Bohor Hallegua

Bohor Hallégua (other spellings: Alega , Allegat or Hallegna ; bl. 1912-1926) was an Ottoman - French chess player who attracted attention in Western Europe in the mid-1910s with some tournaments. Within two years he competed against two future world champions and two former world championship challengers. His best Edo number was 2329 in 1914.

Life

origin

Little information is available about Hallégua's private life. It is known that "a few years" before his first public appearance - possibly around 1910 - he attended a lycée in Paris and in 1914 was referred to as a "young man". The French language he spoke fluently apparently. This raises questions about his nationality, which is not fully established. Most publications refer to him as a Turk, but in 1991 the British Chess Magazine mentioned that , when he took part in the 1914 tournament in Mannheim, he was actually a Turk for France (“Although playing under French colors, Hallegua was a Turk [... ] "). It is therefore possible that he had both nationalities.

The surname Hallégua indicates an origin from the large Jewish community of Thessaloniki , where it existed in numerous spellings at the time in question - including Chalegua, Haleguoa, Halleova, Halegova. The city belonged to the Ottoman Empire between 1430 and 1912 . Jewish life there goes back mainly to the Sephardi , who were expelled from all territories of Castile and Aragon with the Alhambra Edict in 1492 and to whom the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II had given refuge.

Appearance in Paris chess circles

Hallégua learned to play chess relatively late during his time at the Paris Lycée. It is reported that he later played regularly in the chess group L'Académie Ludo in Paris' Latin Quarter . On June 4, 1912, he took part in a simultaneous event by Eduard Lasker . This competed in front of more than 150 spectators against 35 opponents in parallel. 26 of these games ended with a victory for the German, four draws and in five cases Lasker's opponents prevailed - one of them was Hallégua.

Together with A. Kramer, he led the white stones in May 1913 in a consulting game against Leo Nardus and Dawid Janowski - who had only played for the world title two and a half years earlier - and lost after 32 moves. A few months later, on October 25, 1913, Hallégua was one of the players in another simultaneous event, this time hosted by José Raúl Capablanca in the L'échiquier chess club in the Café Continental. The only 24-year-old Cuban had his international breakthrough at a tournament in San Sebastián in 1911 . He was considered an aspiring world-class player and had already unsuccessfully negotiated the conditions for a world championship match with the reigning title holder Emanuel Lasker . Capablanca won 28 of 33 games; three games were remisiert and two players, including once Hallégua could free himself from the master. This success should have significantly increased his reputation within the Paris chess scene.

In February and March 1914 in the famous Parisian Café de la Régence he took second place in a one-round tournament with ten participants behind Janowski and in front of, for example, Frédéric Lazard . He achieved six points from nine games (+ 5, = 2, - 2). Over the next few months, several encounters followed - initially in the form of three further consulting games - with Frank Marshall , who had been a contender for the world title in 1907 : On April 10, 1914 Hallégua won in the chess club L'échiquier together with Marshall and Nardus after 36 moves with the white stones against MD Altintope, de Cramer and Alexandre Téléguine. After Marshall returned from the tournament in Saint Petersburg , Hallégua played the black stones with Téléguine against him and Vasili soldierskow at the end of May; The former duo gave up after 44 moves. Finally, Hallégua, de Cramer, Téléguine and Humbert were able to defeat Marshall, Soldierskow and Luedeck after 61 moves on June 27 with the white stones. Hallégua lost all three games against Marshall, André Muffang and future world champion Alexander Alekhine in a top-class four-man competition at L'échiquier in Café Continental from July 12 to 14, and finished last. Then he played a friendship game against Alekhine, but had to admit defeat with the white pieces after only 25 moves.

The Spanish weekly magazine La Ilustración Española y Americana described Hallégua in retrospect in September 1919 as the strongest player in Paris at the time ( sp .: "El más fuerte jugador de París"), but this does not coincide with his results.

Success in Germany

In June 1914 Hallegúa had applied to participate in the main tournament A of the 19th DSB Congress in Mannheim . A total of 42 applications were received for this tournament, of which 18 were ultimately accepted - including his own. The congress began on July 18 by welcoming the guests; A celebratory meal followed the next day, before the games were played in the “hidden in the [G] arten” ballroom of the city ​​palace on July 20th . Several competitions with players of different strengths took place in parallel - the master tournament, the main tournament A, the main tournament B, the secondary tournament A and the secondary tournament B. Originally it was intended that the best-placed players in the main tournament A would be entitled to participate in the master's tournament of the 20th DSB Congress, which was to be held in 1916. It was also announced that the winner of the main tournament A was to be awarded the prestigious “Master's title of the German Chess Federation” - which could also be acquired by foreigners. With regard to the reflection time , the rule was that the first 30 moves had to be made within 120 minutes and then 15 moves within 60 minutes.

