Events in

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

in 1933: *The 5th Chess Olympiad (known at the time as the Folkestone Team Tournament or the Hamilton-Russell Cup) is held in Folkestone. The United States wins the gold medal, Czechoslovakia silver, and Sweden bronze. *The

Women's World Championship The Women's World Championship was the first women's professional wrestling world title. History Cora Livingston defeated Hazel Parker in 1906. Though the contest was originally for the Featherweight Championship, from that point she was bille ...

is held in conjunction with the Olympiad.

Vera Menchik Vera Francevna Mencikova (russian: Вера Францевна Менчик, ''Vera Frantsevna Menchik''; cz, Věra Menčíková; 16 February 1906 – 26 June 1944), was a Russian-born Czechoslovak chess player who primarily resided in En ...

(Czechoslovakia) easily retains her title. *The

Bulgarian Championship The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

is inaugurated in Varna. *'' Chess Review'' is established by

Isaac Kashdan Isaac Kashdan (November 19, 1905 in New York City – February 20, 1985 in Los Angeles) was an American chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was twice U.S. Open champion (1938, 1947). He played five times for the United States in chess Olymp ...

. The leading American chess magazine for most of its run, the ''Chess Review'' would be published from January 1933 until November 1969 when it merged with ''

Chess Life The monthly ''Chess Life'' and bi-monthly ''Chess Life Kids'' (formerly ''School Mates'' and ''Chess Life for Kids'') are the official magazines published by the United States Chess Federation (US Chess). ''Chess Life'' is advertised as the "most ...

'' to form ''Chess Life & Review''.

Tournaments

* Hastings Christmas Congress, held 28 December 1932 to 6 January 1933, is won by

Salo Flohr Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a Czechoslovak and Soviet chess player and writer. He was among the first recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Flohr dominated many tournam ...

(Czechoslovakia) for the second consecutive year, scoring 7/9 with no losses. Vasja Pirc (Yugoslavia) is second with 6½ followed by Mir Sultan Khan with 6. *Masters tournament in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

is won by Esteban Canal with 10/14, followed by Pál Réthy with 9½,

Andor Lilienthal Andor (André, Andre, Andrei) Arnoldovich Lilienthal Reuben Fine, ''The World's Great Chess Games'', Dover Publications, 1983, p. 216. . (5 May 1911 – 8 May 2010) was a Hungarian and Soviet chess player. In his long career, he played against te ...

with 9, Lajos Steiner with 8½, and

Erich Eliskases Erich Gottlieb Eliskases (15 February 1913 – 2 February 1997) was a chess player who represented Austria, Germany and Argentina in international competition. In the late 1930s he was considered a potential contender for the World Championship. ...

with 8. *United States Team Tournament held to select players to join Frank Marshall and

on the US

Olympiad An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...

team is won by

Reuben Fine Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mi ...

with 8/11, followed by

Arthur Dake Arthur William Dake (April 8, 1910 – April 28, 2000) was an American chess player. He was born in Portland, Oregon and died in Reno, Nevada. He was born into a Polish farmer family ( Edward Winter has quoted a mistaken statement with Dake's n ...

and A.C. Simonson tied at 7½. * Aachen is the site of a National Masters tournament in June, won by

Efim Bogoljubow Efim Bogoljubow ( or ), also known as Ewfim Dimitrijewitsch Bogoljubow, ( (); also Romanized ''Bogoljubov'', ''Bogolyubov''; uk, Юхим Дмитрович Боголюбов, Yukhym Dmytrovych Boholiubov; April 14, 1889 – June 18, 1952) ...

. The tournament is organized by the ''Grossdeutsche Schachbund'', a new state-supported chess federation with Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels serving as honorary chair. The editors of '' Chess Review'' decry the virtual exclusion of Jews from German chess, not only from tournaments but also from chess cafés and playing rooms. *

Western Open The Western Open was a professional golf tournament in the United States, for most of its history an event on the PGA Tour. The tournament's founding in 1899 actually pre-dated the start of the Tour, which is generally dated from 1916, the ye ...

held September 23 to October 1 in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

is won by

with 12/13 over

Samuel Reshevsky Samuel Herman Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski; November 26, 1911 – April 4, 1992) was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid-1930s to the mid-196 ...

with 11 and

with 9½. Fine scored +10−1=0, the only loss being to Reshevsky.

Matches

*57th Varsity Match in April is won by

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

over

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, 5–2. Cambridge leads the overall series by 26 matches to 25, with 6 ties. *

(Czechoslovakia) beats Henry Grob (Switzerland), 4½–1½. *

defeats

+4−2=3 in a match held in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

at the

Marshall Chess Club The Marshall Chess Club, in Greenwich Village, New York City, is one of the oldest chess clubs in the United States. The club was formed in 1915 by a group of players led by Frank Marshall. It is a nonprofit organization and a gold affiliate of ...

and the

Manhattan Chess Club The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan was the second-oldest chess club in the United States (next to the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco) before it closed. The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen men, eventually ...

