Clare Benedict Cup
The Clare Benedict Cup was a chess tournament for national teams from Western and Northern Europe, which was held a total of 23 times from 1953 to 1979.
Overview and history
founding
The founder of the tournament was the patroness and writer Clare Benedict (1871–1961) , who comes from Cleveland (Ohio) and has lived in Switzerland since 1945 . Her ancestors were related to the writer James Fenimore Cooper .
Benedict spent her twilight years on Lake Lucerne and, thanks to the mediation of former world champion Max Euwe, found ideal partners in Alois Nagler and the Zurich chess society, who put their vision of a peaceful national tournament into practice in a sophisticated atmosphere.
Tournament form
The Claire Benedict Cup was held as a round-robin tournament ("everyone against everyone"). Each team consisted of four players (plus a substitute). Only in the first edition in 1953 was played on five boards. As a rule, six teams competed at a time, up to eight in recent years. The first evaluation criterion was the board points.
In 1954 the team tournament was held in Zurich as an individual tournament with 12 players. The German grandmaster Lothar Schmid won ahead of Erwin Nievergelt from Switzerland and ex-world champion Max Euwe .
participating countries
| country | Participation | Victories | host |
|---|---|---|---|
 Belgium
|
2 | 0 | 0 |
 Denmark
|
4th | 1 | 1 |
 Germany
|
21st | 12 | 2 |
 England
|
18th | 2 | 2 |
 France
|
2 | 0 | 0 |
 Italy
|
10 | 0 | 0 |
 Netherlands
|
21st | 5 | 0 |
 Norway
|
1 | 0 | 0 |
 Austria
|
23 | 1 | 1 |
 Scotland
|
1 | 0 | 0 |
 Sweden
|
2 | 0 | 0 |
 Switzerland
|
23 | 1 | 15th |
 Spain
|
17th | 1 | 2 |
Results
Individual evidence
- ^ Richard Forster : Schachgesellschaft Zürich 1809 to 2009 . Schachgesellschaft Zürich, Zürich 2009, ISBN 9783033019171 , p. 421.