Mar Del Plata and Buenos Aires
BUENOS AIRES AND MAR DEL PLATA Originally by Jan van Reek, 1945 – 2015, www.endgame.nl (now inactive), reviewed and extended 35 Mar del Plata closed invitation tournaments (numbered series!), about 20 major Buenos Aires closed invitation tournaments will be presented, plus famous the Mar del Plata Open series, World Championships & Candidates matches and two Olympiads. After exhibitions and simuls by Géza Maróczy in 1925 & Alexander Alekhine in 1926 given in the city of Buenos Aires, and the famous World Championship match in 1927 between Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, Argentine chess improved immensely, when many players stayed in Buenos Aires after the Chess Olympiad in 1939, due to the outbreak of World War II. Main immigrants were Najdorf, Eliskases, Stahlberg (later moving to Sweden), or already earlier Pilnik, plus today forgotten chess masters. Strong international tournaments could be held. The new events helped them in survival and gave a training. Keres co-won the Circulo in 1939. Other European players joined after WW II: ie. Euwe, Szabo, O'Kelly, or Pomar had a hard time in Argentina against mentioned Najdorf, Eliskases, Stahlberg, Pilnik, and Argentine born Ju. Bolbochán, Guimard, Rossetto, Sanguineti. Next geographical outsider, not living in South America, who won a tournament, was Gligoric, later Ivkov, Larsen and Pachman, followed in 1960 by Fischer & Spassky, and Korchnoi & Reshevsky, respectively. ➔ Panno became the new top talent: Junior WCC 1953 and first native Argentine GM 1955. Casino Central in Mar del Plata has been used as a tournament hall from 1941 Roberto Grau (1900 - 1944) Later, the enormous Hotel Provincial was built next to it At the beginning, only a handful of Europeans and Americans participated among a majority of South Americans in the Argentine international events.
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