Margate Premier, 12-21 April 1939

1939 Margate Premier		Nat'y	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total
1	Paul Keres	EST	&;	½	½	1	½	1	1	1	1	1	7½
2	José Raúl Capablanca	CUB	½	&;	½	1	½	½	1	½	1	1	6½
3	Salo Flohr	CZE	½	½	&;	0	½	1	1	1	1	1	6½
4	Sir George Alan Thomas	ENG	0	0	1	&;	½	1	½	½	½	1	5
5	(Philip) Stuart Milner-Barry	ENG	½	½	½	½	&;	0	1	½	½	½	4½
6	Miguel Najdorf	POL	0	½	0	0	1	&;	0	1	½	1	4
7	Harry Golombek	ENG	0	0	0	½	0	1	&;	½	½	1	3½
8	Edward Guthlac Sergeant	ENG	0	½	0	½	½	0	½	&;	1	0	3
9	Vera Menchik	ENG	0	0	0	½	½	½	½	0	&;	½	2½
10	George Shorrock A Wheatcroft	ENG	0	0	0	0	½	0	0	1	½	&;	2

1939 Margate Premier Reserves A

1939 Margate Premier Reserves A		Nat'y	Draw No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Total
1	Theo D van Scheltinga	NED	3	&;	½	½	1	1	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	8
2	Imre König	YUG	12	½	&;	0	1	1	½	½	1	½	½	1	1	7½
3	Salo Landau	NED	2	½	1	&;	½	½	1	½	0	1	1	½	1	7½
4	Ilmar Raud	EST	5	0	0	½	&;	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	1	6½
5	Alexander Koblencs	LAT	8	0	0	½	½	&;	½	1	1	0	1	½	½	5½
6	Frank Parr	ENG	7	½	½	0	½	½	&;	½	1	0	½	1	½	5½
7	Henryk Pogoriely	POL	11	½	½	½	½	0	½	&;	½	0	½	1	1	5½
8	Baruch H Wood	ENG	6	½	0	1	½	0	0	½	&;	1	½	½	1	5½
9	Lodewijk Prins	NED	9	½	½	0	0	1	1	1	0	&;	0	½	0	4½
10	Andrew Rowland B Thomas	ENG	1	0	½	0	0	0	½	½	½	1	&;	1	½	4½
11	William Leonard Brierley	ENG	10	0	0	½	0	½	0	0	½	½	0	&;	1	3
12	Francis Ernest Appleyard Kitto	ENG	4	0	0	0	0	½	½	0	0	1	½	0	&;	2½

n.b. the download includes two versions of the Raud-Koenig game from round 8. One is a complete score and the other a part-game, but the two are not easily reconciled. I have included a possible reconciliation in the complete score - JS

1939 Margate Premier Reserves B

1939 Margate Premier Reserves B		Nat'y	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Total
1	Friedrich Sämisch	GER	&;	½	½	1	1	1	½	1	1	1	1	1	9½
2	Baldur Hönlinger	AUT	½	&;	½	½	½	½	1	½	1	1	½	1	7½
3	Gerrit R D van Doesburgh	NED	½	½	&;	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	½	1	6½
4	Dr. Stefan Fazekas	ENG	0	½	1	&;	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	6½
5	Karel Opocensky	CZE	0	½	0	1	&;	1	1	1	0	½	½	1	6½
6	Dr. Paul M List	LTU	0	½	0	0	0	&;	1	1	1	1	1	1	6½
7	Emile A J M Mulder	NED	½	0	1	0	0	0	&;	0	1	1	1	1	5½
8	Ignas Zalys	LTU	0	½	0	1	0	0	1	&;	½	0	1	1	5
9	Gerald Abrahams	ENG	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	½	&;	1	1	0	4½
10	Leslie Charles G Dewing	ENG	0	0	0	1	½	0	0	1	0	&;	½	1	4
11	(Arthur) John Peters	ENG	0	½	½	0	½	0	0	0	0	½	&;	1	3
12	(David) Bernard Schultz [Scott]	ENG	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	&;	1

