Semmering-Baden 1937

Sponsored by Austria's casinos, eight of the world's finest players met in the autumn of 1937 for an elite double round-robin in the hills south of Vienna. The 21-year-old Estonian Paul Keres won it a full point clear of the unbeaten Reuben Fine, ahead of Capablanca and Reshevsky — a victory Keres regarded as the one that confirmed him among the game's very best.

◇A casino tournament in the Austrian hills

The event was staged and paid for by Austria's casinos, which assembled a compact but formidable eight-man field: Keres, Fine, former World Champion José Raúl Capablanca, Samuel Reshevsky, Salo Flohr, Erich Eliskases, Viacheslav Ragozin and the Latvian Vladimirs Petrovs. The first four rounds were played at the mountain resort of Semmering before the tournament moved down to the Hotel Grüner Baum in Baden bei Wien for the remainder.

The double round-robin was overseen by two great names of the game: reigning World Champion Max Euwe acted as chief arbiter for the first half of the schedule, after which Rudolf Spielmann took over for the second.

◇Keres arrives

Keres won with 9/14, scoring six wins against only two losses, a full point ahead of Fine, who finished second on 8/14 without losing a single game. Capablanca and Reshevsky shared third place on 7½, with Flohr fifth on 7.

For Keres it was an important result. He later described Semmering-Baden as a kind of Candidates tournament and counted the win among the results that put him at the top of world chess, at the end of a strong run of results through 1937.