Salzburg 1942 chess tournament

The main organiser of Salzburg 1942, Ehrhardt Post, the Chief Executive of Nazi Grossdeutscher Schachbund, intended to bring together the six strongest players of Germany, the occupied and neutral European countries; world champion Alexander Alekhine, former champion Max Euwe, challenger Paul Keres, former challenger Efim Bogoljubov, winner of European tournament at Munich 1941 Gösta Stoltz, and German champion Paul Felix Schmidt. Euwe withdrew due to "illness". Actually, Euwe refused to participate because Alekhine was invited (Alekhine had written about the "Jewish clique" around Euwe in World Chess Championship 1935). His place was occupied by German sub-champion, the eighteen-years-old Klaus Junge. They made Salzburg 1942 the world's second, after a tournament purporting to be the first European Championship (Europameisterschaft) in Munich, strongest tournament in 1942.

The event took place in the rooms of Mirabell Palace in Salzburg from 9 to 18 June 1942. The players had to make 32 moves in two hours. Thereafter, the tempo became 16 moves per hour.

The final results and standings:

Klaus Junge was a lieutenant of the 12th SS Battalion defending Hamburg. Refusing to surrender, he died – shouted "Sieg Heil!" – in combat against Allied troops on 17 April 1945 in the battle of Welle on the Lüneburger Heide. The first Junge Memorial was held in Regensburg in 1946 (Fedor Bohatirchuk won). According to Dr Robert Hübner, Klaus Junge was the greatest German chess talent in the 20th century.

Alexander Alekhine moved to Spain in 1943. The chess world did not forget his Nazi articles published in 1941, although negotiations with Mikhail Botvinnik for a world title match were proceeding in 1946 when Alekhine died in Estoril, Portugal, in unclear circumstances. Some have speculated that he was murdered by a French "Death Squad". A few years later, Alekhine's son, Alexander Alekhine Junior, said that "the hand of Moscow reached his father".

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