Fuster it was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9za_F%C3%BCster
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.p ... &pid=18665
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... t=30#p7841Leonard Barden wrote: ↑Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:48 amCenek Kottnauer defected from Czechoslovakia during the Lucerne New Year tournament of 1952-3 (I am precise on this because I was present). His wife Danielle joined him there, having been smuggled from Prague in the boot of a diplomat's car. Kottnauer had been a water polo player of international standard before 1939 so came into serious chess only his mid-30s. He made his name with his good showing in the Prague v Moscow match of 1946 and his Bxh7+ win then against Kotov. He competed in great tournaments like Groningen 1946 and Moscow 1947; his first visit to England was in 1947 when the Czech team came here.
In the 1940s he had a job in the Czech sports ministry but got implicated in the purges following the Slansky trial. He also believed that Pachman and Opocensky were involved in the campaign against him.
He only settled in England in the mid-1950s and, with an executive job for Fortes the restaurant chain had limited time for chess. After he retired he did chess coaching and, although never named in the BCF's list of coaches, was the most successful of all in terms of achievements by those he taught. He normally did weekly sessions of a couple of hours and got results through his challenging and sceptical approach to ideas from his pupils.
Kottnauer pupils included Hodgson, Watson, and Kumaran, who all became grandmasters. When he came to our junior invitation tournaments in the mid-seventies I used to give a prize of a game and session with him to exceptional talents. So he played Nigel Short in spring 1975 (probably Short's first one-to-one with an IM) and was enthusiastic about his promise. In 1981 when Stuart Conquest was going to the the world U16 championship in Argentina Cenek coached him for several months beforehand and went with him to the event. No news reports were available during the tournament so the first I knew was when Cenek phoned me on his return to London and complained that he was tired having to carry this enormous trophy home (Stuart had broken his arm before the event and played in a sling) and how the food had been terrible but that Eliskases, who was involved in the organisation, had sworn him to secrecy.
I used to visit him a couple of times a month for talk and blitz sessions and have warm memories. A great guy,and a significant figure in the long departed English chess boom.
Just clicking around the names there in the 'displaced persons' tournament, you get several other 'defectors' (depending how you define this). Here are some:At the end of World War II, as the German armies were retreating, Bohatyrchuk moved on to a number of German cities, including Berlin and Potsdam, and finally ended up in the American-controlled city of Bayreuth in May 1945, as the European war drew to a close. For a time he lived in Munich, playing in German chess events under the disguised name of ('Bogenko'), so as to avoid repatriation to the USSR. In March 1946, he won a 14-player round-robin for displaced persons, staged in the Allied camp at Meerbeck, Lower Saxony, Germany. He scored 11/13, with (+10−1=2); second was Lucijs Endzelins with 10.5, while third was Romanas Arlauskas with 10.[10] Later in 1946, he won, followed by Elmārs Zemgalis, Wolfgang Unzicker, etc. at Regensburg (Klaus Junge Memorial), with 7/9.[11] In February 1947, he took 3rd at Kirchheim unter Teck. In May 1947, he placed 6th at Kassel, a ten-player international round-robin, won by Bogolyubov. In September 1947, he took 4th at Stuttgart, his last event before departing for Canada.
Presumably, if they managed to 'complete' their escape, all those chess masters qualify as well. And most in "1945". Some of them fled to Germany during the war, only later moving on to other countries. Some of those fleeing Germany (this also included German chess masters) were later accused of taking part in wartime atrocities (I am oversimlifying here), so you have to be careful with the history here.At the end of World War II, Endzelīns, along with many other Baltic players (Arlauskas, Dreibergs, Jursevskis, Mednis, Ozols, Sarapu, Tautvaišas, Vaitonis, Zemgalis, et al.), escaped to the west just before the advancing Soviet forces arrived. In 1946, he played in Augsburg. The event was won by Wolfgang Unzicker. In 1946, he placed second, with 10.5/13, half a point behind Fedir Bohatyrchuk, in a round-robin event for displaced persons at Meerbeck. In 1947, he won, ahead of Elmārs Zemgalis and Efim Bogoljubow, at the Mattison Memorial Tourney in Hanau, Germany. Lūcijs Endzelīns migrated from Germany to Australia. He won the South Australian Championship eight times. He won the Australian championship in 1961.
It is, perhaps, the beginnings of a new thread 'The darker side of world champions', detailing all the naughty things they got up to as world champion. I seem to remember once Kasparov played Judit Polgar, picked up a piece and then claimed he hadn't lifted it off the square and got away without having to play a poor move.'Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 7:19 amThat is a hilarious anecdote - and very naughty.
