Salomon Flohr was one of the strongest players of the 1930s and won the traditional Hastings tournament four times in four years. Below, I explore his life and games.
Photo: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Table of contents:
Biography
Early life
Salomon Flohr was born in 1908 in Gorodenka, which today is in Ukraine. Flohr suffered a difficult start to life, as his parents were killed during World War I while he was still a child. The death of his parents and the devastating effects of the war caused Flohr to flee to Czechoslovakia, where he learned how to play chess.
Having completed his school education, Flohr moved to Prague for work, and began to visit the Prokeš chess club. The impressive simuls given by Réti and Spielmann and a blindfold simul by Mieses made a strong impression on Flohr around this time, deepening his interest in the game.
In 1928, Flohr travelled to Berlin to cover a chess tournament as a journalist. There he played friendly games for money against some of the tournament participants and impressed the players with his high level of play. After returning home, he began to participate in local tournaments himself, and quickly built up a reputation in chess circles for his chess strength.
International breakthrough
Flohr’s breakthrough came in 1929 when he took 2nd place at a strong international tournament at Rogaška Slatina. There he finished behind Rubinstein, but ahead of famous names such as Maroczy and Grünfeld. The following year, he achieved the incredible score of 14,5/17 on board 1 for the Czechoslovak team at the Olympiad in Hamburg. These results signalled Flohr’s arrival onto the world stage.
Competing at the top
Flohr proved himself to be one of the world’s leading players over the next few years with a string of impressive results. In 1931 he finished clear 1st at Brno and Goteborg, as well as at the traditional end of year tournament at Hastings. The following year, he shared 1st place with Vidmar at Bad Silac, and won a match against Khan (+2 -1 =3). His match with Euwe was drawn (+3 -3 =10), a very impressive result against an opponent who would go on to become World Champion just three years later.
At the traditional Hastings tournament at the end of the year, Flohr once again took first place, ahead of Pirc, Steiner and Khan. His excellent form continued into 1933, as he finished clear 1st at Scheveningen, ahead of Maroczy and Bogoljubow. Flohr also became Champion of Czechoslovakia by winning a tournament at Mnichovo Hradiště. That same year, Flohr drew a match against a young Botvinnik (+2 -2 =8), another strong opponent who would go on to become a future World Champion.
At the end of the year, Flohr once again won the traditional Hastings tournament. Here he caused a shock by finishing ahead of the reigning World Champion Alekhine, who had been dominating the international tournament scene of the early 1930s.
Continued success
Flohr continued his run of excellent results into the middle of the decade. He shared 1st place at Hastings 1934/5 with Euwe and Thomas, shared 1st with Botvinnik at Moscow 1935, and won the Championship of Czechoslovakia for the second time at Poděbrady in 1936. At the strong international tournament held in Nottingham that same year, Flohr shared 7th place with Lasker. However, he won his individual games against both Lasker and Capablanca, the second and third World Champions. Around this time, he had become well known in Czechoslovakia even to non-chess players, as advertising companies used his name to endorse their products, which could range from cigarettes to slippers.
Rising conflict
However, towards the end of the decade, Flohr’s results became less consistent. He shared 1st place with Petrov and Reshevsky at Kemeri 1937, ahead of Alekhine, Keres and Tartakower, amongst others. However, Flohr finished last at the famous AVRO tournament in the Netherlands in 1938. It was a difficult time for him personally, as Europe was growing increasingly unstable as it approached the start of WWII. In 1937, FIDE appointed Flohr as the official challenger for the World Championship, but the start of WWII soon made this impossible.
WWII
As a result of the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, Flohr fled to the USSR in 1939, becoming a citizen of his new home within a few years. There he won the Moscow/Leningrad training tournament in 1939, ahead of Reshevsky and Lilienthal amongst others. Flohr made his debut in the USSR Championship at its 13th edition in 1944, where he finished an impressive 4th. Botvinnik, Smyslov and Boleslavsky finished ahead of him, three players who were leading the charge of the next generation of chess talents.
Later years
Flohr continued to compete in tournaments after the war, although with less frequency and success. At the Saltsjobaden Interzonal in 1948 he finished in shared 6th place, which qualified him for the 1950 Candidates Tournament to be held in Budapest. Despite this, he was no longer a realistic challenger for the title of World Champion, as he finished in shared 8th and last place with Lilienthal and Szabo.
Flohr was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1950 and the international arbiter title in 1963. He had a long career, competing in high level events until the late 1960s. In 1983, he passed away in Moscow, at the age of 74. Two years later, a collection of his best games was published.
Legacy
Today Flohr is remembered as one of the world’s strongest players in the 1930s who would have had a decent chance at the ultimate title if his World Championship Match against Alekhine had taken place. He was a realistic challenger for close to a decade, and generations of players have grown up learning from his games.
Game Analysis
Flohr won an instructive game against Menchik at Hastings 1933/4, which shows the power of an effective knight manouevre.
Lessons from this game:
- The most effective way to play against the bishop pair is to exchange one of the bishops off.
- Knight manoeuvres can often take a few moves, but establishing a knight on a powerful outpost if normally worth the time spent. In this game, black’s knight on f4 was very strong, exerting heavy pressure on white’s kingside.
- Barely defended pieces, which are attacked and defended by the same number of pieces, often become tactical weaknesses, just like undefended pieces.
Puzzles
Flohr – Sämisch, Rogaska Slatina 1929
Sterk – Flohr, Ujpest 1934
Flohr – Lasker, Moscow 1936
Thomas – Flohr, Hastings 1937
Solutions
Further Reading
To find more about Flohr’s life and games, the following are useful sources:
Flohr’s chessgames.com page,
his chess.com page,
this chess.com article,
this article by IM Jeremy Silman,
this chess.com article,
this biography by Douglas Griffin,
and this chesshistory.com article by Edward Winter.
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