 ♔g2 ♘xa3, and Black emerges the exchange up).

24 ♕xd6 e5 25 ♕d7?

After 25 ♘c3! White is winning; Black had overlooked this in time trouble.

25...♖f8 26 ♔g2 ♘c2! 27 ♖b3 ♕e2 28 ♘g5?

The losing move. On 28 ♕d5, Black would have had to settle for perpetual check by 28...♘e1+ 29 ♔g1 ♘f3+ etc.

28...a4 29 ♖c3 h6 30 ♘f3

Or 30 ♘h3 ♘e1+ 31 ♔g1 ♘f3+32 ♔g2 ♘d2, and Black wins.

30...e4 31 ♘d4 ♘e1 32 ♔g1 ♕d1 33 ♕d5 ♘f3+ 34 ♔g2 ♕xd4

There was a much quicker win with 34...♕g1+ 35 ♔h3 ♕f1+ 36 ♔g4 ♘xh2+ 37 ♔f4 ♕xf2+ 38 ♔xe4 ♖e8+.

35 ♕xd4 ♘xd4, and after a few more moves White resigned.

0-1

In the 1932 Warsaw Championship, Najdorf finished way down in 9th-10th place. This result prompted the following reaction in Świat Szachowy:

Kiper, Klepfisz, Najdorf and Rajner finished outside the prize list. Najdorf’s placing is the most distressing of all; the young and talented player proved to be off form and played with less confidence than he has shown for ages. This setback should be regarded as temporary.

This failure barred him from inclusion in the national team for the forthcoming Olympiad in England. Nonetheless, in his game against the veteran Łowcki who shared 2nd and 3rd places with Glocer, Najdorf displayed his best qualities: deep calculation of a combination and lightning speed in proceeding to the knockout assault:

Najdorf – M.ŁowckiWarsaw 1932

1 ♕xa7! ♕c7 (not 1...♕xg5 2 ♖b1! ♕e7 3 ♕a8+ and mate next move) 2 ♖b1 ♗f7 3 ♖g3 ♖d8 4 ♖e3 ♖d2 5 ♖ee1 ♕b8 6 ♕b6 ♕c7 7 ♖ed1 ♕xb6 8 cxb6 ♖xd1+ 9 ♖xd1 e5 10 c5 ♗xa2 11 ♖a1 ♗c4 12 ♖a8+ ♔d7 13 ♖h8 ♔e6 14 ♖xh7 ♗a6 15 ♖g7 ♔f6 16 ♖g8 ♔f7 17 ♖a8 1-0

In April 1933, the Warsaw Chess Club (Warszawski Klub Szachistów) was founded. Eighty players and supporters joined the new organization, including the leading masters Paulin Frydman, Kasimierz Makarczyk, Dr Emil Gross, Leon Tuhan-Baranowski, Jan Kleczyński, Izaak Towbin, Jerzy Jagielski and Mieczysław Najdorf. Others, headed by Dawid Przepiórka, continued to meet at the premises of the ‘Warsaw Association of Lovers of Chess’. In 1933-4 Najdorf took part in several Chess Club contests including the strong ‘Tournament of Four’, held to celebrate the Club’s opening, which he won with 4½ out of 6, ahead of Paulin Frydman (3), Kremer (2½) and Makarczyk (2). Tuhan-Baranowski’s commentary, published at the end of the event in the Gazeta Polska, was highly eloquent: “First prize in the tournament was won by the 23-year-old Najdorf, who, although fortune did smile on him a little, showed himself to be a match for the Olympic players Frydman and Makarczyk and the former Warsaw Champion Kremer.”

We may suppose that the reporter was hinting at the possibility of considering Najdorf for the pre-Olympiad International Team Tournament at Folkestone. On this occasion the proposal was not taken up by the Polish Chess Federation management.

In January 1934 Najdorf played in an international tournament to which the Warsaw Chess Club committee invited the leading players of the capital – Kremer, Makarczyk, Paulin Frydman, Glocer – and also, to draw the spectators, the famous Viennese grandmaster Rudolf Spielmann. Najdorf finished second without loss, behind Spielmann, the favourite. Their individual encounter ended in a draw.