What criteria were applied to removing entries (and how many?) from the 1992 edition of Hooper & Whyld?
What were their namesMJMcCready wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 3:13 amVery much so, during the Russia -Germany war 11 Russian players were interned in Germany (held as state prisoners) and only four returned, so it is often claimed.
Lasker moved to Moscow for a bit - I imagine the reasons you give were not unconnected to this. Although he later moved on so perhaps we wouldn't count him anyway.Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:22 am...
were there any defections the other way (you can imagine chess players in the West sympathetic to the Soviet ideals considering moving to a place where chess was held in such high esteem)?
There's also the question of whether you count people who officially emigrated - folks like Sosonko, Gulko and Spassky (in various ways) - or whether you only want to know about people who legged it without pre warning the state of their intention - Korchnoi et al.Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:22 amSo you have to define defection carefully. Do you exclude this mass exodus at the end of the Second World War ....
... was of little practical difference to him.David Williams wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 2:19 pmMy feeling is that the difference between emigration and defection is bound up with what would happen to you if you went back while the same people were still in charge.
11 Russian players were detained at Baden Baden: Alekhine, Bogoljubow, Bohatyrchuk, Weinstein, Kopelman, Maljutin, Rabinovich, Romanovsky, Saburov, Selesniev and Flamberg.Very much so, during the Russia -Germany war 11 Russian players were interned in Germany (held as state prisoners) and only four returned, so it is often claimed.
What were their names
See below (edit - and above) for a list of their names. Among them was this one -JustinHorton wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:42 amWhat were their namesMJMcCready wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 3:13 amVery much so, during the Russia -Germany war 11 Russian players were interned in Germany (held as state prisoners) and only four returned, so it is often claimed.
(Wikipedia)Peter Petrovich Saburov (Sabouroff) (14 January [O.S. 2 January] 1880, Saint Petersburg – 26 March 1932, Geneva) was a Russian diplomat, chess master and organizer, and musical composer.
He was a son of Peter Alexandrovich Saburov, a diplomat and chess organizer..."
(Wikipedia)In July/August 1914, he participated in Mannheim (the 19th DSB Congress), which was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. After the declaration of war against Russia, eleven Russian players (Alekhine, Bogoljubow, Bogatyrchuk, Flamberg, Koppelman, Maliutin, Rabinovich, Romanovsky, Saburov, Selezniev, Weinstein) from the Mannheim tournament were interned in Rastatt. In September, four of them (Alekhine, Bogatyrchuk, Saburov, and Koppelman) were freed and allowed, via Switzerland, to return home...."
(Wikipedia)... In 1918, P.P. Saburov, the President of the Russian Chess Association, was still in Russia, but because of Bolshevik policy, he fled to Switzerland. Saburov composed a “Love Symphony” for orchestra, which was played for the first time on 6 May 1925 in the “Concert Classique” at Monte Carlo and proved a success. The Scherzo (third part) of the symphony is called “Simultaneous Games of Chess”.
I found my information about the Saburovs late last night and my above post about them was made without sight of David's.David McAlister wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:03 am11 Russian players were detained at Baden Baden: Alekhine, Bogoljubow, Bohatyrchuk, Weinstein, Kopelman, Maljutin, Rabinovich, Romanovsky, Saburov, Selesniev and Flamberg.Very much so, during the Russia -Germany war 11 Russian players were interned in Germany (held as state prisoners) and only four returned, so it is often claimed.
What were their names
In early September 1914 they were all medically examined and Alekhine, Bohatyrchuk and Saburov received permission to leave Germany having been declared unfit for military service. In late September Kopelman was released perhaps due to a combination of money and friends in high places. The remaining 7 in captivity were moved to Triberg in late November 1914.
(Information gleaned from various pages in Tony Gillam's book "Mannheim 1914 and the Interned Russians.")
Jaacov/Jakob Murey was another in that category.Jonathan Bryant wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:19 am
I say this because if you read Sosonko on how he came to leave the Soviet Union he clearly couldn't go back even though he formally emigrated so this ...
... was of little practical difference to him.David Williams wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 2:19 pmMy feeling is that the difference between emigration and defection is bound up with what would happen to you if you went back while the same people were still in charge.
He formally emigrated but he was treated by the Soviets as a defector.
Em. Lasker played in the Moscow 1925 tournament as a representative of Germany.Jonathan Bryant wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:19 amLasker moved to Moscow for a bit - I imagine the reasons you give were not unconnected to this. Although he later moved on so perhaps we wouldn't count him anyway...Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:22 am...
were there any defections the other way (you can imagine chess players in the West sympathetic to the Soviet ideals considering moving to a place where chess was held in such high esteem)?
A number