Salo Flohr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a leading Czech-Jew chess master of the early 20th century. He became a national hero in Czechoslovakia during the 1930s and his name was used to sell many of the luxury products of the time, including Salo Flohr cigarettes, Salo Flohr slippers and Salo Flohr eau-de-cologne. He dominated many of the chess tournaments of the pre-war years and at one point looked to be a genuine contender for the World Chess Championship.
[edit] Biography
Flohr had a troubled childhood beset by personal crises. He was born in Horodenka in what was then Austria-Hungary, but is now in Ukraine. He and his brother were orphaned during World War I after his parents were killed in a massacre and they both had to flee to the newly-formed nation of Czechoslovakia.
Flohr settled in Prague and gradually acquired a reputation as a skilled chessplayer by playing for stakes in the city's many cafés. During 1924 he participated in simultaneous exhibitions by Richard Réti and Rudolf Spielmann and he was still enjoying simuls well into his seventies.
Flohr won the Kautsky Memorial tournaments of 1928 and 1929 which were held in Prague and made his international debut at the Rogaška Slatina tournament in Slovenia. Here he performed very creditably, finishing second to Akiba Rubinstein. Flohr had also taken a job as a chess journalist and one of his first assignments had been to cover the 1928 Berlin tournament where he continued to win money on the side by playing chess.
Flohr's playing ability peaked in the 1930's, when he became one of the world's strongest players and a leading contender for the world championship. According to the Chessmetrics website, he would have had an Elo rating of about 2680 in 1935. He became Champion of Czechoslovakia in 1933 and 1936 and played in many tournaments throughout Europe, generally finishing amongst the top three. Notable victories were at Bad Sliač in 1932 where he shared first place with Milan Vidmar; Moscow in 1935 where he came 1st= with future World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik; Poděbrady in 1936 with the outstanding score of +10 =6 -1; and Kemeri in 1937 where he shared the top spot with Vladimir Petrov and Samuel Reshevsky.
Flohr also frequently visited England, and had a terrific run in the Hastings tournaments of the early 1930s. He was 1st in 1931/32, 1932/33 and 1933/34 and finished 1st= with Max Euwe and Sir George Thomas in 1934/35. He also won the Margate tournament of 1936 ahead of former World Champion José Raúl Capablanca.
His form for his adopted country in the Chess Olympiads was equally impressive, scoring a phenomenal 14½/17 on Board 1 at his debut at Hamburg (1930). In five Olympiads, he won two individual gold medals, a silver and a bronze, while leading his country to a silver medal in 1933 and a bronze medal in 1931.
In addition, Flohr enjoyed a fair amount of success in match play and he arranged two matches against his main rivals for the title of Challenger to reigning World Champion Alexander Alekhine. He drew a 16-game match against Euwe in 1932 (+3 =10 -3) (who was soon to be the champion, from 1935-37), and drew against Botvinnik in 1933 (+2 =8 -2). Florh beat Gösta Stoltz by 5½-2½ in 1931 and, a year later, narrowly beat Mir Sultan Khan, the 1932 and 1933 British Champion, by 3½-2½.
By 1937, FIDE had nominated him as the official candidate to play Alekhine for the World Championship. However, the Second World War intervened, and it proved impossible for Flohr to raise the stake money in Czechoslovakia, so the plans were dropped. By the time of the Nazi invasion of his country in 1938 Flohr, as a Polish-Ukrainian Jew, was in grave personal danger. He and his family fled, first to Sweden, and then to Moscow with the help of his friend Botvinnik. Not surpringly, this affected Flohr's game and when he played in the great AVRO tournament of November 1938 his game had deteriorated to such an extent that he finished last.
Flohr became a naturalized Soviet citizen in 1942 and developed his writing career in his new country, contributing articles to a number of Soviet newspapers and magazines including Ogonek. After the War he was still a contender for a possible World Championship match and finished 6th at the 1948 Interzonal in Saltsjobaden, thereby qualifying to play in the 1950 Candidates Tournament in Budapest. However, he finished joint last with 7 out of 18 and never entered the World Championship cycle again, preferring to concentrate on journalism and a role as a chess organiser. He was awarded the title of International Arbiter in 1963.
Salo Flohr died in Moscow on July 18, 1983.
[edit] Achievements
Flohr was one of Czechoslovakia's greatest chessplayers ever, and proved virtually invincible at the Olympiads of the 1930s. His tournament record was impressive, with his tactical skill and excellent endgame technique securing him many famous victories. FIDE awarded him the International Grandmaster on its inaugural list in 1950. He made a number of contributions to opening theory: a 'Flohr variation' can be found in no fewer than six major openings including the Caro-Kann Defence and the Grünfeld Defence.
Unfortunately the Second World War killed off any chance he had of winning the world title, and the stress of becoming a refugee for the second time in his life affected his style of play. He became a much more cautious player in his post-war games and earned a drawish reputation.
