January

Argentina. The Major tournament of the Argentine chess federation ended with a win of M. Najdorf who scored 20,5 points out of 22, in the margin of 3 points ahead of his nearest rivals. There followed C. Guimard with 17,5 points, 3 points ahead of M. Czerniak and Luckis with 14,5.

England. At Hastings this year, there was a struggle between N. Rossolimo (FRA) and L. Szabo (HUN). The Hungarian GM finished 1/2 point ahead of the French who won the tournament last year, the 3rd was Dr.Euwe (NED), the 4th L. Evans (USA)…

Mexico. H. Pilnik became the winner of the Mexico tournament having scored 11,5 points out of 13.

USA. The Belgian Master G. Koltanowsky gave a simultaneous display at San Francisco during 12 hours which ended with the splendid score of +271-3=13.

February

Argentina. The play-off championship match for the Argentine title between M. Najdorf and J. Bolbochan, ended with a victory of the first with a score 5,5-4,4.

A telephone match between Argentina and Spain ended with a victory of the Argentine players 13-2.

Australia. K.Ozols with 9 points became the winner of the “Australian Open” championship which was conducted by Melbourne Chess Club, followed by Endzelins with 8 points, both were emigrants from Latvia. Then came Hanks with 6 points, Crowl with 4,5, Dr.Learner and Greenfield with 4…

Czechoslovakia. The team match between Slovakia and Moravia ended with a draw 20-20.

India. Bombay Presidency Tournament was played on Swiss system and was won by Sapre who scored 11 points out of 12, ahead of Alurkar with 10,5 points, Gavande and Mhaiskar with 8,5.

Norway. Aage Vestol with 5 points became the Norwegian Champion.

March

USSR. The Russian Women’ Championship tournament which was held in Riga saw E. Bykova became the winner with 12,5 points out of 15.

Bulgaria. A 4-round team match Bulgaria-Czechoslovakia ended with the victory of Czech team which won it convincingly with 26,5-13,5.

Argentina. The traditional Mar del Plata Tournament ended with a victory of S. Gligoric who scored 11,5 points, followed by C. Guimard and Rossetto with 11 points, J. Bolbochan and V. Pirc with 10,5 points points.

New Zealand. Dr. Allerhand became the winner of the New Zealand championship having scored 9 points out of 11, ahead of Dr.Cwilong and Lynch with 8 points…

Uruguay. Aguilera and Transmonte shared the victory in the Uruguayan championship title with 8 points out of 11 each.

USA. Albert Shadrin USA- the US Open champion gave a simultaneous blindfold display – the total number 24, he won 22, lost 2.

April

Belgium. The traditional team match Holland-Belgium was held at Antwerp in April 15-16, and the Dutch team easily won with a score 14-6.

Czechoslovakia. Only over 60 chess players were eligible for the Professor Zlatnik Memorial tournament held at Prague, Chodera became the winner with 10,5 points out of 11.

USSR. In Tashkent there was an international tournament devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Uzbekistan Republic, T. Petrosian and A. Ufimtsev shared the victory with 12,5 points out of 15.

Germany. The international tournament of Saarbrucken ended with a victory of A. O’Kelly de Galway who scored 7,5 points out of 9, followed by Schmidt with 6,5 points – who was the only one who beat O’Kelly, Niephaus with 6, Benkner, Muller and Schramm with 4,5, Weichselbaumer with 4 points…

May

Italy. The international tournament at Venice in April 23-May 7 ended with a victory of Nestler who made 11 points out of 15, followed by Paoli, Castiglioni and Giustolisi with 9,5 points.

Yugoslavia. The international tournament of Belgrade was held in May 2-21, and Nedelikovic with 11 points scored the victory, ahead of Milic with 10,5, Matanovic with 10, Castaldi and Toth with 9, Hugot with 8,5 points…

Denmark. Enevoldsen DEN with 7,5 points out of 9 became the winner of the Copenhagen championship.

Czechoslovakia. The return match between Moravia and Slovakia was held in May 1-2 in Brno ended with a victory of the former with a score 21,5-18,5.

USSR. Nezmetdinov won the Chigorin Memorial Tournament in Gorky, followed by Boleslavsky, Aronin, Dubinin and Novotelnov.

Hungary. The international tournament – Budapest Candidates’ Tournament was held in April 7- May 18. I. Boleslavsky and D. Bronstein shared the first with 12 points, ahead of Smyslov with 10 points, Keres with 9,5, Najdorf with 9, Kotov with 8, Flohr, Lilienthal, Szabo with 7.