The Congress coincided with the last third of the July crisis , during which political tensions in Europe steadily intensified. After the German general mobilization and declaration of war on Russia on August 1st, the organizing committee needed to break off the congress and the tournaments. By then Hallégua had achieved eight points from eleven games (+ 6, = 4, - 1) and led the field of 18 players. His Dutch opponent Willem Schelfhout described Hallégua's victory as a “surprise”, but also emphasized his “solid and powerful positional play”. It should be noted, however, that Hallégua was in the lead on points, but had earned his eight points in eleven games. That means that he won 72.73 percent of all possible points. The second placed Ilja Rabinowitsch, however, achieved his 7 ¹ ⁄ ₂ points in only ten games, which corresponds to a higher percentage of 75 percent. Both players were then declared winners. In view of the cancellation, the organizers reorganized the awarding of the prizes. All participants of the main tournament A now received 25 marks as compensation and in addition, the nine best-placed players were each paid half of the prize money intended for their placement. The winner was originally supposed to receive 1,000 marks; the now reduced sum of 500 marks was divided between the two winners. Hallégua therefore left the tournament with 275 marks, which, based on today's purchasing power, would correspond to an amount of around 2750 euros.

Cross table with the final scores after the termination of main tournament A (Mannheim, 1914)

	player	01	02	03	04th	05	06th	07th	08th	09	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	Games	Points
01.	Bohor Hallégua			0	1		½	1	1	½	1	½		1		1		½		11	8th
02.	Ilya Rabinovich			1	0	½				1	1	1	1	0	1		1		-	10	7½
03.	Oscar Tenner	1	0			0	1	1	0					1	1	1	½	1		11	7½
04th	Carl Ahues	0	1			½	0	1	½				1		½		1	1	-	10	6½
05.	Lajos Asztalos		½	1	½			½		1	½	½	½		0		1		-	10	6th
06th	Fedir Bohatyrchuk	½		0	1				½	0	1	0		1		1		½		10	5½
07th	Sigmund Herland	0		0	0	½					½	½	1	1		1	1 *			10	5½
08th.	Willem Schelfhout	0		1	½		½				0	½	0	1		1	1 *			10	5½
09.	B. Studt	½	0			0	1					1	1	0		1	0	1	-	10	5½
10.	Alexei Seleznyov	0	0			½	0	½	1				½		½	½	1	1		11	5½
11.	Karel Opočenský	½	0			½	1	½	½	0				0	1	½		½		11	5
12.	Boris Malyutin		0		0	½		0	1	0	½				1		1	½	-	10	4½
13.	Wilhelm Hilse	0	1	0			0	0	0	1		1			½	0		½		11	4th
14th	Walter Henneberger		0	0	½	1					½	0	0	½		1	0			10	3½
15th	Wilhelm Schönmann	0		0			0	0	0	0	½	½		1	0			1		11	3
16.	Hans Duhm		0	½	0	0		0 *	0 *	1	0		0		1				-	10	2½
17th	Gunnar Gundersen	½		0	0		½			0	0	½	½	½		0				10	2½
18th	Josef Hrdina		-		-	-				-			-				-			06th	3½

Boxes with a red background mark the games that could no longer be played due to the tournament being canceled. The Austro-Hungarian player Josef Hrdina left for Prague on July 28th - after his country declared war on Serbia - because he had received his draft . It is therefore not mentioned in the final result lists. By then he had achieved 3 ¹ ⁄ ₂ points from six games, which were, however, canceled. The Swiss Hans Duhm retired after nine laps; his outstanding games against Schelfhout and Herland were counted for the opponents (marked with an asterisk).

Whenever they could, most of the foreign players left immediately. The eleven Russians taking part in the tournaments of the Congress were initially interned and remained in custody for different lengths of time. Hallégua was unable to return to France, which was now hostile, in time. At the beginning of August he came to stay at the Mannheim Park Hotel, where he made the acquaintance of Wilhelm Pippig , an impoverished amateur chess player from Dachau . He had taken part in the side tournament A without any notable success, now hired himself out as a waiter in the chess café and was also allowed to live in the hotel. The Dutch daily De Telegraaf described the situation as follows:

“The Turk kent geen stom woord Duitsch en Pip [p] ig evenmin Fransch. Maar dat doesn’t prevent it: zij verstaan ​​elkander vast beter dan de volkeren van het beschaafde Europa. "

“The Turk doesn't know a stupid [= single] word [in] German and Pip [p] ig doesn't know French either. But that does not prevent: They certainly understood each other better than the peoples of civilized Europe. "

Further work

A correspondence chess game is documented for 1914 and 1915 , which Hallégua played against P. Humbert - possibly from Germany - and in which he gave up after 61 moves with the black pieces. In the end he managed to return to Paris. There he experienced two defeats with white stones in the Club Cercle Philidor at the end of May 1915 : First, on May 23, he and Humbert lost a consulting game against Arnold Aurbach and J. Lew after 31 moves , before he followed up alone against Aurbach a day later 23 trains lost. After that, its track is initially lost again.

In the list of members of the Paris chess club Les échecs du Palais-Royal published on April 15, 1921, he is listed as an honorary member and his address is given as 5 rue de l'Abbé-de-L'Épée 5 in the 5th arrondissement . The last mention dates back to 1926: In the October edition of the Deutsche Schachzeitung there was a discussion with notation notes sent in by readers about an article published in the March edition about the Alekhine Chatard attack . There are also three references from Hallégua. However, it is unclear whether these are actually letters from him or whether he simply wrote down his comments.

