Gideon Ståhlberg

Gideon Ståhlberg, Zevenaar 1961
Surname	Gideon Tom Ståhlberg is different
Association	Sweden
Born	January 26, 1908 Gothenburg
Died	May 26, 1967 Leningrad
title	Grand Master (1950)
Best Elo rating	2762 (March 1948) ( Historic Elo rating )

Anders Gideon Tom Ståhlberg (* 26. January 1908 in Gothenburg ; † 26. May 1967 in Leningrad ) was a Swedish Chess - Grandmaster .

Life

Ståhlberg won the Swedish championship in 1927 (shared with Gösta Stoltz ). He repeated his success in 1929 and 1939. His great talent gradually developed in the 1930s. Although he lost two competitions in 1930 against Efim Bogoljubow (in Gothenburg with 1.5: 4.5) and Rudolf Spielmann (in Stockholm with 1.5: 4.5), he defeated the latter in 1934 in the same place with 5: 3 and a year later in Gothenburg Aaron Nimzowitsch also 5: 3. Up until the beginning of the Second World War , Sweden's top player for decades had a number of successes at international tournaments : he won in Niendorf in 1934 and in Sopot in 1935 , he came third in Dresden in 1936, second in Stockholm, Pärnu and Sopot in 1937, and second in Kemeri and Harzburg in 1939 .

Ståhlberg took part in thirteen Chess Olympiads ( 1928 , 1930 , 1931 , 1933 , 1935 , 1937 , 1939 , 1952 , 1954 , 1956 , 1958 , 1960 and 1964 ). With the team he reached second place in 1935 and third place in 1933, in the individual ranking he achieved the second best result in 1952 and the third best result on the top board in 1935. He also took part in the unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich in 1936 and achieved the third-best individual result on the top board. After the outbreak of World War II during the 1939 Buenos Aires Chess Olympiad , he stayed in Argentina until 1948. During this time he helped (and other European players who did not want to return to war-torn Europe) by participating in a large number of Chess tournaments in South America made the game of chess very popular on this part of the world. He was also in this period of his life with great success: Winner in Mar del Plata in 1941 and 1947, second in Mar del Plata in 1942, 1943, 1947 and 1948 and in Buenos Aires in 1948. In 1948 he participated in the 1941 and Buenos Aires Interzonal in Saltsjobaden part where he took 6th place and qualified for the 1950 Budapest Candidates Tournament. In Budapest he finished 7. Before that, in 1949, he won the very strong tournament in Teplitz-Schönau . In 1950 FIDE awarded Ståhlberg the title of Grand Master . The Swedish team championship won Ståhlberg in 1952/53 , 1953 and 1955 with Stockholm Södra SS and 1962 with a Stockholm selection team. His best historical rating was 2762. This he reached in March 1948. At that time he was the third best player in the world.

Since 1951 he was international referee of FIDE and directed from 1957 to 1963 in a row five of Mikhail Botvinnik's competitions for the world championship (all held in Moscow ). In 1953 he was last (15th) at the candidates' tournament in Zurich and Neuhausen . He did not succeed in qualifying for the interzonal tournament, but he was able to show successes at international tournaments several times: he won in Gothenburg in 1957/58 and was third in Beverwijk in 1958 and Copenhagen in 1960. Shortly before the opening of the international tournament in Leningrad in 1967, in which he was supposed to take part, he died of a heart attack .

literature

• Ingemar Johansson: Glasblåsarens pojke - Gideon Ståhlberg 100 år . In: Tidskrift för Schack , No. 3, 2008, pp. 4-19.

Web links

• Replayable chess games by Gideon Ståhlberg on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gideon Ståhlberg's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
2. ↑ Gideon Ståhlberg's results at unofficial Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)