1940 in chess

Chess events in brief

• 17 January 1940 - Dawid Przepiórka, Stanisław Kohn, Moishe Lowtzky, Achilles Frydman, Abkin, Młynek, Zahorski and many others were arrested at the Kwieciński Chess Café in Warsaw, and imprisoned at Daniłowiczowska Str.. Later most of them were killed in a mass execution by the Nazis in Palmiry, General Government.
• 23 September 1940 - The National Chess Centre in London was destroyed by fire during The Blitz.
• The famous French chess magazine La Stratégie ceases publication after 73 years. It had been established in Paris in 1867.

  Tournaments

• Hastings International Chess Congress won by Frank Parr, 1939/40.
• Havana won by Isaac Kashdan ahead of Georges Koltanowski, January 1940.
• Beverwijk won by Max Euwe, January 1940.
• Warsaw, won by Moishe Lowtzky ahead of Stanisław Kohn, January/February 1940.
• Budapest won by Euwe followed by Milan Vidmar, Gedeon Barcza, etc.
• Amsterdam, won by Hans Kmoch followed by Adriaan de Groot, Salo Landau and Lodewijk Prins, etc.
• Amsterdam, won by Euwe ahead of Prins.
• Baarn, won by Landau ahead of Euwe and Kmoch, and Haije Kramer.
• Delft, won by Kmoch followed by Euwe, Johannes van den Bosch, and Landau.
• Leeuwarden won jointly by Nicolaas Cortlever, Prins and Landau.
• Rotterdam won by Euwe ahead of Vlagsma.
• The Hague won by George Salto Fontein ahead of Arthur Wijnans.
• Ghent, won by Paul Devos.
• Santiago de Cuba won by Koltanowski ahead of Diez.
• Santiago de Chile, won by Mariano Castillo.
• Montevideo, won by Arturo Liebstein.
• Rio de Janeiro, won by Walter Cruz, February/March 1940.
• Buenos Aires won by Aristide Gromer followed by Franciszek Sulik, Carlos Guimard, etc.
• Lvov, won by Abram Khavin, March 1940.
• Rosario won by Gideon Ståhlberg.
• Stockholm, won by Nils Bergkvist.
• Randers, won by Jens Enevoldsen.
• Güstrow won by Carl Ahues and Lachmann, start 20 March 1940.
• London won by Harry Golombek and Paul List ahead of Vera Menchik-Stevenson, March 1940.
• New York City, won by Samuel Reshevsky, 27 April – 19 May 1940.
• Bad Elster won by Karl Gilg and Ludwig Roedl, start 14 May 1940.
• Berlin won by Efim Bogoljubow ahead of Kurt Richter, start 16 June 1940.
• Berlin, won by Rudolf Palme, June 1940.
• Posen won by Ahues and Elstner, July 1940.
• Nice, won by Amédée Gibaud.
• Sofia, won by Oleg Neikirch and Alexander Tsvetkov.
• Dublin, won by John O'Hanlon.
• Montreal, won by Maurice Fox.
• Ventnor City won by Milton Hanauer and Sidney Bernstein.
• Dallas, won by Reuben Fine ahead of Herman Steiner, August 1940.
• Bad Oeynhausen, won by Georg Kieninger ahead of Paul Felix Schmidt, start 4 August 1940.
• Rakovník, won by Jan Foltys, 17–31 August 1940.
• Lvov won by Edward Gerstenfeld ahead of Izaak Appel, August 1940.
• Danzig won by Walter John ahead of Gustav Rogmann, September 1940.
• Leningrad, won by Viacheslav Ragozin.
• Leningrad won by Ilya Rabinovich.
• Kiev, won by Gerstenfeld and Stolberg.
• Moscow, won jointly by Igor Bondarevsky and Andor Lilienthal, followed by Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Isaac Boleslavsky and Mikhail Botvinnik, etc., 5 September – 3 October 1940.
• Kiev, won by Boleslavsky ahead of David Bronstein.
• Krakow/Krynica/Warsaw, won by Bogoljubow and Anton Kohler, 3–17 November 1940.
• Posen, won by Rogmann.
• Prague, won by Josef Dobiáš.
• Melbourne, won by Lazare Suchowolski, December 1940.
• Sydney, won by Lajos Steiner followed by Gary Koshnitsky, Cecil Purdy, etc., 1940/41.

  Matches

• Paul Keres won against Max Euwe in The Netherlands in 1939/40.
• Carlos Maderna defeated Luis Piazzini, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Walter Cruz beat Octavio Trompowsky, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Georg Kieninger defeated Wilhelm Ernst, Cologne, Germany.
• Georg Kieninger defeated Wilhelm Ernst, Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
• Georg Kieninger beat Immo Engert, Düsseldorf, Germany.
• Mikhail Botvinnik beat Viacheslav Ragozin, Leningrad, Russia.
• Grigory Levenfish won against Vladimir Alatortsev, Russia.

  Births

• 8 February – Boris Kogan, Russian/American IM
• 15 May – Carlos Bielicki, Argentine IM, 1959 World Junior Champion
• 2 June – István Csom in Satoraljaujhely, Hungarian GM
• 7 June – Liudmila Belavenets in Moscow, Russian ICCGM and Women's World Correspondence Champion 1984–1992
• 2 August – Adrian Hollis in Bristol, English ICCGM
• 8 August – Dragutin Sahovic in Kraljevo, Yugoslavian/Serbian GM
• 24 September – Renato Naranja, Filipino IM
• 26 September – Vladimir Savon in Chernihiv, Soviet/Ukrainian GM, USSR Champion in 1971
• 7 October – Liu Wenzhe, Chinese IM and trainer
• 10 November – Miodrag Todorcevic in Belgrade, Serbian/French GM and coach
• 19 December – Jusefs Petkevich, Latvian GM
• Andrew Kalotay, Hungarian-born Canadian/American chess player

  Deaths

• ca. March - Dawid Przepiórka killed in a mass execution by the Nazis in Palmiry.
• ca. March - Achilles Frydman killed in a mass execution in Palmiry.
• ca. March - Stanisław Kohn killed in a mass execution in Palmiry.
• ca. March - Moishe Lowtzky killed in a mass execution in Palmiry.
• 5 May - Willi Schlage died in Berlin, Germany.
• 4 July - Sammi Fajarowicz died in the Jewish Hospital in Leipzig of tuberculosis. Fajarowicz Gambit.
• 18 July – Davide Marotti, winner of the first Italian Championship
• 11 September - Peter Fyfe died in Glasgow, Scotland. Fyfe Gambit.
• 30 November - Wilhelm Hilse died in Germany.
• December - Walter John died in Berlin, Germany.
• December - František Schubert died in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
• Moshe Hirschbein, Polish master, died by the Nazis.
• Max Walter, Slovak master, died by the Nazis.
• Arthur Kaufmann, Austrian master, died by the Nazis. Other sources give 1938 as the year of his death. He was a philosopher and ended his chess career in 1917. No philosophical works by him or photographs of him survive. His burial site was destroyed during the bombing of WWII.
• Kalikst Morawski, Polish master, died probably in Siberia.