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{{Infobox chess player
|name=Salomon Flohr
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==World title contender==
[[File:Salo Flohr Max Euwe 1969.jpg|right|thumb|Flohr (left) with Max Euwe, 1969]]
Flohr's playing ability peaked in the mid-1930s, when he became one of the world's strongest players and a leading contender for the World Championship. He became [[Czechoslovak Chess Championship|champion of Czechoslovakia]] in 1933 and 1936 and played in many tournaments throughout Europe, generally finishing amongst the top three. Notable victories were at [[Sliač|Bad Sliač]] in 1932, where he shared first place with [[Milan Vidmar]]; [[Scheveningen]] in 1933; [[Bad Liebenwerda]] in 1934 with 9½/11; [[Barcelona, Spain|Barcelona]] in 1935 where he tied for first with [[George Koltanowski]]; [[Moscow 1935 chess tournament|Moscow 1935]] where he tied for first place with future World Champion [[Mikhail Botvinnik]]; [[Poděbrady]] in 1936 with the score of +10 −1 =6; and [[Kemeri]] in 1937 where he shared the top spot with [[Vladimirs Petrovs|Vladimir Petrov]] and [[Samuel Reshevsky]]. During this period, he had several other notable high finishes, such as [[Bern]] 1932 (tied for second with 11½/15, after World Champion [[Alexander Alekhine]]); [[Zürich 1934 chess tournament|Zürich 1934]] (tied for second with 12/15, again trailing Alekhine); and [[Pärnu]] 1937 (second behind [[Paul Felix Schmidt]]).
Flohr also frequently visited England, regularly playing in the [[Hastings International Chess Congress|Hastings tournaments]] of the 1930s. He finished first in 1931/32, 1932/33 and 1933/34, he finished in a tie for first place with [[Max Euwe]] and [[George Alan Thomas|Sir George Thomas]] in 1934/35, and he was second behind only [[Reuben Fine]] in 1935/36. He also won the [[Margate]] tournament of 1936 ahead of former World Champion [[José Raúl Capablanca]].
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== Official challenger, personal crisis ==
Flohr had married in 1935. By 1937, [[FIDE]] had nominated him as the official candidate to play Alekhine for the World Championship. However, with World War II looming, it proved impossible for Flohr to raise the stake money in Czechoslovakia, so the plans were dropped. The next year, Flohr was one of the eight elite players invited to the great [[AVRO tournament]] of November 1938. He finished last, and this put an end to his chances of a World Championship match with Alekhine. AVRO may have been the only time in chess history when the top eight players in the world contested an important tournament.
While AVRO was a strong tournament and Flohr's last-placed finish was no disgrace, his result may also be explained by his difficult personal circumstances at the time. The German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 had left Flohr, as a Polish-Ukrainian Jew, in grave personal danger. Flohr remained in the Netherlands in early 1939, playing in several small events. He tied for first place in [[Amsterdam]] KNSB with [[Max Euwe]] and [[László Szabó (chess player)|László Szabó]] at 3½/5. He tied third/fourth place in Amsterdam VARA with 3/5, as Euwe and [[Salo Landau]] won. He won [[Baarn]] I with 2½/3. Then, he and his family fled, first to Sweden, and then to Moscow with the help of his friend Botvinnik. While in Sweden, he tied for first place at [[Gothenburg]] with [[Rudolf Spielmann]] with 10 points out of 11.
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Flohr was able to recover his form after reaching safety in Moscow. He won Kemeri 1939 with a score of 12/15. He also captured the strong 1939 Leningrad/Moscow tournament with 12/17. He tied for second place at Margate 1939 with 6½/9 behind only [[Paul Keres]]. He then tied for second at [[Bournemouth]] 1939 with 8½/11, behind only former World Champion Euwe.
Flohr did not play in any official strong Soviet events from 1940–42. He did lose a 1942 match to [[Vladimir Makogonov]] in [[Baku]] by 2–0. He became a naturalized [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] citizen in 1942, and developed his writing career in his new country, contributing articles to a number of Soviet newspapers and magazines, including ''Ogonek''. As the Soviet Union first stopped then reversed the Axis invasion, some chess activity started up again, and in 1943 Flohr won a small but strong tournament in [[Baku]]. In 1944 he was again victorious in a Bolshevik Society tournament at [[Kiev]], tied with [[Alexei Sokolsky]]. He withdrew from the 1945 USSR Championship after only three games.
After the War, he was still a contender for a possible World Championship match, and finished 6th at the 1948 [[Interzonal]] in [[Saltsjöbaden]], thereby qualifying to play in the 1950 [[Candidates Tournament]] in [[Budapest]]. However, he finished joint last with 7 out of 18, and never entered the World Championship cycle again, preferring to concentrate on journalism. He also developed a role as a chess organiser. He did play periodically at high levels, both within the Soviet Union and abroad, with some success, until the late 1960s. He was awarded the title of [[International Arbiter]] in 1963.
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Flohr was one of Czechoslovakia's greatest chess players ever, and proved virtually invincible at the Olympiads of the 1930s. His tournament record was impressive, with his tactical skill and excellent [[endgame (chess)|endgame]] technique securing him many famous victories. [[FIDE]] awarded him the [[International Grandmaster]] title on its inaugural list in 1950. He made a number of important contributions to opening theory: a 'Flohr variation' can be found in no fewer than six major openings, including the [[Caro-Kann Defence|Caro–Kann Defence]], the [[Ruy Lopez]], the [[English Opening]], and the [[Grünfeld Defence]]. The Flohr–Zaitsev Variation of the Closed Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8) was taken up in the 1980s with success by World Champion [[Anatoly Karpov]].
Flohr was primarily a strategist who excelled in the endgame.<ref>Steve Giddens, ''The Greatest Ever Chess Endgames'', 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-85744-694-4}}, p. 108</ref> He favoured the [[glossary of chess#Closed game|closed game]] with White, and during the prime of his career, he was especially deadly with the [[Queen's Gambit]], as the game selection shows. Flohr almost never opened with 1.e4. He was one of the main developers of the Caro–Kann, which was an obscure and poorly regarded line as late as the 1920s when Flohr took it up.
The Second World War killed off any chance he had of winning the world title, and the stress of becoming a refugee for the second time in his life affected his style of play. He became a much more cautious player in his post-war games and earned a [[draw (chess)|drawish]] reputation, with many short draws which were hardly contested. He could not keep pace with the new generation of Soviet stars which emerged after World War II. Players such as [[Vasily Smyslov]], [[David Bronstein]], [[Isaac Boleslavsky]], [[Paul Keres]], [[Alexander Kotov]], [[Tigran Petrosian]], [[Efim Geller]], [[Mark Taimanov]], [[Yuri Averbakh]], [[Boris Spassky]], [[Mikhail Tal]], [[Viktor Korchnoi]], and [[Leonid Stein]] dominated the landscape with their sharper styles and innovative openings.
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{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Soviet Jews]]
[[Category:Soviet people of Czech descent]]
[[Category:20th-century chess players]]
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