I think it was because they way Bogo left the USSR and stayed and played for Germany.

But if he won the title in 1934 then I'm sure the Soviet public would have heard a lot more about him.

(maybe like most of us they could not spell his name so said; 'sod it, let's erase him.')

Efim Bogoljubow, Caissa 1952

click for larger view

<White mate in 3...>

Looks like that 13th is correct.

His signature is <Ewfim Bogoljubow> and not <Efim Bogoljubov> - To write his name right, he'd have had better a quick look at chessgames.com ...

The mentioned bio 'portrait' was cropped out of his official wedding photograph showing the married couple all dolled up. With a commanding groom posing in the 'middle' of his life.

'.. In 1918, the Russian players were freed, and they all left [Germany], except one – Bogoljubov, who was "captured for eternity" by Frau Frieda Kaltenbach, the daughter of the local schoolmaster. They got married in 1920 and later had two daughters, Sonja and Tamara. ..'

from 'The Creative Power of Bogoljubov Volume I' by Grigory Bogdanovich, 2020

The entire photograph can be found e.g. in the greatly enjoyable book mentioned above.

Unrelated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJl...

Information about Bogo's post-war career is sketchy, but from what I've turned up, it appears that his postwar difficulties had more to do with what he did in the 1920's than what he did in the 1940's.

First of all, FIDE cleared him of any wartime wrongdoing in 1947.

<Bogoljubow, the German master, had applied in 1946 for a clean bill of health so that he might again participate in internatonal tournaments. His conduct during the war years was carefully checked by a special committee. After hearing that committee's report, the [FIDE General] Assembly decided that no action was in order and left it to the discretion of each organizing committee whether or not to invite Boboljubow.> -- Chess Life, August 20, 1947

Fedor Bohatirchuk in Chess Life, 2/20/51, criticizes the inaugural list of IM's and GM's for including people he'd never heard of, but leaving Bogoljubov off, for no specific reason he mentions. He does criticize a rule that allows the FIDE Commission of Qualification to withhold the granting of a title on the grounds of conduct", but doesn't specifically tie this to Bogo.

When Bogo did finally get the GM title, Chess Life makes it clear that it had been the Eastern bloc standing in the way.

<GRANDMASTERS: It was finally agreed to recognize Bogoljubow as a grandmaster by 13 votes to 8 with 5 abstaining. Jugoslavia supported the motion but the other communistic countries voted against recognizing Bogoljubow.> -- Chess Life 9/20/51

If Bogo had been pro-Hitler, East and West would have both been against him. Is there anything apart from the war that the East might have had against him? Well yes, of course Bogo had been a Soviet player at one time, and 2-time Soviet Champion before leaving for Germany in the 20's. A footnote on page 5 of Chess Life 10/5/1951, mentions that "Bogo's Treachery" in leaving the Soviet Union for Germany was resented much more even than Alekhine's departure:

Bohatirchuk again, who seems to have known Bogo fairly well, completely dispels the idea of his being pro-Hitler

<Truly, it was necessary only to have a short conversation with Bogoljubow in order to know that he was in the [Nazi] party only with the aim of disguising himself and saving his daughters from mobilization. He told me how difficult it was, even with a Nazi membership in his pocket. So far as I know, Bogoljubov never accepted Nazi ideology, was anti-Hitler, and never approved of the cruel practices of this madman.

I remember that at the time of the Radom tournament, he succeeded in getting good radio reception. After the round, we sat around it the whole evening and listened to the information from neutral stations. I had never suspected before that the military situation of Nazi Germany was so bad. Bogoljubov laughed at my naive surprise and said that the end of Hitler was very near.

... After the Allied victory I did not hear about Bogoljubov for two years. Later on, I learned he had some difficulties in clearing himself in a denazification board. Finally he was screened and allowed chess activity. I was very glad because I knew very well how far Bogoljubov had been from any political activity, especially on the side of Hitler.

Bogoljubov was very greatly offended by the refusal of FIDE (this time dominated by the Soviet delegation) to recognize him as a grandmaster and to allow him to participate in international tournaments (a decision which was cancelled only in 1951).

In vain I tried to explain the obvious reasons for this decision - such injustice he could not accept. "Ask everybody in Germany - let anybody prove my adherence to the Nazis for other than formal reasons, and I will obey, but now it is clear that the only reason is the revenge of the Soviets." This refusal hurt him financially because it took away one of the sources of his earnings.> -- Chess Life 7/20/52.

Looks like there may have been a lot more post-war Bogo games than appear in the database. There's only one game (a defeat from the Flensburg tournament, which he won. Only one game (a draw) from the West German Championship he won. Only two games out of, I think 11 from the Staunton Memorial. Chess Review described this time as being very active:

<His career continued very active after the second match with Alekhine but perhaps not so impressive. Then, too, with the war years, Bogolyubov was almost lost from sight in Nazi occupied terrain. He did, indeed, take part in some, doubtless enforced, Nazi tournaments. As a native of the Ukraine and later a German citizen he could have had little choice.

But, after World War II. he re-emerged and was staging a come-back. with a first at Flensburg, Denmark, 1947, and at Oldenburg, Germany, 1949, and winning the West German Championship in 1949. Despite his objection to being left out of the World Chess Championship program, it seems hardly likely that, at 63, Bogolyubov could seriously have threatened the World Champion today. But he certainly could have made an impression in international tournaments> -- July 1952

Are you saying that it shouldn't count as a title win? I count it that way because Larry Evans' column for years described him as a 5-time US Champion (four tournament wins, plus one match defense). Denker is also usually described as a 2-time US Champion (1 tournament, 1 match defense).

But that's the way things were done later. I saw an article from around 1950-ish that described Reshevsky as a 5 time US Champion, counting his then-5 tournament wins, but not his match with Horowitz. Did they just forget that, or did they deliberately exclude it?

Now, on the other hand, playoff matches I don't count. The 1942 Reshevsky-Kashdan match was about breaking the tie in the 1942 championship. Reshevsky didn't win another title in that match, just took Kashdan's share of the 1942 title. Reshevsky and Kashdan were co-champions for 6 months or so, then Reshevsky was the sole champion for the remainder of that reign.

Possibly so. Something similar happened with the 1972 US Championship. Not quite the same situation, as it was a tiebreaker rather than a title defense, but similar.

In that championship, Reshevsky, Byrne and Kavalek all tied for first. But it was a Zonal and they had three champions and only two Interzonal spots. So they had a playoff, which Byrne won, and in annuals and things afterwards, Byrne is listed as the sole champion for 1972, even though the playoff was held in 1973, nine months later. There wasn't a single day in 1972 in which Byrne was sole champion.

I consider that one the same as 1942. For 9 months there were three champions, until Byrne took the shares of Reshevsky and Kavalek and become sole champion.

So far as I recall, Kotov's biography of Alekhine refers to a speech he gave at a dinner in Paris in the late 1920s, after which he became PNG.

Thanks for posting that.

For anyone who is interested, Sadler talks about Bogoljubov for a couple of minutes starting about 6:25 in. The hook is a recent book, <The Creative Power of Bogoljubov> https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Pow...

Sadler identifies Bogo's great strengths as optimism, a great all-around game, a good feel for the initiative, and broad opening knowledge. Sadler, who is appealingly enthusiastic re just about everything he talks about, remembers looking at Bogo's results in the Alekhine matches and thinking "what a loser!" but as he became a chess professional himself, he got a new appreciation for Bogo's accomplishments.