1939 Margate Premier Reserves C

1939 Margate Premier Reserves C		Nat'y	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Total
1	Jacques Mieses	London	&;	1	½	½	1	½	1	1	1	1	1	1	9½
2	David Podhorzer	AUT	0	&;	½	1	1	½	1	1	1	1	1	1	9
3	Eugene Znosko-Borovsky	FRA	½	½	&;	½	1	1	1	1	½	1	1	1	9
4	Willem A T Schelfhout	NED	½	0	½	&;	1	½	½	1	1	½	½	1	7
5	Sonja Graf	GER	0	0	0	0	&;	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	6
6	Hans Georg Schenk	ENG	½	½	0	½	0	&;	½	0	1	1	1	1	6
7	M Blum [Martin Blaine]	ENG	0	0	0	½	0	½	&;	1	½	1	1	1	5½
8	Maurice Ellinger	London	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	&;	½	½	½	1	4½
9	Leo Schächter [photo]	ENG	0	0	½	0	0	0	½	½	&;	½	1	1	4
10	[Charles/John David] Solomon1	Bath	0	0	0	½	0	0	0	½	½	&;	1	1	3½
11	Harold John Snowden	ENG	0	0	0	½	0	0	0	½	0	0	&;	1	2
12	Ronald Lee-Johnson	ENG	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	&;	0

¹ There is some doubt as to whether this competitor was Charles Solomon (Bath) or John David Solomon (London). BCM (June 1939 crosstable) gives C Solomon, as does Newcastle Evening Chronicle (Monday 24 April 1939 p.11) and the Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette (Friday 28 April 1939 p.12). However, BH Wood (CHESS, June 1939, p334) has J D Solomon and his column in the Birmingham Daily Post (Wednesday 12 April 1939 p.11) has 'Solomon (London)'. BHW was playing in an adjoining section. The Solomon-Graf game is given in the Worthing Herald (Friday 12 May 1939 p.18) as being played by J D Solomon. So the jury is still out - JS

---

Other Sections

n.b. short tournaments were held 12-15 April (5 rounds)

Major A: (1) Herbert Arthur Melvin 8/10; (2) Miss [Fenny] Heemskerk 7; (3) (Sydney) Hugh Brocklesby (Margate) 6½; (4) Charles Stanley Hunter 6; (5) H van Hofwegen 5; (6-7) John Hull Dunkle, Frederick William Flear 4½; (8-9) Edith Mary Ann Michell, Charles William Roberts 4; (10) A Beamish 3; (11) A C Hopkinson 2½.

Major B: (1) Arnold C Lynch 9/10; (2-3) Paul Blackett Botcherby, George Arthur Peck 8½; (4) Ernest Montgomery Jellie 8; (5) R F G Wright 6½; (6) Francis Harry Senneck 6; (7-8) Edith Martha Holloway, Olga Menchik-Rubery 5; (9) Jan van den Zanden (NED) 4½; (10-11) Hugh Windsor Heneage, Francis Avery Sisley 4.

Short Major: (1-2) Christopher Barclay Heath, J H Parr 4/5; (3-4) J R Greenop, Frederick Winter Markwick 2; (5-6) Reginald Frederick B Jones, W Jones 1½.

First Class A (10 players): (1) Henry James MacThomas (Harry) Thoms (Dundee) 8/9; (2-3) J Flatto, Edward Buddel Puckridge 7; (4) W Henderson 6; (5) A Jones 5½; (6-7) J G Hayes, P A Turley 2; (8-9) S Hunt, W G Jackson 1½; (10) Miss Emily Eliza Abraham 1.

First Class B (10 players): (1) T M Warburton 6½/9; (2-6) G Booth, N S Heath, Dennis Morton Horne, Capt. J Mackenzie, Clement John Stapley 5½; (7) Rev. E G Bevan 4; (8) John Spedan Lewis 3; (9) Miss Dorothy Mary Dibley (AUS) 2½; (10) Miss Marjorie Colville Strachey 1½.

Short First Class A: (1) Mary Henniker-Heaton 4/5; (2-3) Stanley Charles Love, D Pritchard¹ 3½; (4) Miss Elaine Saunders 2½; (5) Dr. Ian (Israel) Wolfe Gallant 1½; (6) Arnold William Gunstone 0. [¹ very likely that this is Elaine Saunders's future husband David Brine Pritchard]

Short First Class B: (1) David Eric Winks 3½/4; (2) John E H Creed 2½; (3) F W Daniel 2; (4) G de N Clark 1½; (5) Ashley Cyril Vernieux ½.

Second Class A: (1) Frank Percival Pounce (Wolverhampton) 8½/9; (2) J Butterworth 6; (3) J T Waters 5½; (4-5) W H Batten, W J Barnett 5; (6) Hubert Dugmore Bell 4; (7) Miss P W van Schaik 3½; (8-9) Capt. C H Plant, Mrs Helen Muriel Cobbold 3; (10) J Francis 1½.

Second Class B (10 players): (1) Rev. Henry Charles de Barathy 8½/9; (2) W M Bussell 7; (3) Eileen B Tranmer 6½; (4-5) Samuel Reginald Tomkinson, H O Bogor 6; (6) Rev. H W Burnell 5½; (7) Mrs Melita Ida Elizabeth Seyd 4½; (8) Miss A M van Schaik 3½; (9) Frank Miles Argrave 2½; (10) Mrs A M van Schaik-Huisman 2.

