Savielly Tartakower - Chess Professional

Chess Professional

In France, he decided to become a professional chess player. He also started cooperating with various chess-related magazines, as well as writing several books and brochures related to chess. The most famous of these, Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie ("The Hypermodernist Chess Game") was published in 1924 and has been issued in almost a hundred editions since. Tartakower took part in many of the most important chess tournaments of the epoch. In 1927 and 1928 he won two tournaments in Hastings and shared first place with Aron Nimzowitsch in London. On the latter occasion, he defeated such notable players as Frank Marshall, Milan Vidmar, and Efim Bogoljubov. In 1930 he won the Liège tournament, beating Mir Sultan Khan by two points. Further down the list were, among others, Akiba Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, and Marshall.

He won twice the Polish Chess Championship, at Warsaw 1935 and Jurata 1937. In the 1930s Tartakower represented Poland in six Chess Olympiads, and France in 1950, winning three individual medals (gold in 1931 and bronze in 1933 and 1935), as well as five team medals (gold in 1930, two silver in 1931 and 1939, and two bronze in 1935 and 1937).

• In 1930, at second board at 3rd Chess Olympiad in Hamburg (+9 −1 =6);
• In 1931, at second board at 4th Chess Olympiad in Prague (+10 −1 =7);
• In 1933, at first board at 5th Chess Olympiad in Folkestone (+6 −2 =6);
• In 1935, at first board at 6th Chess Olympiad in Warsaw (+6 −0 =11);
• In 1937, at first board at 7th Chess Olympiad in Stockholm (+1 −2 =10);
• In 1939, at first board at 8th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires (+7 −3 =7);
• In 1950, at first board at 9th Chess Olympiad in Dubrovnik (+5 −5 =5).

In 1935 he was one of the main organizers of the Chess Olympiad in Warsaw.

In 1939, the outbreak of World War II found him in Buenos Aires, where he was playing the 8th Chess Olympiad, representing Poland on a team which included Mieczysław Najdorf, who always referred to Tartakower as "my teacher".