English Chess Forum

Friday is the exact 90th anniversary of the final round of Nottingham 1936, the strongest chess tournament ever played on English soil, in which five past, present and future world champions took part.

My suggestion is that the English Chess Federation should start planning for a Nottingham Centenary Tournament in 2036. Such a proposal would be better made in the early 2030s, but somebody else would need to make it then.

I confess to a personal interest: In my long ago chess youth I played, met, or had correspondence with 12 of the 15 players at Nottingham 1936, missing out on only Emanuel Lasker, José Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine. A major international centenary tournament in Nottingham 2036 would be fitting.

It’s hard to imagine a sporting entrance more dramatic than Tartakower’s, who sent shockwaves through the tournament before a single game had been played. The night before the opening match, a Dutch ship believed to be carrying him sank to the bottom of the Thames during a storm. Tournament organisers, assuming he had died, hastily announced his passing to a hall full of shocked attendees, only to have Tartakower stroll in twenty minutes later, very much alive and ready to play.

The eventual winner, young Mikhail Botvinnik, seized victory in somewhat contentious circumstances. Having methodically worked his way to seven draws and seven victories, he met with last-placed British master William Winter, who completely outplayed him on the final day. With first prize on the line, and defeat seeming certain, Botvinnik was inexplicably offered a generous draw by Winter. Why? Winter was a well-known Stalinist, and would have rather seen a Soviet player crowned as champion. His wish was granted, and Botvinnik became the first Soviet player to achieve success outside of the Soviet Union.

As shown in C.N. 8162, Tartakower stated on page 331 of the November 1952 Chess Review that he arrived 20 minutes late for his first-round game against Capablanca in Nottingham (10 August 1936), having travelled from Rotterdam via Hull. By choosing that route, he claimed, he had ‘avoided a sure death’, because the Dutch ship to London that he had envisaged taking ‘sank in the Thames with the loss of all on board’.

Olimpiu G. Urcan has examined a number of British newspapers of the time and has found reports of only one major accident on the Thames during the relevant period, i.e. on 9 August 1936. It involved Batavier IV, a Dutch steamer from Rotterdam, but the only casualty was its cargo of fruit.

Mr Urcan also notes that the report on the first round of play on page 1 of the Nottingham Evening Post, 10 August 1936 does not indicate any surprising late arrival by Tartakower

Tartakower’s account of the journey to Nottingham from Rotterdam, referred to by Kmoch at the end of the previous item, was given in an article on pages 330-331 of the November 1952 Chess Review

It is, though, difficult to reconcile Tartakower’s account (including its reference to ‘Sunday’) with that of W.H. Watts on page xviii of Alekhine’s book on Nottingham, 1936: ‘The Opening Ceremony took place in the main Assembly Hall of the University at noon on 10 August; there was a very large attendance, all the masters, with the exception of Capablanca, who was indisposed, being present.’

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 28, 2026 4:39 pm

Have tried to find the ship. Nothing yet.

Oh, a myth, busted by Edward Winter:

On August 9, 1936, the Batavier IV, a Dutch passenger/cargo steamer traveling from Rotterdam, was involved in a maritime accident on the River Thames. Despite rumors of a catastrophic disaster, contemporary British newspaper records confirm that the ship did not sink, and there were zero human casualties. The only damage suffered was to its cargo, which primarily consisted of a large shipment of fruit.

But an interesting example of misinformation and rumour spreading (or FAKE NEWS, as some would call it these days).