Prague Pre-Olympiad Tournament 1931

Incomplete record. This archive holds 5 games of this event; the others are missing, and the number played is not established. Only five scores are available in the approved archives. At least seventeen other published scores are missing; the complete physical-game total and default census have not been established.

Gösta Stoltz won the twelve-player Prague pre-Olympiad tournament with 8 points from eleven rounds. Vasja Pirc finished half a point behind, followed by Salo Flohr on 7.

◇A rehearsal before the Olympiad

Nine Czechoslovak players were joined by Stoltz from Sweden, Pirc from Yugoslavia and Kazimierz Makarczyk from Poland. Contemporary Czech commentary treated the tournament as an opportunity to assess candidates for the home Olympic team. Stoltz overtook Pirc by defeating him in the final round.

Karel Opočenský and Josef Rejfíř shared fourth and fifth places on 6½. Berger, Makarczyk and Dr. Skalička shared sixth to eighth on 5½, followed by Gilg and Richter on 5 and Gombos and Kubánek on 2. These totals follow the original Austrian report. Its Swedish counterpart groups Skalička on 5; that conflicting total is not used here.

◇Separate Prague competitions

The spring tournament preceded the July Olympiad and the congress masters tournament won by Dr. Leo Zobel. Those competitions and the later Flohr–Stoltz return match are separate events. The contemporary Swedish report places a week of rest before the return match; it was not a playoff for this tournament.

The later chronology dates the tournament to 26 April–3 May. Both native games against Gilg and Pirc retain June partial dates, despite the contemporary May reporting. All source dates, unknown rounds, names, results and moves are preserved.

◇An incomplete surviving record

Five approved scores are available here. Seventeen other published scores were independently replayed for comparison but are absent from both approved archives; external moves have not been imported. The published totals sum to 66, but a complete result matrix and default census were not obtained, so the physically played total remains unconfirmed.

The incomplete scores cannot generate a reliable cross-table. The historical final scores are therefore listed in the narrative above. Berger, Richter and Gombos remain surname-only in that listing where conflicting sources do not safely establish a full identity.