Further successes were not long in coming. In April 1934 the Warsaw team of Przepiórka, Najdorf, Kremer, Jerzy Jagielski, Zbigniew Miller, Jakub Sternfeld and Tuhan-Baranowski won the second Polish Team Championship. Playing on second board, Najdorf scored 6 points from 7 games. He beat Scheier (Kraków), S.Tirsztejn (Vilna), K. Woźniak (Pomorze), Adam Mięsowicz (Poznań) and Regedziński (Łódź), and drew with Emil Sojka (Śląsk) and Henryk Friedman (Lwów). Against expectations, Najdorf’s interesting clash with Regedziński proved the most spectacular of the whole tournament.

Najdorf – RegedzińskiKatowice 1934

32 ♕f7+!!

“The splendid denouement to a brilliantly played game by Najdorf, the great hope of the Polish team for the coming Olympiad” (M.Gayuszka in the Kraków Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny).

32...♔h8

If 32...♔xf7 then 33 ♗d5 mate.

33 ♘e5 ♗xf3+ 34 ♖xf3 1-0

The year 1934 saw an unbroken string of successes for Najdorf. In Warsaw in July he played a match (or more exactly two matches, one after the other) against the strong Swedish master Ored Karlin, and won overall with the score of +4=2 -2. The crowning result of the season was the Warsaw Championship in which Najdorf triumphed with the stunning total of 10½ out of 12. Among others, he outperformed Henryk Młynka (9 points) as well as Kazimierz Makarczyk, Mojzesz Klepfisz and Sternfeld (all 8½). The Lwów master Henryk Friedman wrote in Szachista (‘The Chessplayer’): “First prize and the title of Warsaw Champion went for the first time to Najdorf, whose talent places him on a par with the strongest players in the country. I need only recall that Najdorf has achieved the best overall result for four successive appearances.”

These results automatically earned him a place in the Polish Championship, the third to be held since the Great War and the first of Najdorf’s own career. The prospect of playing in the Chess Olympiad in Warsaw was opened up. The one thing that made for uncertainty was his impending military service.

In February 1935, just before entering the army, the conscript Mieczysław Najdorf had time to play a blitz match against Salo Flohr, who was spending a short time in Warsaw on his way to Moscow. At 26:24, the contest ended in a narrow win for the famous visitor. At all events this convinced any sceptics that Najdorf was a past master – one of the world’s best – at lightning chess.

In the spring of 1935, Najdorf began his military service in the 65th infantry regiment, stationed at Grudziądz and later transferred to Toruń. After a certain time he naturally made an appearance on the local chess scene. He represented Toruń in the team championship of North West Poland, which was held in Poznań and Inowrocław. Playing on top board, he won all his games against Leon Widermański, Anton Wojciechowski and Professor Mallow. Toruń also emerged as the top team.

In the second half of May 1935, Xawier (Savielly) Tartakower came to Warsaw. In the national squad he was captain and coach all in one. His presence and the benefit of his experience were meant to ensure the best possible line-up for the approaching Olympiad. In the 3rd Polish Championship, held in Warsaw, Najdorf played confidently and strongly to share 2nd-4th prizes with Paulin Frydman and Henryk Friedman, thus securing himself a place in the national team. After the end of the contest he finished as outright winner in a lightning tournament which included Tartakower, Frydman and Friedman among others.

Once the Championship was over, however, Julian Mafdes, writing in the Lwów newspaper Chwili (‘The Waves’), drew attention to Najdorf’s weak points, namely his “frail physical condition and lack of psychological resilience”. He nonetheless concluded that “A talent has emerged such as we have not seen for ages.” In the Kurier Porannym (‘Morning Courier’), Leon Tuhan-Baranowski wrote in similar vein: “Najdorf is the sole master among the new generation. If he could just put on 12 kilos in weight, he would add physical stamina to his other qualities.” In the Lwów journal Szachista, the same author wrote: “The least mature player – Najdorf – possesses outstanding talent. His style is activity, combination, attack. He sees a great amount a long way ahead, but also frequently relies on his subtle intuition. At the same time he suffers too much from nerves.”

Colonel Marian Steifer did not withhold his praise either. Writing in Polska Zbrojnja (‘Polish Armed Forces Journal’), he stressed that “Najdorf did have some luck. Wojciechowski and Zawadzki lost to him from won positions. The title of Championship Runner-up and the formal right to play in the Olympic team hung by a thread. That said, Najdorf is a player of rare talent and fighting spirit.”

