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Feb-14-07 | | DennistheMenace: <We seek lesser-known instances of masters making unfavorable scores in simultaneous displays. For example, CHESS, 5 February 1955 (page 215) reported that Herman Pilnik had taken on 43 players in Zagreb, scoring +7 -19 =17. "Quite a good result, really," commented CHESS unconvincingly.> C.N. 2816 |
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Jan-08-08
 | | whiteshark: Bio in German, Spanish and English:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman...
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman...
A photo taken during the Chess Olympiad Munich 1958:
http://www.ajedrezargentina.org/ima... |
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Jan-08-08 | | Quintiliano: In his autobiography Laszlo Szabo remarks that at the 1956 Candidates' Pilnik spent most of the available time playing bridge (his true passion, apparently). And yet this tail-ender defeated Szabo, thus ruining his (very good) chances to challenge Botvinnik. |
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Jan-08-09
 | | brankat: A very strong player, no doubt, but, apparently, he was not nearly as committed to the game as most of his contemporaries. |
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Jan-08-09
 | | brankat: I assume Herr/Senor Pilnik was a member of the 1939 German Olympic team in Argentina, and, at the outbreak of the War stayed there together with a number of other European masters. |
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Jan-08-09 | | Karpova: No, the 1939 German Olympic team consisted of Eliskases, Michel, Engels, Becker and Reinhardt. According to the wikipedia biography, Herman and his parents emigrated to Argentina already in 1930. |
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Jan-08-09
 | | brankat: Thanks <Karpova>. I knew about Eliskases and Engels, but not about H.Pilnik. Regarding A Becker, since he was originally from Austria, I suppose he played for the German team after the Anschlus. |
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Jan-09-09 | | Karpova: <brankat>
At the unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich, 1936 both Eliskases and Becker played for Austria (there was neither a German nor an Austrian team at Stockholm 1937) and also in prior Olympiads.Pilnik was the best reserve player at his first Olympiad in Dubrovnik, 1950 with +6 -1 =3.
In Helsinki 1952 he played on board 4 and scored well again (+6 -1 =7).
Amsterdam 1954 was not that good, he was the 2nd reserve player and scored +3 -2 =2 (though the losses were against Bohartichuk and Keres!).
Fourth board for him again in Moscow, 1956 and +7 -3 =3 (loss against Bronstein).
In Munich, 1958 he was on board 1 with +5 -2 =8 (win over Uhlmann, draws against Reshevsky, Smyslov, Unzicker and Gligoric). |
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Jan-09-09
 | | brankat: <Karpova> Thank You. You are a wealth of information! |
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May-01-09 | | Augalv: Pilnik trivia:
It is said that after his first Olympiad in Dubrovnik (1950), the president of Argentina back then, Juan Perón, invited the Olympic team, which had finished as runner up, to a welcome reception. He accepted the invitation and went along with the other members of the team.
Once there, and as a token of gratitude for the Olympic team's achievments at the Olympiad in Dubrovnik, the Argentine president, who was accompanied by his wife Eva Duarte, offered a gift to each member of the team. It was a gift they could choose, so each of them was asked what they wanted. One of them said he wanted a life insurance for the president himself, another one said he wanted a house. When it was Pilnik's turn, he walked up to the first lady Eva Duarte and said to her he wanted "a kiss from you". http://www.p4r.org.ar/biografias/pi... |
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Jan-19-10
 | | GrahamClayton: Pilnik competed in the 1945 Pan-American Congress in Hollywood with his head swathed in bandages. The circumstances of how he was injured can be read here: http://sbchess.sinfree.net/Hollywoo... |
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Jan-08-11 | | ozmikey: <GrahamClayton> Looks to be a dead link unfortunately, so I'll fill in the story... ;-) Pilnik was on his way to the tournament by car at night (he was a replacement, if I remember rightly) and he crashed into a truck without its lights on. He woke up in hospital and was, not surprisingly, a few days late. He played a beautiful game against Weaver Warren Adams at that tournament, which doesn't appear to be in the database. |
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Jan-08-11
 | | Phony Benoni: We'll have to remedy that. For now:
Pilnik, Herman - Adams, Weaver Warren [C98]
Pan American Hollywood, 1945
<1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Qc7 12.Nbd2 Nc6 13.d5 Na5 14.Nf1 c4 15.g4 Nd7 16.Ng3 Re8 17.Kh2 Bf8 18.Rg1 Nc5 19.Nh4 Qb6 20.b4 cxb3 21.axb3 Nab7 22.Nhf5 b4 23.cxb4 Qxb4 24.Bd2 Qb6 25.b4 Nd7 26.Qe2 Nb8 27.Ba4 Bd7 28.Be3 Qd8 29.Bxd7 Qxd7 30.Nh5 Kh8 31.g5 Rc8 32.Nf6 Qd8 33.Qh5 gxf6 34.g6 fxg6 35.Rxg6 Qe8 36.Rag1 Qf7  click for larger view37.R6g4 1-0> |
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Feb-01-11
 | | wordfunph: 1973 Gambone-Leight Invitational:
A near tragedy preceded the start of the tournament. GM Herman Pilnik of Argentina was met at Philadelphia International Airport by one of the local chess organizers and his wife. While driving to the playing site, their car was struck and overturned with part of it hanging over the edge of a steep embankment. Pilnik emerged from this brush with death with many bruises and cuts but without serious injury. The other occupants both were hospitalized with broken bones. It is a tribute to Pilnik's fighting spirit that he started his first round as scheduled, and won, against no less a player than Soltis! (Source: Chess Life & Review 1973) |
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May-03-11
 | | perfidious: <Resignation Trap: .......Other surprises at the Goteborg Interzonal included a great start by Andrija Fuderer . After twelve rounds of play he had scored 7.5/11 (with one bye), but then followed a complete collapse, and Fuderer could only score three more draws in his remaining nine games, lost all the rest, and never made it to this level of play again.> A response to this last assertion from another thread: <May-13-08 brankat: <whiteshark> I used to know some people who, in turn, had known Fuderer. GM Ivkov, among others. They were good friends.
