The international tournament of La Plata 1944 was held to celebrate the 73rd anniversary if the founfing of the town. It was organised and paid for by the Jockey Club of La Plata and was held in their premises, in the paddock of the hippodrome. Play began on November 20th and end on december 18th. A report on the tournament together with 2 selections of games appeared in the Argentine chess magazine Caissa in December 1944 and January/March 1945. The other Argentine chess journal of the period, Enroque!!, caried a similar report and a small selection of unannotated games in 1945. The game scores used in this book were sent to me by Eduardo Bauza Mercere whom I thank. As expected, the tournament turned into a struggle between Najdorf and Stahlberg. This was the common occurence in these wartime tournaments and the 2 players were rumoured not to get on, something that was to be expected between such close competitors. This time Najdorf came out on top depite losing their individual game, a titanic battle, decided by a brilliant sacrifice by Stahlberg (game 104), As it turned out, the other decisive game of the tournament was Stahlberg's loss to Sonia Graf in the 1st round, which cot him the first place. Graf won 4 games but was clearly outclassed.
The young Argentine, Julio Bolbochan, did very well to finish in third place. His loss to Illesco (game 105) cost him dear.
Tony Gillam, May 2008