I.Appel – NajdorfWarsaw 1935

27...e4 28 dxe4 d3 29 ♕xd3?? (29 ♕d2!) 29...♕xf2+! 0-1

It’s hard to make out whether Najdorf owed this success to his ‘luck’ or to his combinative ability and exploitation of his opponents’ weak points in Lasker style.

Finally, a high opinion of the young player was expressed by the leader of Polish chess, Dr Xawier Tartakower, in the pages of the Kurier Warszawski. Among other things, however, he observed: “Najdorf, the bright new Warsaw star, shone at the start, but later his strength flagged, and towards the end he settled for half points in games which could have been played on.”

After the tournament, at the Federation’s invitation, Tartakower also visited several Polish towns to conduct further training sessions with candidates for the Olympic team. Following on from Lwów, where the visitor sparred with Henryk Friedman and Franciszek Sulik, and Łódź (where the hosts fielded Regedziński, Appel and Jakub Kolski to duel with him), he proceeded to Toruń for a training match with Najdorf. Their encounter, which took place in the ‘Italia’ chess café and attracted the interest of the whole town, had an utterly sensational result. The young local player in Polish Army uniform unexpectedly defeated the distinguished grandmaster from Paris and elite contender in several top-level events, by a score of +2=2 -1.

Commenting on this spectacle, the reporter of the Kurier Poranny (‘Morning Post’) did not conceal his astonishment: “It is difficult to believe that this frail youth can be Najdorf, the player who won a match against Grandmaster Tartakower in fine style and represents the hope of Polish chess.”

After the end of the Polish Championship, on Tartakower’s proposal, the Federation organizers applied to the Armed Forces Ministry to grant Private Najdorf some relief from duties in order to prepare for the next Championship and the Chess Olympiad. The request fell on willing ears, for under the rule of Jόsef Piłsudski and Kazimierz Sosnkowski the Royal Game enjoyed an exceptional degree of popularity in the army. Piłsudski (1867-1935), politician and Polish Commander-in-Chief, was the de facto ruler of the country in the years 1926-35. Sosnkowski (1885-1969), also a politician and general, was among Piłsudski’s closest colleagues. These two men had both been interned at Magdeburg by the Germans in 1917, and had spent their free time in interminable chess marathons.

Najdorf could count on the support of his superiors, including the district corps commander. He received permission to take part not only in the national championship but also in the training session which was to be held in the well-known Polish spa Ciechocinek, under the direction, of course, of Tartakower.

The impression is that in that very summer of 1935, the bond of friendship which left its mark on the following decades was formed between the ‘old tournament lion’ – Tartakower – and the Royal Game’s young representative, Najdorf. Half a century later, the grey-haired Najdorf never failed to emphasize that Dr Xawier Tartakower, a gentleman at the chessboard, had been his master and teacher.

The Chess Olympiad in Warsaw confirmed Najdorf’s uncommon abilities. In arranging his team’s boardorder for this, the sixth Tournament of Nations, Tartakower placed Najdorf above the veteran Makarczyk and Henryk Friedman who was another newcomer. On this subject, Dr Stanisław Kohn wrote in Nasz Przegląd (‘Our View’):

And then on third board there is the country’s youngest talent, Najdorf. Nature has not overendowed him with good looks, but chessplayers are predicting immense success for him. He is a character apart, unbalanced, amusing...All at once he will stand up from the chessboard and yawn. He is extremely emotional. It is hard to imagine that this game with wooden pieces, accessible even to grey-haired old men, can bring him contentment. Najdorf cannot sit still. During his opponent’s thinking time he will stroll around between the tables and peer at the other games, then he will have to wander across the hall looking for his own table when it is his turn to move. He cannot be blamed for this. The World Champion Alekhine behaves in the same way. Young Najdorf knows whose example to follow.

Najdorf didn’t let the team down. He scored 12 points from 17 games and helped the Polish players on this occasion to win the bronze medals. There were some escapades in the process, however.

