The abortive Women's Olympiad of 1961

[JustinHorton]

Readers of the Media Comments on chess thread may have noticed some discussion of Brigitta Sinka and her memory of a Women's Olympiad in 1960 (see this post et seq) which, as she recalled, was cancelled due to an Eastern Bloc boycott.

I couldn't find any record of this and nor could any other forum readers but when I posted on the subject a commentor suggested that I may have been more sceptical on the subject that was warranted: although neither Wikipedia nor Olimpbase make any mention of it, there was in fact an event planned for 1961 - not 1960 - and it appears to have been cancelled after the GDR team were not permitted to attend.

Anyway I contacted Wojtek Bartelski of Olimpbase. He was naturally interested and would like to have something about it on his site, but as he observed, the information I have so far - a brief blog-comment quote from Sunnucks' Encyclopaedia, which I do not personally have - isn't really enough. So can anybody else help? Do the chess magazines of the time have any more comprehensive information as to what happened and why?

[Roger de Coverly]

a brief blog-comment quote from Sunnucks' Encyclopaedia

Anne Sunnucks might have been in the ENG squad for a 1961 event. She was top board in 1966 when the BCF next sent a team.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Slightly off topic, but quoting the S and B blog...

"An Olympiad due to be held in Emmen in 1961 had to be abandoned because the East German team was unable to obtain an entry visa, and F.I.D.E. rules lay down that an event cannot be held if political discrimination prevents a country from competing."

I seem to recall that Albania were expelled from FIDE(?) round about then for refusing to play South Africa for political reasons (Apartheid), then later FIDE expelled South Africa for the same political reasons, but didn't immediately let Albania back in...

And there have been problems with such events in Israel and/or Arab countries.

The definition of "political discrimination" seems to change.

[Roger de Coverly]

I seem to recall that Albania were expelled from FIDE(?) round about then for refusing to play South Africa for political reasons (Apartheid), then later FIDE expelled South Africa for the same political reasons, but didn't immediately let Albania back in...

Not in 1961 though. Sporting boycotts of South Africa only seriously started with the D'Olivera exclusion in 1968.

Olimpbase has Albania refusing to play Israel in 1972 and South Africa expelled in 1974
http://www.olimpbase.org/1972/1972fb.html
http://www.olimpbase.org/1974/1974fc.html

[David Sedgwick]

Not in 1961 though. Sporting boycotts of South Africa only seriously started with the D'Olivera exclusion in 1968.

A little earlier than that, surely? South Africa were excluded from the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, which preceded the D'Oliveira affair by a few months.

I seem to recall that Albania were expelled from FIDE(?) round about then for refusing to play South Africa for political reasons (Apartheid), then later FIDE expelled South Africa for the same political reasons, but didn't immediately let Albania back in...

Your recollection is only partially correct, so far as I can discern.

It was at the Siegen Olympiad 1970 that Albania refused to play South Africa. They forfeited the match 4-0, but I can't find any record of any other action being taken against them.

In their book on the Siegen Olympiad, Keene and Levy commented:

"The total irresponsibility of the Albanian action can be seen from the fact that New Zealand were artificially relegated into Final E (for which group they were too strong) by South Africa's free gift of four points."

[JustinHorton]

While all that's interesting enough, I'd be grateful to get back to the original enquiry, since (a) otherwise we'll never get back to it and (b) I have some more information, mainly thanks to Matt Fletcher.

First, Matt has found the Neues Deutschland (a GDR party newspaper) for 16 September 1961, helpfully translated into some kind of English. Search for "chess" and you get:

Dutch government prevents Women's Chess Olympiad

The Dutch government has once again interfered with their NATO policy flagrantly in the international sports market. She refused: the GDR chess players to enter the 2nd Chess Olympiad Women ,, which should start next Tuesday with the participation of 13 chess associations in Emmen ...

This seems to support Roger's surmise that visa refusals were likely to do with the Berlin blockade. (Also see the item that appears immediately above!)

Second, Matt directs us to page 186 of the BCM for 1972, which happens to be in the issue for May of that year, a magazine I possess. It's in DJ Morgan's Quotes and Queries (and as another aside, I must have unknowingly passed Morgan's old house when briefly lost on my way to the tournament hall in Aberystwyth last summer).



One assumes however that the Encyclopaedia referred to is Sunnucks', which we already knew about. (I have Hooper and Whyld's Companion, but I haven't found any reference to Emmen 1961 there.)

Third, Matt has located a reference to the then-forthcoming event in a contemporary Chess Life.

Lastly, I notice a relevant passage in Olimpbase's review, presumably taken from a contemporary account, of the 15th World Student Team Chess Championship, which took place in Austria in 1968.

The 9th World Student Team Chess Championship was full of stirring events. At the FIDE Congress held in Sofia in 1961, it was decided to entrust the organising of this contest to the Chess Federation of Great Britain. FIDE, faithful to its principles of not allowing any discrimination against any of its member unions, charged the Chess Federation of Great Britain with this task, on condition that all registered participants would receive entry visas. However, as the organisers were unable to guarantee a visa for all FIDE members — mainly for the GDR — owing to the pressure of discriminatory NATO measures, they had to cancel the organising of the championship in England early in 1962, and the task which owing to the short time left caused great difficulties, was taken over by the students and chess-players of the CSSR.