This tournament was very important from different points of views: of the goal to be achieved and the quality of the games, the percentage of the drawn games -57-8 showed that the struggle was strong and quite aggressive. The iron-hard practice of Russians proved itself, and they managed to win the leading positions of the cross table. The Americans Reshevsky and Fine did not participate otherwise they might have changed the final results. Boleslavsky was in a very good shape, he easily won from Fine, and came to the finish without a loss. Bronstein was not cautious as before and even lost a game to Smyslov in Round 2, meanwhile he remained one of the leaders throughout the whole tournament, the third of these players Smyslov took the third position and it was a creditable success of the young player while his result was achieved by rather up and down way of playing. Stahlberg was interviewed by Magyar Sakkvilag: “ I am thoroughly satisfied with everything , even with my own play. I was a little lucky against Bronstein and Lilienthal, but on the other hand rather had bad luck against Keres and Najdorf. In general, the players seem nervous, and the last half an hour the session is usually a desperate rush in time trouble, but despite the numerous draws, the play has not been interesting and adventurous, and there has been no dull wood shifting.”….“Keres has never stood in any danger, and almost always held the advantage. Keres had played solidly and risked a little but has given a glimpse of his combinational talents in his game in the second half. Najdorf is playing very nervously and inconsistently. Kotov has shown some good ideas, whilst Szabo has been a disappointment: he has played sharply and risked too much. Also Lilienthal and Flohr have not shown their best sides, though Lilienthal has pulled up a good deal towards the end.”

June

Denmark. Enevoldsen and Hage with 6 points out of 9 shared the victory at the Danish championship at Aalborg.

Germany. Rellstab with 4,5 points out of 6 became the winner of the North German Chess League at Hamburg.

Italy. G. Porreca and Engalicev shared the victory having scored 9 points out of 12 at the Italian Championship held at Sorrento.

July

Austria. Palme became the Autrian champion having scored 11 points out of 15.

Argentina. Czerniak with 11 points out of 14 came the first at the Jubilee tournament of the Argentine Club de Ajedrez held at Buenos Aires. He was followed by Marini with 10 points, Iliesco with 9,5.

Rossetto became the winner of the small tournament at Santa Fe with 6,5 points out 7 points.

France. Plante won the championship of Paris.

Germany. W. Unzicker, with 12,5 points out of 17, won the German Championship held at Bad Pyrmont.

Holland. The match between Dr. M. Euwe-JH. Donner held at Beverwijk NED ended with a score of 2,5-1,5.

Donner scored 3 points out of 3 and became the winner of the Noteboom chess festival.

August 

Germany. The match Kieningen and Bogoljubow took place at Schwelm and was won by the latter with a score 5-3.

Austria. Beni became the winner of the Vienna championship with 14 points.

Canada. The Championship of Montreal was won by Salys who scored 12,5 points out of 15.

Yugoslavia.Rabar with 12,5 points out of 17 became the winner of the Croatian championship.

Poland. The traditional Przepiorka Memorial Tournament held at Szczawno Zdroj was won by P; Keres who scored 14,5 points, followed by G. Barcza, L. Szabo and M. Taimanov with 13,5.

Australia. The Pretorian Champion title was regained by Dreyer who scored 9,5 points out of 10.

Spain. A. Pomar with 10,5 points finished first at the Championship of Spain held at San Sebastian.

USA. S. Reshevsky gave a five-board simultaneous display at Manhattan Chess Club, which ended with a score 3,5-1,5.

France. Boutteville with 8 points out of 9 became the winner of the French Championship held at Aix.

USSR. The championship of Leningrad ended with a victory of M. Taimanov who scored 9,5 points out of 13.

USSR. Mezgailis with 17 points out of 19 became the winner of the Latvian Championship, Randivir won the Estonian Championship with 16 points out of 19, Abravicius and Kholmov shared the victory in the Lithuanian championship with 11,5 points out of 14.

Iceland. Baldur Moller came the first with 7 points out of 9 at the Scandinavian Championship played at Reykjavik ISL in July 28-August 12.

Germany. Elstner scored 11,5 points out of 16 became the winner of the East German Championship held at Sommerda .

September

Chile. The play-off match for the title of champion of Chile Castillo-Flores ended with a draw 5-5, and Castillo kept the title.

Yugoslavia. After an interruption of 11 years the Olympiad was held at Dubrovnik in August 20-September 10. The Yugoslavian team came first with 45,5 points, ahead of Argentina with 43,5, West Germany with 40,5 points, USA 40 points, Holland 37 points, Belgium – 32 points…. The Yugoslavian team composed with the masters Gligoric, Pirc and Trifunovic proved themselves to be the strongest. The Argentinean team was the only one who could resist the home team while a team of West Germany showed a very bright style of play.

France. The match C. Hugot and X. Tartakower ended with a win of the latter – 2,5-3,5.