Najdorf’s temperament and impatience were already well known in Poland, and some minor incidents had occurred during his games. At the Olympiad the young player’s nerves got the better of him in the very first round, leading to a heated dispute. Against Isaias Pleci who represented Argentina, Najdorf overstepped the time limit in rather unusual circumstances. In a roughly equal position (unfortunately we do not possess the game score), he made his 36th move – which was the time control – but failed to press his clock before adjourning the game. He stood up from the table and took a brief stroll round the hall. The Argentine player calmly waited for Najdorf’s time to run out, then claimed a win. After due consultation, the arbiters’ committee awarded him the point. Najdorf protested. Then, rejecting the organizers’ decision, he argued about the matter with members of the teams. At first he facetiously claimed, “My clock was fast!” Then he maintained that “the clock was faulty right from the start.” It was all in vain. Finally he turned for help to the Englishman Sir George Thomas, on meeting him by chance in the corridor. Here is how their conversation was reported in the Polish press:

As a ‘last resort’, Najdorf said to Thomas: “Tell me, sir, what do they do in England in a case like this?” “In England,” Thomas replied with a frown, “if you overstep the time limit, you lose the game without more ado. It wouldn’t occur to anyone to argue about it.”

“Oh I see!” Najdorf exclaimed. “Quite right, too. We’ll do the same as in England. Of course I lose. At the end of the day, I never really wanted to object!”

Following the Olympiad Najdorf was firmly established as one of Europe’s strongest chessplayers. In 1936, in recognition of his contribution to the Olympic team’s success, the Polish Chess Federation sent him to a tournament in Budapest. In the international Open Championship of Hungary, the Polish representative shared 1st and 2nd places with Lajos Steiner. This may be regarded as Najdorf’s first step towards the International Master title.

In consequence of his successes in Poland and abroad, commentators in the chess press were already asserting that Najdorf had reached International Master standard and perhaps surpassed it. This was a particular theme pursued by Leon Tuhan-Baranowski and Colonel Marian Steifer in their chess columns in Gazeta Polska and Polska Zbrojnja. They pointed out Najdorf’s specific merits, calling him a “mature and brilliant tactician”.

Here is the brief character sketch of Najdorf which Steifer, the Polish Chess Federation sporting director, offered to his readers:

Mieczysław Najdorf belongs to what may be called the young generation. As recently as 1932 he shared 9th-10th places in the Warsaw Championship with Klepfisz. The years since 1933 have seen the flowering of Najdorf’s impressive talent. This player has been going from success to success...If Paulin Frydman is an excellent strategist, Najdorf is a superb tactician.

He plays with powerful aggression, economy and energy. Among the local masters he was quick to demonstrate his uncommon abilities when competing for the title of lightning champion. During one of Salo Flohr’s visits to the capital, Najdorf played a match of several dozen blitz games against him, and lost by a margin of only two points. He is counted as one of the greatest masters of lightning chess.

A critical event for the Polish players was the unofficial Olympiad in Munich, played over 8 boards. The Federation directors put Najdorf on board two, below Paulin Frydman. The generally acknowledged leader of Polish chess, Dr Xawier Tartakower, was at that time taking part in the famous Nottingham tournament, where the world’s strongest players, headed by Alexander Alekhine, José Raoul Capablanca and Mikhail Botvinnik, were competing. In the Bavarian capital Najdorf showed his notorious ‘lion’s claws’. In 20 encounters he scored 16 points (+14=4 -2). Only two participants – L.Szabo (Hungary, board 1) and B.Kostić (Yugoslavia, board 6) – could boast of better individual results. The team finished among the medallists once again, this time winning silver.

Participation in the Munich tournament had special implications, seeing that by 1936 the Jews in Germany had been subjected to restrictions on all their civil rights with minor exceptions. The ‘racially pure’ Greater German Chess Federation was already in being, and Jewish players were deprived of the opportunity to perfect their skills. The Soviet Shakhmatny listok commented:

To ensure the backing of other European countries for the contest in Munich, Fascist Germany was compelled to make significant concessions. In the first place it was announced that non-Aryan foreign visitors would be just as welcome as Aryans. Secondly, the travelling expenses of most teams would be paid. This last point may have been of crucial importance; some countries (Brazil, Bulgaria and Iceland) that had never before taken part in such events sent teams to this Olympiad.

Here is how Najdorf himself recalled his participation in the event:

By that time Germany was under Hitler’s rule, and Jews were fleeing to other countries. Together with other sportsmen, I refused to participate under these circumstances. I was doing military service at the time, although I was 26 years old. The President of the Polish Chess Federation was Bronislaw Pilsudski, Marshal Jósef Pilsudski’s brother. He called me and asked me, “Are you a Pole or a Jew?”

I replied, “A Pole of the Jewish religion.”

“We want you to play in the German Olympiad as a Pole, not as a Jew. Every man must defend his country with the weapon that he knows best. It’s important for Poland to take first or second place in order to keep our prestige in the international field.”