List of chess games

In the following table, all chess games that can be assigned to Hallégua are listed chronologically. Only a few of them know which pieces he led and how many moves were made. Since the actual order of the games in the tournaments is not evident from the available cross tables, the corresponding games are sorted here by result.

Continuing

Remarks

1. ↑ The Edo number is a code developed by Rod Edwards to determine the skill level of chess players between 1809 and 1927. It is based on the same intention as with the historical Elo number - the calculation methods differ, however. No historical Elo rating has (yet) been determined for Hallégua. Edwards is Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Victoria .
2. ^ The list of members of the chess club Les échecs du Palais-Royal , published on April 15, 1921, is also the only known source that gives Halléguas full first names. In all other publications it is abbreviated to “B.” (possibly out of ignorance).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Leonard M. Skinner, Robert GP Verhoeven: Alexander Alekhine's chess games, 1902-1946 . McFarland & Company, Jefferson , 1998, ISBN 978-0-786-40117-8 .
2. ^ Paul Keres , Alexander Kotow : The art of the middle game . Dover Publications , New York City , 1989, ISBN 978-0-486-26154-6 , 64.
3. ↑ Data sheet with tournament results and historical Edo number for Hallégua according to calculations by Rod Edwards. Retrieved from edochess.ca on April 30, 2018.
4. ^ ^{A b c d} Willem Schelfhout: "Het Meester-Tournooi te Mannheim". In: Tijdschrift van den Nederlandschen Schaakbond, year 22, № 8, August 1914, pages 150–154.
5. ^ ^{A b c} Willem Schelfhout: "De avonturen van een Hollandsch schaakspeler te Mannheim". In: De Telegraaf . Volume 22, № 7945, August 17, 1914, page 6.
6. ^ British Chess Magazine , Volume 111, 1991, page 407.
7. ↑ ^{a b} "Ajedrez". In: La Ilustración Española y Americana , Volume 63, № 36, September 30, 1919, page 574.
8. ↑ "Nouvelles". In: La Stratégie. Revue mensuelle d'échecs , Volume 45, Issue 6, June 1912, Page 238.
9. ^ "Petites nouvelles". In: L'Écho de Paris , Volume 29, № 10179, June 10, 1912, page 5.
10. ↑ Notation for the part “Hallégua, Kramer - Janowski, Nardus; Paris 1913 ”. Retrieved from oldinchess.blogspot.de (English) on April 30, 2018.
11. ↑ "Les échecs". In: La Croix , Volume 34, № 9394, October 29, 1913, page 6.
12. ^ Jean-Olivier Leconte: Le Cafe de la Regence. Tome 2 . Self-published , 2015, ISBN 978-2-955-35070-6 .
13. ↑ Data sheet for the February / March tournament 1914 in Paris. Retrieved from edochess.ca on April 30, 2018.
14. ↑ Notation for the part “Marshall, Nardus, Hallégua - Altintope, de Cramer, Téléguine; Paris 1914 ”. Retrieved from oldinchess.blogspot.de (English) on April 30, 2018.
15. ↑ Notation for the part “Marshall, Soldierskow - Hallégua, Téléguine; Paris 1914 ”. In: Hartford Courant , December 27, 1914, p.30. Retrieved from newspapers.com on July 4, 2019.
16. ↑ La Stratégie. Revue mensuelle d'échecs , Volume 47, Issue 2, 1914, page 280.
17. ↑ Notation for the four-player game “Alekhine - Hallégua; Paris 1914 ”. Retrieved from oldinchess.blogspot.de (English) on April 30, 2018.
18. ↑ Information on the result of the Paris four-way tournament in July 1914. Retrieved from oldinchess.blogspot.de (English) on April 30, 2018.
19. ↑ Notation for the friendship game “Hallégua - Alekhine; Paris 1914 ”. Retrieved from oldinchess.blogspot.de (English) on April 30, 2018.
20. ↑ Werner Lauterbach : Mannheim 1914 . Walter Rau Verlag, Düsseldorf , 1964, page 6.
21. ^ ^{A b c} Hans-Dieter Müller: Mannheim 1914. Chess and War - The unfinished tournament . On December 20, 2005 on schachbund.de ( German Chess Federation ). Retrieved July 12, 2019.
22. ^ Anthony J. Gillam: Mannheim 1914 and the interned Russians . The Chess Player, 2014, ISBN 978-0-992-79242-8 , page 262.
23. ^ Anthony J. Gillam: Mannheim 1914 and the interned Russians . The Chess Player, 2014, ISBN 978-0-992-79242-8 .
24. ^ Arnold Aurbach, P. Humbert: Report on the correspondence chess game "Humbert - Hallégua; 1914/1915 ". In: Schweizerische Schachzeitung , year 16, № 8, August 1916, pages 117–120.
25. ↑ "The Alekhine Variant of the French Defense". In: Deutsche Schachzeitung , October 1926, pages 295-296.

Web links

• Replayable chess games by Bohor Hallegua on 365Chess.com (English)
• Replayable chess games by Bohor Hallegua on chessgames.com (English)