Germany. W. Unzicker with 8 points out of 11 became the winner of the international championship at Travemunde. He was followed by E. Bogoljubow with 7 points, Kieninger, Dr.Lange and Pfeiffer with 6,5 points…

Netherland. Dr. M. Euwe again became the winner of the Dutch Championship having scored 9,5 points.

South Africa. Van Voorst with 9 points out of 10 became the winner of the Bloemfontein championship.

Spain. The international tournament at Gijon was won by the French Rossolimo who scored 8,5 points out of 11, ahead of Dunkeblum and Pomar with 8 points, Prins and Toran with 7, Grob with 6…

Sweden. The Swedish championship was won again by Skold who made 7,5 points out of 10.

October 

Czechoslovakia. Ficht and Filip with 11,5 points out of 15 shared the victory in the absence of the strongest Czech players at the Czech championship at Gottwaldov.

Germany. Dr.Euwe with 4,5 points out of 5 became the winner of the international tournament at Berlin, the second was Teschler with 3,5.

Italy. 4-round team match Belgrade -Upper Italy ended with a score of 22-10.

Norway. Myrhe finished first having scored 5,5 at the Norwegian championship held at Trondheim.

Romania. Reicher became the winner of the Bucharest Championship, having scored 14 points out of 17.

Spain. Medina and Pomar tied for the victory at Berga, with 7,5 out of 9 each, followed by Toran 7, Albarida and Cherta 5,5…

Switzerland. The match L. Prins- H. Grob was held at Zurich and ended with a victory of the Dutch Master with a score of 4,5-1,5.

USA. Eliot Hearst won the New York State Championship ahead of Max Pavey.

Italy. The traditional 4th Venice international tournament was held in September 27-October 15, 1950 and the results were as follows: A. Kotov finished the first with 12,5 points, followed by V. Smyslov with 12, Rossolimo with 10, L. Pachman with 9,5, Letelier, H.Steiner and R. Wade with 8,5 points, JH. Donner 8.

Since Groningen 1946 it was the first time Soviets took part outside Eastern Europe, unfortunately, the Western opposition was not strong enough as M. Najdorf and S. Reshevsky asked impossibly high terms for their participation. Smyslov was in a leading position throughout the tournament, showing bright style and solid grandmaster play, while Kotov played very shakily in the beginning. A. Kotov even lost a bad game to Paoli in the sixth round, but then he managed to accumulate his strengths and showed outstanding fighting spirit having won 9 games in succession. In the ninth round A. Kotov reached Smyslov, and two rounds later overcame him in half a point.

Switzerland. H. Jonner with 8,5 points became the winner at the Swiss championship played at Lucerne.

November

Australia. Lindley for the 10th time became the winner of the Championship of Western Australia with 10,5 points out of 12.

Belgium. R. Lemaire won the Belgium championship having scored 5,5 points out of 7.

Brazil. M. Najdorf gave a simultaneous display on 250 boards in San Paolo, he made a remarkable score +226=15-9 in 11 hours.

Canada. The strongest championship at Ontario CAN was played on the Swiss system and Vaitonis who scored 6 points out of 7.

Denmark. Enevoldes, Pedersen and Sorenseon scored 6,5 points and shared the victory of the 9-round Scandinavian tournament held at Rodobre.

France. Argentina won the match France- Argentina held in Paris with a score 6-4.

Switzerland. The Argentinean team also won with a score 5,5-4,5 from the Swiss team in the match held in Switzerland.

Poland. Balcarek with 11 points out of 15 became the winner of the Polish championship ended in September.

South Africa.Wolpert with 7 points acted the first at the Champions of the Johannesburg Chess Club RSA.

USSR. Y. Averbakh and Tchistiakov shared the victory at the Moscow championship having 11 points each.

Belgium. M. Najdorf gave a simultaneous exhibition in Brussels BEL in November on 34 boards scoring +29=4-1.

December

Australia. Crowl with 7,5 points out of 8 won the championship of Victoria played this year under Swiss system.

Romania. The 22 years old Balanel won the national title with 16,5/20.

Yugoslavia. The Bled international tournament was a triumph for the Argentinean players who won the two first places: M. Najdorf (ARG) scored 10,5 points, ahead of H. Pilnik (ARG) with 9 and A.  O’Kelly (BEL) 8,5.

USA. The team match Cuba versus Manhattan Chess club ended with the victory of the Club who scored 5,5-2,5.

USSR. E. Geller with 12,5 points out of 17 won the Ukraine Championship, and R. Kholmov won the Lithuanian Championship.

Without M. Botvinnik, P. Keres was the winner of the 18th Soviet Championship with 11,5/18 ahead of L. Aronin, Lipnitsky and Tolush 11.