1944 Blackpool Premier, 17-21 July, Lecture Hall, Public Library, Queen St

1944 Blackpool Premier		Draw No.	Resid.	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total
1	David Vincent Hooper	4	Wells	&;	0	½	1	1	1	3½
2	Victor Leonard Wahltuch	3	London	1	&;	0	1	0	1	3
3	Gerald Abrahams	6	Manchester	½	1	&;	0	0	1	2½
4	Charles Reuben Gurnhill	1	Sheffield	0	0	1	&;	1	½	2½
5	Herbert Gibson Rhodes	5	Preston	0	1	1	0	&;	½	2½
6	Jacques Mieses	2	London	0	0	0	½	½	&;	1

1944 Blackpool Major

1944 Blackpool Major		Draw No.	Resid.	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total
1	Leslie Charles Gwyn Dewing	2	London	&;	1	½	1	1	1	4½
2	Philip Charles Hoad	5	Birmingham	0	&;	0	1	1	1	3
3	Dr Kurt August Hirsch	4	Leicester	½	1	&;	0	0	1	2½
4	T H Robertson	3	Blackpool	0	0	1	&;	½	1	2½
5	Heinrich Rappaport	6	Manchester	0	0	1	½	&;	0	1½
6	Philip Edward Collier	1	Leicester	0	0	0	0	1	&;	1

BCM, September 1944, p202

The success of D. V. Hooper in such company is notable and was fully deserved. V. L. Wahltuch, the runner-up, still maintains his uncompromising and attacking style, with which he has been so successful for many decades, and his score is the only one in his section which shows no half-points. The triple tie for third place, only one point below the winner bears witness to a fierce struggle.

The failure of J. Mieses shows that his advanced age is too great a handicap, and that he no longer has the stamina required for even a short first-class tournament. Nevertheless, the chess community is not likely to forget that he once was one of the leading players of the world and, even now, the rising generation can and does learn a great deal from him.

The first-class tournament was divided into no less than six sections of six players each. The winners were—

Section 1. H. C. Lewis (Birmingham)
Section 2. A. N. Busby (Leicester)
Section 3. Alfred Milner (Manchester) and C. North (Sheffield)
Section 4. Maurice Ellinger (London)
Section 5. F. Turner (Manchester)
Section 6. P. T. Riley (Blackpool)

The outstanding success of this tournament clearly shows that chess players do want this recreation as a relief from war strain.

The Lancashire Association is to be praised for their enterprise. They are already arranging provisionally for a Whit-week congress at Blackpool in 1945.

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Pairings

Pairings
Rd 1	1 v 2	5 v 3	6 v 4
Rd 2	3 v 1	4 v 5	6 v 2
Rd 3	1 v 4	2 v 3	5 v 6
Rd 4	5 v 1	4 v 2	3 v 6
Rd 5	1 v 6	2 v 5	3 v 4

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File Updated

Date	Notes
26 March 2016	First Upload
19 June 2022	Some cosmetic amendments, addition of crosstables, results.
5 July 2022	Added a game from the Major Open section: Heinrich Rappaport 1-0 Kurt August Hirsch. Somewhat bizarre to have players with such Germanic names playing a game of chess in Blackpool in July 1944! But both were happily domiciled in the UK and exempt from internment. Heinrich Rappaport was described by BH Wood in CHESS as "a brilliant young Austro-Jewish find". He was born on 23 February 1923 in Vienna, lived in Salford and was a trainee coat maker for Kessler Bros in Manchester. Kurt August Hirsch, born 1906 in Berlin, was a maths lecturer in Leicester. Having emigrated from Germany, he was on the Gestapo's 1940 list of people to round up on a successful invasion. Both continued to live in the UK after the war: Heinrich became Henry and died in 2000 while Kurt Hirsch died in 1986.
8 February 2023	Added the game F.Richardson 0-1 F.Turner from one of the First Class Sections.