Short Second Class A: (1-3) R(ichard?) Asch, William S Laremore, G H White 4/5; (4) E F Briscoe 1½; (5) Miss Katharine Tate Austin 1; (6) F Miller ½.

Short Second Class B: (1-2) A C Evans, Charles Gerald Verey 3½/5; (3) A Pelissier 3; (4) P Koelner 2½; (5) N S Brooke 1½; (6) John Edward Holt 1.

Third Class: (1) Arthur Trimnell (Hornsey) 8/10; (2) Miss Adelaide Mary Bishop 7½; (3) Lt.-Col. Francis Pius Lauder 6; (4) John T Wolstenholme 4; (5) P Cooper 3½; (6) Edouard [Edward] Carre Suren 1.

Short Third Class: (1-2) Rev. Frederick Mabor Hodgess-Roper, Rev. F M Jackson 4/5; (3) G H Robins 3; (4) Rev. D R Mitchell 2; (5) J Ellison 1; (6) F G Horne 0.

---

Junior Tournaments

Under 18: (1) Percie John Charles Turner 8½; (2) S. Simon 7; (3) M. Cohen 5; (4) D. E. Harris 4½; (5-7) P. Beveridge, Bryan Foster Harman, Donald William John Young 2; (10) J. C. Goldsmith 0.

Under 15 Section A: (1) Keith M Fleming¹ 7½; (2) W. Cervante 5; (3-4) H. P. Dodd, L. Herbst 4½; (5-6) A. Riordan, R. Bland 4; (7) J. Leonard 3½; (8) R. Cooper 2; (9) W. J. Millett 1. [¹ Keith M Fleming, d.o.b. 4 April 1925, was the son of the SCCU Hon.Sec. Robert Martin Fleming (13 March 1889 – 16 June 1960)]

Under 15 Section B: (1) K. Morris 7½; (2) J. Sinclair 7; (3-5) Peter D Murton, R. Hughes, J. Marks 4; (6-7) Bernard Gilbert Ellender, G. Pritcher 3½; (8) Norman Walter Rickwood 1½; (9) E. Sidebotham 1.

Under 15 Section C: (1) E. Garmon 7; (2-3) D. D’eath, R. Manton 4; (4) Cyril Leslie Pinkham 3½; (5) C. Hall 3; (6) G. E. Watling 2; (7) R. Hoddinott 1.

Under 15 Section D: (1) R. Baker 6; (2) J. Keegan 4½; (3-4) D. Hamlyn, K. Dawes 3; (5) E. F. Saunders 2½; (6) W. F. Birch 2.

---

THE MARGATE CHESS CONGRESS
INTEREST IN PREMIER TOURNAMENT
from our chess correspondent [The Times, 12 April 1939]

" The first round of the annual Margate Chess Congress will be played this morning at the Norfolk Hotel, Cliftonville, beginning at 9.30 a.m. As last year there is an entry of over 200, and such is the number of distinguished foreign players that it is proposed to divide the Premier Reserves into four sections. It is to be feared, however, that owing to the disturbed international situation there will be a number of withdrawals, and the constitution of the various sections will not be decided until the last moment.

"The Premier tournament, including as it does P. Keres, of Estonia, S. Flohr, and Señor J. R. Capablanca, should be of exceptional interest. No doubt one of these three will be the winner, and there is little if anything to choose between them. Keres relapsed badly in the Russian tournament, but there is no reason to attribute this temporary loss of form to anything but fatigue and reaction after the nervous strain of the Avro competition. Flohr completely rehabilitated himself in Russia as a potential challenger for the world's championship. Capablanca made an indifferent score in Holland; an apparent lack of the will to win several times allowed his opponents to escape from inferior positions.

"The English players, in the absence of their champion, C. H. O. D. Alexander, did not give a good account of themselves at Hastings, and unfortunately Alexander has again had to decline an invitation to play. He and Sir George Thomas are the only two Englishmen who sometimes beat the foreign masters instead of merely making them work hard and scraping a draw here and there. Playing against Capablanca and Flohr is certainly rather like attacking a brick wall. I hope that Keres will not feel it necessary to emulate their style, as he did with such notable success in Holland. If he lets himself go a little we shall have plenty of fun, and we might even have the illusory sensation that he was going to overreach himself. There is never that feeling with the other two.