Apparently, Fuderer's failure in 1955 was not the reason for his quitting a "professional" chess career. Even before, he had already planned to devote himself to scientific pursuits.In 1955 he turned 24, and it coincided with his university graduation, upon which he proceeded with the post-graduate studies. I remember Ivkov saying that Fuderer had, and I quote: "..his own philosophical reasons..". Ivkov didn't elaborate on this. My feeling has been that, when it became apparent how much work, study, time, energy, it would require to reach and maintain the highest level of mastery in (just) a Game, Fuderer decided to devote the same to what he perceived as a more "worthy" pursuit. There has been a number of very promising masters that did, more or less, the same.> |
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Feb-24-12
 | | HeMateMe: Interesting quote from Pilnik:
"Fischer is a genius, a monster." |
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Sep-23-12 | | Antiochus: [Event "Buenos Aires"]
[Site "Buenos Aires"]
[Date "1935.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Guillermo Holtey"]
[Black "Herman Pilnik"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A52"]
[PlyCount "48"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. e3 Ngxe5 6. Be2 Bb4+ 7. Nbd2 O-O
8. a3 Bxd2+ 9. Qxd2 d6 10. b3 Be6 11. Bb2 a5 $1 12. Qc3 f6 13. Rd1 Qe7 14. O-O
Bg4 15. Kh1 Nd8 16. Rd2 Ne6 17. Nd4 Nc5 18. f3 Bd7 19. e4 f5 20. exf5 Bxf5 21.
Nxf5 Rxf5 22. Bd1 Ne4 23. Qc2 Ng4 24. Rd4 Ng3+ 0-1 |
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Oct-20-12 | | tim butler: Are there any articles about chess during WW2? I know some storys about the German team got stuck in Argentina just when the war started and some members stayed. |
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Oct-20-12
 | | paulalbert: To <tim butler>: The best overview is Reuben Fine's book "Chess Marches On!" published in 1945 which covers chess during the war in the U.S., Russia, South America, and German occupied Europe, and a few games from London 1941 tournament. In addition to 50 annotated games by top players, the text summarizes in each area the impact of the war on chess. Although chess activity was obviously curtailed, each locality to some extent had high level tournaments, but without the normal mix of international competitors. I have the original 1945 edition, but Amazon has available a version recently published by Sam Sloan's Ishi Press. |
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Oct-20-12 | | parisattack: One of the originators of the 5. ...e5 Sicilian. Older opening books refer to it as the Pilnik-Pelikan and/or the Lasker-Hunt variation. Sveshnikov gave it new life in the 1970s with ...b5 temporarily trapping white's KN on a3 - although Larsen played ...b5 against Olafsson in 1958 then reverted to ...Rc8 against Robatsch a few years later. |
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Oct-21-12
 | | HeMateMe: Seems like Argentina was a good place to spend the war. Grass fed beef, fresh air, and no Nazis. I couldn't help but notice ChessBase really hyping the present Mar del Plata tournament in Argentina. It doesn't seem to have elite players, but they are treating it as a super tournament. I'm reminded of Fischer playing in Mar del Platta. I think Spassky, Najdorf and David Bronstein were there, at the tournament in the 60s. Now THAT's a tournament. |
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Apr-22-13 | | Abdel Irada: <HeMateMe: Seems like Argentina was a good place to spend the war. Grass fed beef, fresh air, and no Nazis.> I'm sure the victims of Dr. Josef Mengele (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef...) and other war criminals in the German exodus to South America during and after the war will be tickled to hear it. |
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Jan-08-14
 | | Penguincw: R.I.P. <POTD>: Herman Pilnik. |
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Jun-26-16 | | Yopo: Leonid Stein cannot stop his "b"-pawn
Pilnik vs Stein, 1966 |
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Jan-07-19
 | | Dijon15: So, why doesn't the bio mention Pilnik's rating? |
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