PHOTO 1
THE 1954 AMSTERDAM OLYMPIAD GROUP PHOTO
please click on photo to enlarge and see the numbers5 Guðmundur Pálmason; 7 Friðrik Olafsson; 8 Guðmundur Ágústsson; 13 Peter Clarke; 14 Leonard Barden; 17 Enrico Paoli; 18 Ingi R. Jóhannsson; 20 Arthur Dunkelblum; 22 Alfons Franck; 25 Nathan Divinsky; 26 Fedor Bohatirchuk; 27 John Prentice; 28 Georges Noradounghian; 30 Frank Anderson; 31 Maurice Fox; 35 Lodewijk Prins; 36 Robert Lemaire; 37 Georges Thibaut; 39 Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander; 40 Jim Walsh; 42 Alexander Rueb; 46 Harry Golombek; 47 Brian Reilly; 51 Gedeon Barcza; 52 Jiří Fichtl; 53 Miroslav Filip; 57 Børge Andersen; 63 Otto Benkner; 68 E. Verner Nielsen; 70 Axel Nielsen; 71 Harald Enevoldsen; 72 Palle Nielsen.
The Amsterdam Olympiad took place in September 1954, with 26 teams: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Saar, Soviet Union, Sweden, Switzerland, West Germany and Yugoslavia.
1951 COMMONWEALTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
Commonwealth tournament 1951[Chess , Vol. 17 No. 195, Dec. 1951, p. 47]
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=598
Ceremonial first move - Commonwealth Tournament[Chess, Vol. 17 No. 195, Dec.1951, p. 46]1951 CANADIAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
Dave Creemer, Hayes, Ridout, Holowach, Adrian Russell, Jursevskis, Millar, Taylor, Yanofsky, Vaitonis, Anderson, Fox, Bohatirchuk, Divinsky. Missing: Yerhoff
http://www3.telus.net/public/swright2/homepage.html
A very strong championship! With grandmaster-level participants like Yanofsky, Vaitonis, Anderson, Fox and Bohatirchuk, the championship was one of the strongest ever.
Certainly the 2009 Championship ,which begins tomorrow, will pale in comparison! At times it seems as though chess in Canada is moving backwards....but I suppose most of the change is about the gradual loss of prestige and visibility of the game itself. Not just in Canada, but in many other countries.
It was difficult for the CFC to decide whether or not to organize a zonal this year. The then president of the CFC (David Lavin) showed no initiative in the project. It was only after considerable pressure was placed on him that a sponsor/organizer was sought. Hal Bond volunteered for the task. We have to thank him for that!
But if a chess federation finds it so difficult to make its national championship a priority...should we be surprised that the vast majority of country's best players take neither the federation nor its championship seriously?
