Erich Eliskases

Erich Gottlieb Eliskases (15 February 1913 – 2 February 1997) was a chess player who represented Austria, Germany, Brazil and Argentina in International competition. In the late 1930s he was considered a potential contender for the World Championship. Eliskases was granted the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1952.

Chess career Born in Innsbruck, Austro-Hungarian Empire, he learned chess at the age of twelve and quickly displayed an aptitude for the game, winning the Schlechter chess club championship in his first year at the club, aged just fourteen. At fifteen, he was the Tyrolean Champion and at sixteen, joint winner of the Austrian Championship.

His college education in Innsbruck and Vienna centred on business studies; it was chess, though, that captured his imagination and he had exceptional results representing Austria at the Olympiads of 1930, 1933 and 1935. After the Anschluss of March 1938, he won the German national championship at Bad Oeynhausen in 1938 and 1939. Other early successes included outright or joint first place at Budapest 1934 (the Hungarian Championship), Linz 1934, Zürich 1935, Milan 1937; and match wins against Rudolf Spielmann (in 1932, 1936 and 1937). He acted as a to Alexander Alekhine during Alekhine's successful world championship rematch against Max Euwe in 1937.

His best two years were 1938 and 1939. In June 1938 he won a tournament in Noordwijk ahead of Paul Keres (who later that year would win the great AVRO 1938 chess tournament) and previous world champion Max Euwe. His victory in Noordwijk was his best career result, and began a streak of eight consecutive tournaments in which he was undefeated: six in 1938 and 1939, possibly the only person to do so. He had even scores against Euwe (3–3), Capablanca (2–2) and Fischer (1–1).

Notable games