. *Flohr and Mikhail Botvinnik draw a match held in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

and

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, 2 wins, 2 losses and eight draws each.

Exhibitions

*The National Chess Federation (United States) organized a chess program for the

1933 Chicago World's Fair A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1933 to 1934. The fair, registered under the Bureau International des Expositio ...

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine, ''Aleksándr Aleksándrovich Alékhin''; (March 24, 1946) was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already a ...

played a

blindfold A blindfold (from Middle English ') is a garment, usually of cloth, tied to one's head to cover the eyes to disable the wearer's sight. While a properly fitted blindfold prevents sight even if the eyes are open, a poorly tied or trick blindf ...

simultaneous exhibition A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition (commonly chess or Go) in which one player (typically of high rank, such as a grandmaster or dan-level player) plays multiple games at a time with a number of other pl ...

on a record-setting 32 boards, winning 19, drawing 9, and losing 4. This broke the previous record of 30 simultaneous blindfold games set by

George Koltanowski George Koltanowski (also "Georges"; 17 September 1903 – 5 February 2000) was a Belgian-born American chess player, promoter, and writer. He was informally known as "Kolty". Koltanowski set the world's blindfold record on 20 September 1937 ...

in Antwerp. Alekhine also played three games of living chess, in which the chess pieces were people in medieval costumes arrayed on a large outdoor board. The last of these games, held on June 19, was against

Edward Lasker Edward Lasker (born Eduard Lasker) (December 3, 1885 – March 25, 1981) was a German-American chess and Go player. He was awarded the title of International Master of chess by FIDE. Lasker was an engineer by profession, and an author of ...

. A masters tournament was planned for the Fair but was canceled due to lack of funds. The scheduled Intercollegiate Tournament was held and was won by Lieutenant John O. Matheson of

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

Births

* Burt Hochberg, American chess writer and editor *February 3 — Raúl Sanguinetti in

Paraná, Entre Ríos Paraná () is the capital city of the Argentine province Entre Ríos, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, opposite the city of Santa Fe, capital of the neighbouring Santa Fe Province. The city has a population of 247,863 (). Hist ...

, Argentinian GM *March 5 –

Evgeni Vasiukov Evgeni Andreyevich Vasiukov (russian: Евгений Андреевич Васюко́в, March 5, 1933 – May 10, 2018) was a Russian chess player, one of the strongest in the world during his peak. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by ...

, Russian/Soviet GM *May 29 –

Nikola Padevsky Nikola Bochev Padevsky ( bg, Никола Пъдевски; born May 29, 1933) is a Bulgarian chess Grandmaster. Padevsky was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city. He became Bulgarian National Champion in 1954, going on to win it in ...

in Plovdiv, Bulgarian GM *September 30 – János Flesch in

, Hungarian GM *October 7 – Jonathan Penrose in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

, English GM and Correspondence GM *October 15 – Zadok Domnitz in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

*October 15 –

James Sherwin James Terry Sherwin (born October 25, 1933) is a corporate executive and International Master in chess. Born in New York City in 1933, Sherwin attended Stuyvesant High School, Columbia College of Columbia University, Columbia College (Phi Beta Kap ...

, American IM *November 12 –

Borislav Ivkov Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal tournaments, in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979. Ivkov was a three-time Yugos ...

in Belgrade, Serbian/Yugoslavian GM *November 13 – Bukhuti Gurgenidze in Surami, Georgia, Georgian/Soviet GM *November 15 – Egon Varnusz in

, Hungarian FM and chess writer

Deaths

*March 7 – Hermann von Gottschall, 70, German player *March 27 – William Samuel Viner, 52, Australian player *April 23 – Henry William Barry, 54, American problemist and problem editor of the ''

American Chess Bulletin The ''American Chess Bulletin'' was a chess periodical that was published monthly (November-April) and bi-monthly (May-October) from 1904 to 1962. It was published from New York City. The editor was Hermann Helms (1870–1963), who founded the ma ...

'' *July 22 – Adolf Georg Olland, 66, leading Dutch player *October 17 –

Johann Berger Johann Nepomuk Berger (11 April 1845, Graz – 17 October 1933) was an Austrian chess master, theorist, endgame study composer, author and editor. In September 1870, he won the first tournament in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at Graz. In 1875, ...

, 88, Austrian player, theorist, and endgame composer

References

External links

1933 crosstables
{{chess 20th century in chess Chess by year