Is there any evidence for that? Mere survival under the local regime won't do.Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:26 pmI assume he wrote that unaware that Eliskases was an enthusiastic Nazi (even compared to the somewhat more ambiguous Alekhine)
Gordon Crown, England's lost talent, remembered
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Re: Gordon Crown, England's lost talent, remembered
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.
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Re: Gordon Crown, England's lost talent, remembered
Unlike Alexander and Milner-Barry, who were perhaps under orders to report at Bletchley Park if war broke out, he was one of the many chess players to sit it out in South America. He'd become German after the Anshluss, but Keres became "Russian" under vaguely similar circumstances.NickFaulks wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:09 pmIs there any evidence for that? Mere survival under the local regime won't do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Eliskases
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Re: Gordon Crown, England's lost talent, remembered
Well he was on record as saying that Spielmann shouldn't be picked to play for the Austrian side in the Olympiads as he was the "wrong sort of person" (or some such phrase) I wonder what he could have meant by that?NickFaulks wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:09 pmIs there any evidence for that? Mere survival under the local regime won't do.Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:26 pmI assume he wrote that unaware that Eliskases was an enthusiastic Nazi (even compared to the somewhat more ambiguous Alekhine)
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)
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Re: Gordon Crown, England's lost talent, remembered
and who, as patriotic Brits, would certainly have gone home anywayRoger de Coverly wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:53 pmUnlike Alexander and Milner-Barry, who were perhaps under orders to report at Bletchley Park if war broke out
Hardly the action of an "enthusiastic Nazi". Remember, at that point the Germans were confident that they were going to win.he was one of the many chess players to sit it out in South America.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.
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Re: Gordon Crown, England's lost talent, remembered
Another Crown game from Hastings 1946/47
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Re: Gordon Crown, England's lost talent, remembered
I intended to reply to this comment at the time it was made, but never got round to it.Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑Sat Feb 02, 2019 12:10 amWell he was on record as saying that Spielmann shouldn't be picked to play for the Austrian side in the Olympiads as he was the "wrong sort of person" (or some such phrase) I wonder what he could have meant by that?NickFaulks wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:09 pmIs there any evidence for that? Mere survival under the local regime won't do.Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:26 pmI assume he wrote that unaware that Eliskases was an enthusiastic Nazi (even compared to the somewhat more ambiguous Alekhine)
Both Eliskases (Bd 2) and Spielmann (Bd3) played on the Austrian team at the Warsaw Olympiad 1935 (Ernst Grunfeld Bd 1).
Spielmann was absent from the eight-board team in the unofficial Olympiad at Munich 1936, but that would be understandable as to be Jewish in Germany at that time was already a physical risk.
Austria did not send a team to the Stockholm Olympiad 1937.
I have never heard Matt's quoted comment before reading his post, and would want to see the evidence when and where the Olympiad team remark was made. The implication is that it would have been in 1936 or 1937, but Eliskases and Spielmann actually played 10-game matches together in both of those years, Eliskases winning 5.5-4.5 in 1936 and 6-4 in 1937. This does not sound very compatible with the allegation in the post.
By Buenos Aires 1939 the Anschluss had taken place and Eliskases played top board for the German team which won the Olympiad gold medals.
Although many players returned to Europe in 1939, quite a few including Eliskases stayed in South America. During that time one job he did was to act as referee of Najdorf's record 1947 blindfold exhibition, which would have been a strange act from a Nazi given that one of the record's objectives was to try to contact any surviving Najdorf relatives from concentration camps.
Finally, a personal memory: at Helsinki 1952 I had arranged with Barry Wood to try to secure some annotated games for CHESS. The only way to achieve that in practice was to buttonhole the GMs, ask them to go through the game, scribble down the variations as they went along, and write the game up later as a normal annotation by the player.
Thus the CHESS report on the Olympiad came with a bulging list of famous names. I had particular luck on the free day boat trip round the islands It was then that I approached Eliskases, now third board behind Najdorf and Bolbochan for the silver medallists Argentina, a little fearfully, for I had read BH's claim made some years before that he was a convinced Nazi.
I need not have worried. Eliskases was friendly and articulate, spoke excellent English, and took more trouble than anyone else I approached to ensure that I had time to write down his very clear explanatory comments. I forget the opponent, but hopefully my memory is right and the game can be found in an issue of CHESS in late 1952.
My conclusion is that if he was a Nazi, that was probably an ideology he adopted, as did many others, to ensure his own professional survival.
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Re: Gordon Crown, England's lost talent, remembered
Thank you for that post, Leonard.
Unfortunately I cannot source the claim, but have seen it cited more than once.
Your final point certainly has a plausible ring of truth to it.
Unfortunately I cannot source the claim, but have seen it cited more than once.
Your final point certainly has a plausible ring of truth to it.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)