Edward Winter
Erich Eliskases (see C.N. 12174 below)
A passage concerning the 1937 Euwe-Alekhine match from page 22 of The Final Candidates Match Buenos Aires, 1971 by Reuben Fine (Jackson, 1971):
‘… Alekhine sent his second, Eliskases, packing and won, while Euwe, who retained me as second, with Grünfeld in the shadows to consult on openings, also lost in the over-the-board complications. Chess remains a one man game.’
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White to move
This position occurred at the end of a game between Alekhine (White) and Joaquim Val[l]adão Monteiro at the headquarters of the Brazilian Chess Federation in Rio de Janeiro on 31 May 1939. Alekhine declared it drawn, and on pages 78-79 of his book Dicionário Brasiliense do Jogador de Xadrez (Rio de Janeiro, 1956) Black gave the following analysis by Eliskases (our translation from the Portuguese):
‘The game is drawn. If 1 Be3 Bd6! (to prevent 2 Nf4) 2 Bxh6 (if 2 Bf4 Bf8! 3 Be5? Nxe5 4 dxe5 Kd7 5 Nf4 Bg7! with advantage to Black) 2…Kd7 3 Bf4 Bf8! 4 Be3 Bd6 5 Bf4 with repetition of moves. If White tries to win with 4 Be5 Black has the better chances, by continuing with 4…Nxe5 5 dxe5 Ke6 6 Nf4+ Kxe5 7 Nxh5 Bh6! In that position the white knight cannot withdraw, so Black de facto has a won game. Rio de Janeiro, 12 October 1944 – Erich Gottlieb Eliskases.’
We note that Eliskases made no mention of 7 Ng6+ (as an alternative to 7 Nxh5).
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Willibald Müller (Munich, Germany) draws attention to the following letter on page 57 of Erich Eliskases, Caballero del Ajedrez by Guillermo G. Soppe and Raúl O. Grosso (Córdoba, 1997):
Page 20 describes the letter as ‘una inédita carta entregada por el presidente de la Federación cubana de Ajedrez’, and readers will certainly recognize its significance in several respects. Below is an English translation:
‘23 October 1939
My dear friend,
I did not reply to you earlier, so as to be able to give you the good news about the agreement on the match for the world championship. It appears that all is going well and that tomorrow everything will be signed.
As the airmail leaves tonight, I can wait no longer to give you the news.
You will understand what this has cost, and especially since Cuba, as usual, has left me in the lurch. If I had had the five thousand here, everything would have been settled better and faster. But that is about to pass into history, and now is the time to turn to the future and not to what has happened. Now, I need in any case two or three thousand pesos to prepare myself, as I have already arranged everything with Eliskases, who seconded Alekhine for his last match with Euwe and who, incidentally, is annoyed with A. There is no better second than Eliskases, but I have to pay him and retain him for two months before the match and then throughout the entire duration of the match, which will be another two months. Please therefore do me the kindness of seeking someone who can speak to the President to see whether it can be arranged for them to send me the money. Do not believe what you are told by the treasury secretary, as I believe that he is deceiving you.
Through Portela, our minister, I am sending you the bulletins of the Nations Tournament.
Señor Portela will be staying at the Hotel Presidente, and I should like you to see him and speak to him about the money I need and how to obtain it.
With best wishes to your family and to the friends and companions of our Federation.
Kind regards from your friend,
J.R. Capablanca.’
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Gordon Cadden (Newport, Wales) refers to an editorial on pages 1-2 of the January 1946 BCM (Editor: J. du Mont) which advised against rushing to judgement over Alekhine’s war record. After quoting the ‘parallel cases’ of alleged collaboration by Georges Carpentier and Maurice Chevalier (‘both men were tried and found not guilty, and both are again the idols of the French public’) the editorial stated:
‘We ourselves have received letters describing how Eliskases, in German uniform, strutted into Belgian chess clubs and how the Belgian players, at the risk of their lives, declined to play him. As our readers know, Eliskases has been in South America for the past six years. So much for “evidence”.’
Is anything else known about the accusations against Eliskases?
Erich Eliskases
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Jan Kalendovský (Brno, Czech Republic) submits this feature from Wiener Bilder, 19 September 1937, page 2:
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World Championship Disorder reproduces an illustration from the CHESS monograph on Semmering-Baden, 1937 (a tournament in which Euwe did not participate):
Jan Kalendovský provides from his collection a photograph taken at Poděbrady, 1936:
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This photograph of Erich Eliskases and Kurt Richter shows their game in the German Championship in Bad Oeynhausen, 14 July 1939.
Source: Deutsche Schachzeitung, August 1939, page 226.
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Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA) points out that the familiar ‘Novotny move’ 43 Rd5 in this position ...
... did not occur, since Eliskases preferred to play 43 Re5. The game with Eliskases’ annotations was published on pages 314-316 of the October 1929 Wiener Schachzeitung.
Erich Eliskases – Hölzl
Innsbruck, 23 September 1929
Queen’s Gambit Declined
1 e3 c5 2 c4 Nc6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 d4 e6 5 Nc3 d5 6 a3 a6 7 Bd3 dxc4 8 Bxc4 b5 9 Ba2 cxd4 10 exd4 Be7 11 O-O O-O 12 Be3 Bb7 13 Qe2 Qc7 14 Rac1 Rad8 15 Rfd1 Rfe8 16 h3 Bf8 17 Bb1 Qb8 18 Bg5 Be7 19 Ne4 Nd5 20 Nc5 Bxg5 21 Nxg5 Nf6 22 Nge4 Ne7 23 Nxf6+ gxf6 24 Qg4+ Ng6 25 h4 Bc8 26 h5 Qf4 27 Qe2 Ne7 28 Ne4 Nd5 29 Rc5 Kh8 30 Rd3 f5 31 Rf3 Qb8 32 Ng5 Re7 33 Rg3 Nf4 34 Qe3 Qd6 35 Rc6 Qb8 36 Bxf5 Bb7 37 Rc5 Qd6 38 Be4 Nd5 39 Bxd5 Bxd5 40 Nf3 Bxf3 41 Qg5 Qxd4 42 Qxe7 Be4 43 Re5 Resigns.