This also suggests a problem related to the Berlin blockade.

Anyway, if anybody has chess magazines (or indeed contemporary newspapers of record) dating back to late 1961, they would presumably be very helpful here.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Those sources have shed a lot more light. Is it worth seeing whether primary records still exist? I presume the first ports of call there would be the FIDE offices and the Royal Dutch Chess Federation. And maybe local records in Emmen, as it sounds like the event was cancelled at short notice so plans at the local level might have been well advanced. Also records held by countries that had planned to send teams.

[David Sedgwick]

One assumes however that the Encyclopaedia referred to is Sunnucks', which we already knew about.

The BCM 1972 piece is indeed a quotation from Sunnucks, with slight paraphrasing.

My recollection is that it was customary at that time to refer to Sunnucks's work as "The Encyclopedia". Golombek's Encyclopedia followed in 1977 and Hooper and Whyld's first edition was published in 1984.

You're confusing me a bit with your references to the "Berlin Blockade". To me, that term refers to the events of 1948-49, rather than to those of 1961.

[JustinHorton]

You're right to query me I think David - I think I'm mentally confusing two separate events. Let's say "Berlin Wall crisis" then.

Christopher - yes of course, though in the present instance I'm just seeking to establish a few reliable contemporary accounts of events, partly in case Olimpbase find them useful, partly just for the point of filling what, on the internet anyway, seems to be a curious historical gap.

[Roger de Coverly]

To me, that term refers to the events of 1948-49, rather than to those of 1961.

The crisis of 1961 was the closing of the border by the building of the Berlin Wall. Evidently there was a policy by Western governments of refusing visas to citizens of the DDR, the example of a European Cup football match also being given. The Wall was permanent, but the travel ban presumably being dropped once it was realised this coincided with the plans of the DDR government to prevent its citizens enjoying the delights of 1960s Western Europe.

There's also a reference that the BCF were unable to accept the offer of running the student Olympiad for similar reasons of not being able to guarantee that East European participants would get visas.

(edit) OlimpBase has a piece on this.
http://www.olimpbase.org/1962y/1962in.html
It's not something I can ever recall being mentioned in British chess circles. (/edit)

[JustinHorton]

Googling I get this: the whole chapter can be read if you scroll carefully. It's Dichter, Heather L, "A Game Of Political Ice Hockey": NATO Restrictions on East German Sports Travel in the Aftermath of the Berlin Wall, a chapter in Diplomatic Games: Sport, Statecraft, and International Relations since 1945 (Studies in Conflict, Diplomacy and Peace), Dichter and Johns (eds) University Press of Kentucky, 2014. It doesn't refer to chess but it does give us the background (including the fact that there was a longer-standing dispute involving the refusal of NATO countries to issue visas to GDR athletes since they didn't recognise that country).

[Roger de Coverly]

(including the fact that there was a longer-standing dispute involving the refusal of NATO countries to issue visas to GDR athletes since they didn't recognise that country).

It didn't seem to prevent the attendance of teams at the 1960 Olympiad, even if it was held in a country that didn't exist.

FIDE president at the time was Folke Rogard of Sweden. Being based in a "neutral" country I suppose he didn't want to involve FIDE in NATO inspired sanctions against the GDR for restricting the travel of its citizens. Euwe took over in 1970, so the exclusion of Albania, South Africa and Rhodesia would have been on his watch.

[JustinHorton]

(including the fact that there was a longer-standing dispute involving the refusal of NATO countries to issue visas to GDR athletes since they didn't recognise that country).

It didn't seem to prevent the attendance of teams at the 1960 Olympiad, even if it was held in a country that didn't exist.

That's because in that instance they wouldn't have had any problems receiving visas. The problem arose when competitors from the GDR needed to travel to NATO countries.

That said, a number of Olympiads did take place in NATO countries, including the first Women's Olympiad, and the GDR did in fact compete. If I follow the piece, it suggests that even after West Germany joined NATO in 1955 decisions were largely taken by international sports federations on their own (though there's a reference to an East German rugby team being refused permission to enter Italy that year) but that certain developments caused the matter to move to a more political and more rigorous level, obviously including the construction of the Wall and, preceding it, the creation of a GDR flag in 1959.

[Roger de Coverly]

It doesn't refer to chess but it does give us the background (including the fact that there was a longer-standing dispute involving the refusal of NATO countries to issue visas to GDR athletes since they didn't recognise that country).

The December 1961 BCM mentions the 1961 Women's Olympiad as being cancelled by virtue of the Dutch inability to guarantee visas for GDR participants. This is in a short paragraph in Golombek's one and a bit page report on the FIDE Congress in September, which details a number of other FIDE decisions. It also reports that the event might be rescheduled to Poland and that the BCF had been awarded the 1962 Student Olympiad, which was later moved to Czechoslovakia for similar visa reasons.

[JustinHorton]

You haven't got a scanner have you? I'd like to see that. (I'm guessing Olimpbase would too.)

Or if anybody else has that magazine and a scanner and can send me or post a copy here, that'd be much appreciated.