1942 in Chess - Chess Events in Brief

Chess Events in Brief

• 9–18 June 1942 - Salzburg 1942 chess tournament, Six Grandmasters' Tournament in the rooms of Mirabell Palace, organised by Ehrhardt Post, the Chief Executive of Nazi Grossdeutscher Schachbund, was won by Alexander Alekhine, followed by Paul Keres, Paul Felix Schmidt, Klaus Junge, Efim Bogoljubow, and Gösta Stoltz.
• 31 August 1942 - Vladimirs Petrovs was arrested under the infamous Article 58, for criticising decreased living standards in Latvia since the Soviet annexation of 1940. Petrovs was sentenced to ten years in a corrective labor camp (Gulag). Finally, he had died at Kotlas on August 26, 1943 from an inflammation of the lungs.
• 14–26 September 1942 - a tournament purporting to be the first European Individual Chess Championship (Europameisterschaft), organised by Post, was held in Munich. The main event was won by Alexander Alekhine, followed by Paul Keres, Jan Foltys, Efim Bogoljubow, Kurt Richter, Gedeon Barcza, Klaus Junge, etc. The Qualification Tournament (Wertungsturnier) won Gösta Danielsson ahead of József Szily.
• 28 September 1942 - Salo Landau tried to escape the Nazis by fleeing to Switzerland with his family, but they were caught in Breda, near the border with Belgium. He was sent to a concentration camp in Gräditz, Silesia, where he died sometime between October 1943 and March 1944, probably 15 November 1943. His wife and young daughter, whose hiding place was betrayed, were sent to Auschwitz, where they were gassed on October 12, 1944.