I felt bound to accept. My wife and friends got angry – they considered me a traitor. They didn’t understand that I was forced to accept. I was rehabilitated in their eyes when Poland came second and I took a gold medal. On that occasion the Germans had to play the Polish anthem, and one of their officials called out: “Moishe Mendel Najdorf, gold medal, first prize.” It was presented to me by Hans Frank; three years later he would be Governor of Poland and responsible for the extermination of all my family.

For Mendel-Mieczysław Najdorf, going to Germany meant surmounting more than just outward opposition. Many Polish chessplayers of Jewish descent demanded a boycott of this Olympiad. Achilles Frydman, Stanisław Kohn, Izaak Appel and Jakub Kolski published a declaration that “in view of the suppression of civilized standards in Germany, which contradicts the elementary requirements of humanity”, they were refusing to play in the Bavarian capital. The editors of Nasz Przegląd, normally well disposed towards chess, this time announced that they would not publish any material on the Munich tournament. As was evidently expected, the Polish team that made its appearance was a seriously weakened contingent.

On the other hand Najdorf was not the only Polish Jew who consented to play in National Socialist Germany. He was joined by Paulin Frydman, Leon Kremer, Henryk Friedman and Henryk Pogoriely. It is hard to blame them for this, given that in 1936 no sensible person could foresee that the Second World War would break out within a mere three years, let alone that there would be a Holocaust.

Surveying the results of the Olympiad, the Polish press had some enthusiastic things to say about the play of the young Warsaw master. In the pages of Gazeta Polska, Leon Tuhan-Baranowski asserted: “Najdorf showed a truly high class of practical play. All his games are full of immense ambition and the will to win. He is a peerless tactician, and demonstrated this to his opponents by winning about 90% of his games.”

After the Olympiad, in September 1936, Mieczysław Najdorf finished his military service. Accordingly the Toruń authorities organized a farewell simultaneous display by the famous master. The event ended with the score of +30=1 -2. Najdorf lost to Wacław Grzanowski and drew with Bolesław Róziański and Wiera Obermüllerowa.

A little later, on 15 November 1936, following his wedding, the master with his army life behind him set off for a well-earned holiday in Zakopane and Kraków. During his honeymoon he gave two simultaneous displays, in the Polish mountain capital and in Kraków at the Jósef Dominik Chess Club. Najdorf’s wife Ewgenia (née Laskowska) was to prove a faithful companion to one of the greatest players in the history of Polish chess.

At the end of 1936 Najdorf went to Łódź for a tournament organized by the city chess club. Paulin Frydman from Warsaw was also invited to participate. Our hero played rather poorly, scoring 3½ points out of 7. The event was won by Frydman, Appel and Edward Gerstenfeld with 5 points each. A few months later, in May 1937, Najdorf took his revenge for his defeats. In the Warsaw Chess Club tournament which was also the Championship of the capital, there was no one to equal him. He scored 10½ points from 14 games, finishing a full point ahead of his formidable competitor, Frydman. In the Warsaw Team Championship, Najdorf was again unrivalled.

His last successful performance of 1937 was in the 4th Polish Championship in Jurata. For the first and last time in its history, the event had an international format. Xawier Tartakower triumphed with 17 points from 21 games, ahead of Gideon Stahlberg (Sweden) with 16 and Najdorf with 15. In Colonel Marian Steifer’s view, Najdorf might even have won the tournament. What prevented him was a distressing episode in his game with Achilles Frydman. The Łódź player suffered a nervous breakdown at the board. He was taken to a psychiatric clinic after the tournament, and was never again to return to chess. This incident destroyed the equanimity of the sensitive Najdorf, and Steifer maintained that it cost him two points in the shape of losses in won positions against Gerstenfeld and Schächter.

After the Jurata tournament, Tartakower paid some enthusiastic compliments to his strongest Polish rival and Warsaw’s leading player:

Najdorf continues to display great talent. He has fully lived up to his reputation and his position as Polish Championship runner-up. This is not only evident from the tournament tables – it stands out in his games. No one succeeded as well as Najdorf in keeping the struggle in a constant state of dynamics; now that he has widened his opening repertoire, his play has gained in depth and assurance. Najdorf’s irrepressible temperament brought him some brilliant wins; on the other hand, over-confidence was the cause of some regrettable defeats. All that can be said is that no one beat him; to a large extent he was impaling himself on his own sword.

