Przepiórka Memorial 1950
Incomplete record. This archive holds 189 of the 190 games played; 1 is missing.
The first Przepiórka Memorial gathered a strong international field in the Lower Silesian spa town of Szczawno-Zdrój to honour Dawid Przepiórka, Poland's first national champion and great patron of the game, murdered by the Germans in 1940. Paul Keres dominated it, winning on 14½/19 a full point clear of a chasing trio — Gedeon Barcza, László Szabó and the young Mark Taimanov — in a year that also saw him take the Soviet Championship.
In memory of Dawid Przepiórka
Dawid Przepiórka won the inaugural Polish championship in 1926 and became a leading patron of Polish chess, part of the Warsaw squad that won Olympiad gold at Hamburg in 1930. A Jewish master, he was seized in a Gestapo raid on a Warsaw chess gathering early in the war and is believed to have been shot at Palmiry around April 1940. This 1950 tournament in his memory was the first of a series of events later staged in his name.
It was held at Szczawno-Zdrój, a spa town in Lower Silesia that had passed to Poland after the Second World War. The occasion drew a strong cross-section of post-war European chess — Soviet, Hungarian and Czechoslovak grandmasters and masters alongside the leading Polish players — and laid bare the gulf that then separated Poland's best from the elite of the USSR, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Keres in command
Twenty players contested a single round-robin of nineteen rounds. Keres was the class of the field, finishing on 14½/19 with eleven wins, seven draws and a single loss — a point ahead of everyone else. Barcza, Szabó and Taimanov shared second on 13½, with Igor Bondarevsky fifth on 12½ and the Czechoslovak Jan Foltys sixth on 12.
Just below them came two more names that would loom large in the coming decade: Efim Geller, seventh on 11½, and Yuri Averbakh, eighth on 11. For Keres the result capped a formidable 1950 — in the same year he also won the 18th Soviet Championship in Moscow and played in the Budapest Candidates, reaffirming his standing among the very strongest players in the world.
Final standings
The standings below are the historical final result. Only 189 of the 190 games played survive in our source; the remaining 1 are lost and appear as · in the cross table.
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keres, Paul | 14½/19 | +11 -1 =7 | games |
| =2 | Barcza, Gedeon | 13½/19 | +10 -2 =7 | games |
| =2 | Szabo, Laszlo | 13½/19 | +9 -1 =9 | games |
| =2 | Taimanov, Mark E | 13½/19 | +10 -2 =7 | games |
| 5 | Bondarevsky, Igor Tsakharovich | 12½/19 | +9 -3 =7 | games |
| 6 | Foltys, Jan | 12/19 | +7 -2 =10 | games |
| 7 | Geller, Efim P | 11½/19 | +8 -4 =7 | games |
| 8 | Averbakh, Yuri L | 11/19 | +6 -3 =10 | games |
| =9 | Kottnauer, Cenek | 10½/19 | +5 -3 =11 | games |
| =9 | Simagin, Vladimir Pavlovich | 10½/19 | +7 -5 =7 | games |
| 11 | Tarnowski, Alfred | 8½/19 | +6 -8 =5 | games |
| =12 | Pogats, Jozsef | 8/19 | +6 -9 =4 | games |
| =12 | Pytlakowski, Andrzej | 8/19 | +5 -8 =6 | games |
| =12 | Troianescu, Octavio | 8/19 | +6 -9 =4 | games |
| 15 | Koberl, Ferenc | 7½/19 | +2 -6 =11 | games |
| 16 | Zita, Frantisek | 7/19 | +4 -9 =6 | games |
| 17 | Szapiel, Henryk | 6½/19 | +2 -8 =9 | games |
| 18 | Branicki, Ignacy | 6/19 | +4 -11 =4 | games |
| 19 | Arlamowski, Edward | 4½/19 | +3 -13 =3 | games |
| 20 | Gawlikowski, Stanislaw | 3/19 | +0 -13 =6 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keres, Paul | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Barcza, Gedeon | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Szabo, Laszlo | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Taimanov, Mark E | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | · | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | Bondarevsky, Igor Tsakharovich | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 6 | Foltys, Jan | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 7 | Geller, Efim P | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Averbakh, Yuri L | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | Kottnauer, Cenek | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | |
| 10 | Simagin, Vladimir Pavlovich | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | |
| 11 | Tarnowski, Alfred | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 12 | Pogats, Jozsef | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 13 | Pytlakowski, Andrzej | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | |
| 14 | Troianescu, Octavio | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 15 | Koberl, Ferenc | 0 | ½ | ½ | · | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | |
| 16 | Zita, Frantisek | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 17 | Szapiel, Henryk | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | |
| 18 | Branicki, Ignacy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | |
| 19 | Arlamowski, Edward | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | |
| 20 | Gawlikowski, Stanislaw | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player. · = game played but lost (not preserved in our source).