The most important tournament of 1932 brought World Champion Alexander Alekhine to Bern, where six visiting masters faced ten of Switzerland's best. Alekhine, in the strongest stretch of his career, scored 12½ out of 15 and finished a full point clear, while Max Euwe, Salo Flohr and Mir Sultan Khan fought over the places behind him.
The champion untouchable
Bern fell in the golden run that defined Alekhine's world championship years — the era of San Remo 1930 and Bled 1931, when he treated elite tournaments less as contests than as demonstrations. He lost a single game across the fifteen rounds and drew only three, finishing on 12½ to win outright ahead of a genuinely strong field. Whatever his opponents tried, the champion answered with clarity: at Bern he met Sultan Khan's attempts to muddy the position head-on and made his nearest rival, Salo Flohr, look ordinary.
Euwe and Flohr shared second on 11½, each a full point behind. Both were rising challengers — Euwe would take the world title in 1935, Flohr was widely tipped to earn a match of his own — and neither could close the gap on Alekhine here.
Sultan Khan among the masters
The field's most singular figure was Mir Sultan Khan, the Punjabi player who had learned the game under Indian rules and, in barely four years in Europe, three times won the British Championship. At Bern he finished fourth on 11, ahead of the seasoned grandmasters Ossip Bernstein and Efim Bogoljubov, who shared fifth. It was one of the last great continental results of his short, meteoric career: at the end of 1933 his patron took him back to India, and the chess world heard almost nothing from him again.
The remaining places went to the Swiss contingent that gave the tournament its host character — the brothers Hans and Paul Johner shared seventh, with Henri Grob, Oskar Naegeli, Walter Henneberger, and William Rivier filling out the middle of the table.
“At Bern he imposed clarity against Khan's clever attempt to mix things up, and made his chief rival Salo Flohr look amateurish.”
Final standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alekhine, Alexander | 12½/15 | +11 -1 =3 | games |
| =2 | Flohr, Salo | 11½/15 | +9 -1 =5 | games |
| =2 | Euwe, Max | 11½/15 | +8 -0 =7 | games |
| 4 | Sultan Khan, Mir | 11/15 | +10 -3 =2 | games |
| =5 | Bernstein, Ossip Samuel | 10/15 | +8 -3 =4 | games |
| =5 | Bogoljubov, Efim | 10/15 | +8 -3 =4 | games |
| =7 | Johner, Hans | 7/15 | +5 -6 =4 | games |
| =7 | Johner, Paul F | 7/15 | +5 -6 =4 | games |
| =9 | Grob, Henry | 6/15 | +5 -8 =2 | games |
| =9 | Naegeli, Oskar | 6/15 | +5 -8 =2 | games |
| =9 | Henneberger, Walter | 6/15 | +4 -7 =4 | games |
| =9 | Rivier, William | 6/15 | +4 -7 =4 | games |
| 13 | Colin, B | 5½/15 | +4 -8 =3 | games |
| 14 | Voellmy, Erwin | 4½/15 | +3 -9 =3 | games |
| 15 | Gygli, Fritz | 3½/15 | +1 -9 =5 | games |
| 16 | Staehelin, Adolf | 2/15 | +1 -12 =2 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alekhine, Alexander | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 2 | Flohr, Salo | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Euwe, Max | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Sultan Khan, Mir | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | Bernstein, Ossip Samuel | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 6 | Bogoljubov, Efim | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | Johner, Hans | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | |
| 8 | Johner, Paul F | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | Grob, Henry | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 10 | Naegeli, Oskar | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 11 | Henneberger, Walter | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 12 | Rivier, William | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | |
| 13 | Colin, B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 14 | Voellmy, Erwin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | |
| 15 | Gygli, Fritz | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | |
| 16 | Staehelin, Adolf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player.