The summer of 1937 was an exceptionally rich period in Najdorf’s chess career. He took part in the International Championship of Yugoslavia and the Chess Olympiad in Stockholm. The first of these contests, staged in the health centre Rogaska Slatina, ended in an outstanding success for the Polish representative. Najdorf scored 9½ points from 14 games, without suffering a single loss.

Afterwards at the Tournament of Nations in Stockholm, he won bronze with the Polish team (its other members were Tartakower, Paulin Frydman, Appel and Regedziński). This time Najdorf’s individual performance was somewhat below par – 8½ out of 15. On the other hand he distinguished himself in the lightning tournament that was held straight after the end of the Olympiad. The winner, to be sure, was Samuel Reshevsky, the former child prodigy from Łódź, but Najdorf shared second to fourth places with Vasja Pirc and Fricis Apsenieks.

In September 1937, the Warsaw Chess Club organized its ‘Tournament of Four’. The other participants were Lajos Steiner, Gideon Stahlberg and Antoni Wojciechowski. The contest had an unconventional outcome: the players all scored 1½ points from 3 games.

In 1938 Najdorf took part in the second International Tournament of the Łódź Chess Association, organized to mark the 35th annniversary of its foundation. The event did not, however, bring him the expected success, and he was reduced to sharing 10th-12th places. He played with astonishing lack of confidence and lost from ‘won’ positions against Tartakower and Appel. There was consolation in his deserved victory over Stahlberg.

Afterwards he went to England for the International Tournament at Margate. This time he also took part in a subsidiary event. The tournament was won by Klein; Najdorf finished second. A subsequent comment in the specialist press read: “Najdorf played very sharply, drawing only one game. He unexpectedly lost to two weaker players, List and Thomas, which prevented him from taking first prize.”

In the New Year period 1938-9, he won the ‘Warsaw Association’ tournament. His excellent win against Przepiórka, which decided first place, fixed itself in the memory of lovers of the Royal Game.

Next, Najdorf dominated the Warsaw Chess Club championship, achieving a near-perfect score. With 10½ out of 11, he finished 3½ points ahead of his nearest rivals. All these results confirmed his long-awaited status as the best player in the capital for 1938-9. In the same period he also participated in the Warsaw Team Championship. Considering the team that it fielded, the Warsaw Chess Club, which Najdorf represented, emerged as one of the best clubs in the contest.

In the spring of 1939 Najdorf took part in the strong international congress at Margate. In the chief tournament of the festival, which had an exceptionally strong entry, he finished sixth after drawing with José Raoul Capablanca among others. The event was won by Paul Keres, ahead of Capablanca and Salo Flohr.

On the basis of his results in 1938-9, Najdorf was invited to play for the national team in the Chess Olympiad at Buenos Aires. The other players invited by the Polish Chess Federation were Tartakower, Paulin Frydman, Regedziński and Franciszek Xawier Sulik. Taking the composition of the other teams into account, the Poles were among the chief contenders for the medals. Before their departure, Henryk Friedman wrote about their chances in the pages of Szachista and assessed Najdorf’s usefulness to the team:

Anyone attentively following the chess career of this player knows that Najdorf is currently our country’s best. An excellent tactician endowed with a very strong combinative flair, he possesses a feel for the position such as is given to only a few masters in the world. However, his soaring flights are quite often punctuated with lapses. This unevenness stems from a distinctly nervous and temperamental disposition. Najdorf has some rather insipid play to his name, for instance at Łodz 1936 and also Margate 1938. On the other hand when things go right, he will win tournament after tournament against the strongest of opposition...

Najdorf applies the principles of Nimzowitsch with a mastery that would do credit to any of the great names. He goes in for blockade and what the Germans call Einschnürungstaktik, the systematic tightening of the straitjacket. Short of space and time in a crowded position, the opponent finally suffocates and succumbs... There is still a great deal that we should expect from Najdorf. At 29, he is still fairly young. In Olympiads he has constantly achieved the best results of the team. He is tough, ambitious and determined, though admittedly deficient in self-restraint.

