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Clare Benedict Cup

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The Clare Benedict Cup was a chess tournament for national teams from Western and Northern Europe, which took place 23 times from 1953 to 1979.

Overview and History

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Foundation

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Clare Benedict (1871–1961), author and patron, was originally from Cleveland, Ohio, but moved to Switzerland in 1945, where she founded the tournament.[1] She was a distant relative of author James Fenimore Cooper.

Benedict spent her twilight years on Lake Lucerne and met Max Euwe, who helped Clare in finding Alois Nagler (a Swiss chess player) and the Chess Society of Zurich, the ideal partners who appreciated her vision of a peaceful nations tournament in an exalted and sophisticated atmosphere.[2][3]

Tournament Style

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The Clare Benedict Cup was organized as a round-robin tournament, where everyone plays against each other.[3] Each team was made up of four players plus a substitute. They played using only five boards at the first tournament in 1952. In the original rules it stated that six teams participated. However, in recent years this has increased to up to eight teams. The teams were first evaluated by game points.[3]

In 1954 in Zurich, they changed the tournament style from the teams playing against each other to a single player tournament consisting of 12 players. The German Grandmaster Lothar Schmid took first place followed by Erwin Nievergelt from Switzerland and finally ex-champion Max Euwe.

Participating Countries

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Country Participations Wins Hosts
 Belgium 02 00 00
 Denmark 04 01 01
 Germany 21 12 02
 England 18 02 02
 France 02 00 00
 Italy 10 00 00
 Netherlands 21 05 00
 Norway 01 00 00
 Austria 23 01 01
 Scotland 01 00 00
 Sweden 02 00 00
 Switzerland 23 01 15
 Spain 17 01 02

Results

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# Year Host City 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place
1 1953 Mont Pèlerin  Netherlands  Austria  Switzerland
2 1955 Mont Pèlerin  Netherlands  Switzerland  Austria
3 1956 Lenzerheide  Germany  Netherlands  Italy
4 1957 Bern  Germany  Netherlands  Austria
5 1958 Neuchâtel  Switzerland  Spain  Germany
6 1959 Lugano  Germany  Spain  Austria
7 1960 Biel  Germany  England  Switzerland
8 1961 Neuhausen  Austria  Germany  England
9 1962 Bern  Germany  Spain  England
10 1963 Luzern  Germany  Netherlands  England
11 1964 Lenzerheide  Germany  Netherlands  Austria
12 1965 Berlin  Germany  Spain  Netherlands
13 1966 Brunnen  Netherlands  Spain  Germany
14 1967 Leysin  Germany  Spain  England
15 1968 Bad Aibling  Germany  Netherlands  England
16 1969 Adelboden  Netherlands  Switzerland  Germany
 England
 Spain
17 1970 Paignton  Spain  England  Germany
18 1971 Madrid  Netherlands  England  Spain
19 1972 Wien  Germany  Netherlands  Spain
20 1973 Gstaad  Germany  England  Denmark
21 1974 Cala Galdana  England  Germany  Switzerland
22 1977 Kopenhagen  Denmark  England  Sweden
23 1979 Cleveland  England  Germany  Netherlands

References

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  1. ^ Di Felice, Gino (2016). Chess Competitions 1971-2010. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-6207-7.
  2. ^ Richard Forster: Schachgesellschaft Zürich 1809 bis 2009. Chess Club, Zürich 2009, ISBN 9783033019171
  3. ^ a b c Wojciech Bartelski & Co (2018). "Clare Benedict Chess Cup". OlimpBase. Retrieved 30 January 2019.