8th Chess Olympiad

The 8th Chess Olympiad, organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), comprised an 'open' tournament, as well as a Women's World Championship contest. The main team event took place between August 21 and September 19, 1939, in Buenos Aires, Argentina and coincided with the outbreak of World War II. The Olympiad is the subject of the book: 'Pawns in a Greater Game' which was published in March 2015.

There was a record number of entries, with twenty-seven teams taking part. This compared with the nineteen nations participating at the previous Olympiad; the substantial increase being mostly due to the interest shown by other Central and South American nations, including Cuba, led by former World Champion José Raúl Capablanca on the top board.

Due to certain political events, prominent Austrian players Erich Eliskases and Albert Becker were playing under the German flag and official sources referred to the Czechoslovak team as 'Bohemia & Moravia'. Two of the teams that did not compete were those that finished first and second at , namely the United States and Hungary. Indeed, some nations found the cost of sending a team such a distance for a lengthy period prohibitively expensive.

Following the Preliminaries, the teams were split into Final Group A or Final Group B, with the former contesting the Hamilton-Russell Cup and the latter playing for the 'Copa Argentina', a consolation trophy presented by the Argentine President.

The preliminaries were played from August 21–31, 1939. There were three groups of 7 teams and a group of 6. From a round-robin format, the top four in each group then went forward to Final A, the remainder to Final B. Group winners were Bohemia & Moravia (tied with Poland, Group 1), Latvia (Group 2), Argentina (Group 3) and Sweden (Group 4).

The finals commenced on September 1, the very date of the outbreak of World War II. This led to much confusion amongst the European teams, although most players wanted to continue. The England team, despite having qualified for Final A, were the only team to return home immediately and their place was not filled. Three of five English representatives: Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, Stuart Milner-Barry, and Harry Golombek were soon recruited into Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre during World War II.

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