As is well known, the liner Pirapolis, which sailed for South America from Antwerp on 27 July 1939, carrying all the participants from European countries, proved to be something like a Noah’s Ark for many of its passengers, rescuing them from the universal flood. The Lithuanian grandmaster Vladas Mikenas wrote that blitz tournaments were played day and night on board the ship, and that Najdorf won the majority of them. Najdorf himself recounted:

We embarked in good time for the Olympiad in Argentina. The voyage lasted about three weeks. We were preparing for the Olympiad the whole time, and played hundreds of lightning games. No one expected the outbreak of war. The Olympiad began on 22 August; the qualifying rounds lasted from the 23 rd to the 30th. After a one-day break, the final was due to start on 1 September and continue until the 19th. The continuation of the tournament was called into question when war broke out. The matter was settled by cancelling matches between teams representing belligerent countries. Tartakower took the lead in refusing to play against Germany. In this he was supported – with unexpected vigour, too – by Alekhine, who forbade the French team members to enter into any contact with German players and at the same time repeatedly spoke out against the Germans on the radio and in the Argentine press.

Assessing the course of the contest, Najdorf used to assert: “Of course we ought to have won the gold medals in 1939 in Buenos Aires. Our team was stronger than the Germans, and we were only half a point short.”

In this case the obstacle sprang from objective causes with no direct connection to the play. The situation of the Poles was blighted by the war unleashed by the Third Reich. In one of the last rounds the Polish team was facing the Netherlands. Najdorf was playing Cortlever, and obtained a promising position out of the opening. Then a despondent Zdzisław Kurnikowski, the Polish Republic’s ambassador to Argentina, appeared in the playing hall and informed the Polish chessplayers that the German forces were mounting a direct attack on Warsaw. Najdorf later recalled that he was in no mood for continuing the game; he made a whole series of weak moves and was forced to capitulate.

Najdorf – CortleverBuenos Aires, 7 September 1939

1 d4 ♘f6 2 c4 g6 3 ♘c3 d5 4 ♘f3 ♗g7 5 ♕b3 dxc4 6 ♕xc4 0-0 7 g3 b6 8 ♗g2 ♗b7 9 0-0 ♘bd7 10 ♖d1 c5 11 d5 a6 12 a4 ♘e8 13 e4 ♘d6 14 ♕e2 ♘e5

15 ♘xe5?!

Better 15 ♘d2! c4 (or 15...♗c8 16 h3) 16 f4 ♘d3 17 e5.

15...♗xe5 16 f4 ♗d4+ 17 ♗e3 ♗xe3+ 18 ♕xe3 ♕c7 19 g4 (19 ♕f2) 19...e5 20 dxe6 (better 20 f5, with at least an equal game) 20...fxe6 21 e5? ♘c4 22 ♕g3 ♗xg2 23 ♔xg2 ♘xb2 24 ♖d6 ♖ad8 25 ♘e4 ♖xd6 26 exd6 ♕c6 27 ♕f3 ♕d5 0-1

The Polish team was in contention for the gold medals right to the end. The tournament was finally won by the Germans with the support of Eliskases from Austria; they finished half a point ahead of Poland. Third place was occupied by Estonia.

After the end of the contest, Najdorf played in a small ‘post-Olympiad’ tournament in Buenos Aires, sharing first and second places with Keres after taking revenge for the defeat which his formidable rival had inflicted on him at Margate.

The day when the Olympiad ended placed the Polish participants (and not only them) in a severe dilemma. At that moment, in their homeland, the last centres of resistance of the Polish forces were being wiped out by the German and Soviet armies. The Polish government was being evacuated to Romania. The tragic news reached the embassy in Buenos Aires. Tartakower, Frydman, Najdorf, Regedziński and Sulik argued heatedly over what course they should take. Should they stay in Argentina for the time being or risk returning to Poland? In the end, Mieczysław Najdorf and Paulin Frydman accepted invitations from Argentine Jews. Tartakower succeeded in returning to Europe and later served under de Gaulle. After spending some months in South America and the USA, Sulik arrived in Europe and was to fight on the Italian front in General Anders’s Second Corps. Regedziński reached Lódź in December 1939, only to be forcibly mobilized some years later and sent to the eastern front as a soldier of the Wehrmacht.

2: Miguel

In the autumn of 1939, Najdorf had the sum of 320 dollars at his disposal (200 from the Polish Chess Federation as pocket money, plus 120 from selling his return ticket to Europe). This was his entire capital. He didn’t know the language of the country he was in, he couldn’t return to his native land, and his circle of acquaintances consisted of others just like him – homeless people whom the outbreak of hostilities had left stranded on a continent situated thousands of nautical miles from Europe.