The game is often misdated 1931.
(7730)
Michael Negele (Wuppertal, Germany) has found this photograph (Ebensee, 1933) in the Rueb scrapbooks at the Royal Library in The Hague. He writes:
‘I believe that I have identified most of the players. Standing from left to right are: Hans Müller, Rudolf Spielmann, N.N., Franz Kunert, N.N. and Erich Eliskases. Seated: Theophil Demetriescu, Gisela Harum and Lodewijk Prins.’
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From Olimpiu G. Urcan (Singapore):
Dundee Courier, 15 November 1933, page 8.
(8960)
Jan Kalendovský sends a photograph from page 3 of Das interessante Blatt, 24 July 1930:
A game by Arne Desler was discussed in Chess and The Prisoner.
(9261)
From page 18 of the Argentinian magazine Ajedrez, January 1956, in coverage of the 1955 championship of Argentina:
(9971)
Further to Fred Reinfeld’s description of Eliskases v L. Steiner, Budapest, 1933 as ‘one of the finest games ever played’ (see page 156 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves), we add that, also on page 9 of the January 1952 Chess Review, Reinfeld made these remarks:
‘Lajos Steiner is one of the players who has not received his due from the public. At his best, Steiner is one of the great attacking players of all time. In his finest games, we observe a blend of energy and combinative power which is enchanting. Like many masters in the same category, Steiner is inferior to the very great players because of temperamental defects rather than skill. He is often unstable; he puts forth his best efforts against the stronger players. His opening repertoire, though founded on profound study, is too old-fashioned. He is too good-natured for protracted competition. He tires more easily than most players. He is often baffled when conducting the black pieces, for the initiative is his forte.
Yet Steiner is a great student, with an uncommonly fine understanding of the game, interested above all in producing beautiful chess.’
(10292)
The final game in Chess Strategy and Tactics by Fred Reinfeld and Irving Chernev (New York, 1933) began as follows, on page 99:
1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 e6 4 Nbd2 Nf6 5 g3 Nbd7 6 Bg2 Bd6 7 O-O Qe7 8 Re1 b6 9 e4 Nxe4 10 Nxe4 dxe4 11 Ng5 Bb7 12 Nxe4 Bc7 13 d5 cxd5 14 cxd5 Bxd5 15 Bg5 f6 16 Nxf6+ Nxf6 17 Bxf6 Qxf6 18 Bxd5 O-O-O 19 Bxe6+ Kb8 20 Qc2 Be5 21 Bh3 Bxb2 22 Bg2 Rhe8 23 Rxe8 Rxe8
24 Rf1 g6 25 Qb3 Rd8 26 Qe3 Qf5 27 Qe7 Rd7 28 Qe8+ Kc7 29 Qa8 Bd4 30 Qxa7+ Kd8 31 Qb8+ Ke7 32 Bc6 Be5 33 Bxd7 Bxb8 34 Bxf5 gxf5 35 Rd1 Bd6 36 Rd4 Bc5 37 Rh4 Resigns.
Strange to say, we have not seen this ‘beautifully played game on the part of Hönlinger’ in any database. It had appeared with the same notes, ascribed to Reinfeld alone, on pages 13-14 of the May 1933 Chess Review. The occasion was given as ‘Vienna, March 1933’, but below is the heading on page 366 of the December 1932 Wiener Schachzeitung:
See too pages 88-90 of the March 1933 Deutsche Schachzeitung, which reproduced Hans Kmoch’s annotations from the Neues Wiener Journal.
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Further to C.N. 19702, Eduardo Bauzá Mercére has found the Brazilian game on pages 253-254 of Jogo de Posição by Erich Eliskases (Rio de Janeiro, 1943), the players being named as Oliveira Gomes and Caetano Neto:
We note, though, the spelling Cayetano Netto in reports on other Brazilian activities in the periodical Enroque!! (Necochea, Argentina); see pages 2, 3 and 7 of the 15 February 1942 issue.
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Olimpiu G. Urcan has provided this shot of Erich Eliskases at Mar del Plata, 1947, from the Crítica photographic archive:
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From Where Did They Live?:
Eliskases, E.: Anichstrasse 10, Innsbruck, Austria (Ranneforths Schachkalender, 1932, page 97).
Tim Bogan (West Hollywood, CA, USA) draws attention to a comment by Bent Larsen on page 35 of Larsen’s Selected Games of Chess 1948-69 (London, 1970):
‘Do you know Eliskases? Until 1939 the Austrian candidate for the world championship, now a strong and solid grandmaster, but a little too passive in his play, without the fighting spirit and ambition of his youth. Against such players I like to play the Dutch, as often they potter about too much so that you can just sit and build up an attack on the king’s side.’
That was Larsen’s note to 1 d4 f5 in his game against Eliskases at Mar del Plata 1958, and he mentioned that his annotations had appeared in Skakbladet, February 1959, pages 28-30.
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Copyright Edward Winter. All rights reserved.