"The congress appears likely to open in an atmosphere even less propitious than that of the Plymouth tournament last September. One of the principal beauties of chess, however, is that it is extremely difficult to think of anything else while one is actually playing—for which relief chess players may be duly grateful."

LACK OF IMAGINATION AT MARGATE [The Times, 24 April 1939]
FROM OUR CHESS CORRESPONDENT

"The Margate congress could never be anything but delightful, and the weather surpassed all that the inhabitants claimed for it. The only flaw, in fact, was the chess. There was a remarkable dearth of memorable, and even of presentable, games. Capablanca’s win against Thomas and Thomas’s against Flohr were exceptions. Keres made a fine score, and nobody could win with more charm, but there was hardly a spark of imagination about his play. His points were gained by sheer hard work and subtle end-game technique. The same applies to Capablanca and Flohr. Capablanca was far from convincing in several games, but his game against Thomas satisfied his own exacting standards.

"Thomas has had a good season—he is almost certain of winning the City of London Championship—and he played some games in this tournament extremely well. Milner-Barry was steadier than usual, but his games were almost unbelievably dull. Only against Capablanca did he obtain the kind of position that he likes, and then he muddled it. Najdorf provided most of the brighter moments in the tournament. He plays chess for fun and enjoys it, laying no claim to master strength.

"The score of the other players fairly represented their performance. Sergeant held his own well with Capablanca, and Wheatcroft shook Keres to the core, though he lost in the end. On the whole the Englishmen did better than usual against the foreigners, and that, from a patriotic point of view, was the most encouraging feature of the tournament."

---

File Updated

Date	Notes
16 November 2003	Uploaded as a zipped file.
12 October 2020	Now complete with round numbers and dates, plus crosstables and results, plus 3 games from the Reserves sections.
17 October 2020	A further 11 games from subsidiary events added, thanks to some research by Ron de Haas, using the excellent Dutch online newspaper archive delpher.nl (which I highly recommend). I've used this website to source some games myself. Thanks to Ron, also to Brian Denman for contributing some games from British sources.
30 November 2020	Four games added, all from the Premier Reserves B section and involving Friedrich Saemisch: versus Opocensky, Zalys, Abrahams and Fazekas. Many thanks to Ulrich Tamm.
24 February 2023	Added one game: BH Wood 1-0 S Landau (Premier Reserves A, rd 6).
25 February 2023	Added three games and three part-games, all from Premier Reserves A, which appeared in BCM, July 1939: (1) L.Prins 0-1 I.Raud (rd 1, part-game); (2) F.Kitto 0-1 S.Landau (rd 4); (3) I.Koenig 1-0 A.Koblencs (rd 4, part-game); (4) F.Kitto 0-1 I.Raud (rd 7); (5) I.Raud 0-1 I.Koenig (rd 8, part-game); (6) B.Wood 0-1 F.Parr (rd 11).
27 February 2023	Added a further seven games and three part-games from lower sections. Many thanks to Ulrich Tamm.
14 April 2023	Added five further games from lower sections: (1) C Solomon 0-1 Sonja Graf Stevenson, Premier Reserves C, rd 5; (2) F.Flear 1-0 J.Dunkle, Major A; (3) J.Butterworth 1-0 H.Bell, Second Class A; (4) D.Young 1-0 B.Harman, Under 18; (5) M.Henniker-Heaton 0-1 E.Saunders [Pritchard], Short First Class A. The first four were contributed by Gerard Killoran via the English Chess Forum, and the fifth by Brian Denman. Many thanks to Gerard and Brian.
22 June 2023	Ian Rogers alerted me to the fact that the game Golombek-Keres (rd 6) finished on move 59 and did not continue to move 71 as per other online/digital sources. I discovered what is probably the earliest source for the complete score of the game - Manchester Guardian, 21 April 1939 - which confirmed this fact. It also confirmed that 58...Kd6 was played (not 58...Ke6). Whilst checking I also discovered that some of the middle rounds of the tournament had been misdated. Corrections have been applied. Many thanks to Ian for drawing my attention to this.
29 June 2023	I am grateful to <chesshistoryinterest> at chessgames.com for providing a link to the part-score of I.Raud 1-0 A.R.B.Thomas in an Estonian newspaper. I have added this part-game to the collection. Also, for his/her help in discovering the draw order for the Premier Reserves A tournament, etc. Regarding the 8th round game (Premier Reserves A) between Raud and Koenig: the download includes a complete score from John Donaldson's book on Imre Koenig and also a part-score of the same game from the July 1939 BCM. Unfortunately, the two versions do not tally, with the part-score starting after the complete score shows the game to have ended. I have inserted a possible reconciliation between the two versions as a variation within the complete score.