A Three-part Series on the Lesser Known ‘power-nations’ of Chess
Nothing in the history of Chess can be as savage and yet more salvaged than the game’s rise, death and resurrection in the central European land of Poland. For Poland, a nation battered by brutal war and genocide, Chess is ingrained, as well as etched, in blood.
Poland’s passion for chess was known even before its independence in 1918. In 1909, Poland’s Akiba Rubinstein defeated the renowned chess master and then World Champion Emanuel Lasker in a tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Decades later Rubinstein had the golden opportunity to lead the nation’s chess team in its first and only victory at the Chess Olympiad in Hamburg, Germany in 1930. Along with members Ksawery Tartakower, Kazimierz Makarczyk, Dawid Przepiórka, and Paulin Frydman, the Polish team ensured their precious and prestigious gold medal at the podium.
Chess was endorsed by political veterans like Marshal Jozef Pitsudski – the renowned freedom fighter- turned Prime Minister in 1926. Pitsudski was also honorary chairman of PCA (Polish Chess Association). Almost all the chess Olympiads that Poland participated before the disastrous Second World War had witnessed the central European nation’s triumph at the podium.
Drowned by a Diabolic War
Poland’s chess chronology is closely and poignantly interwoven with its political history. Poland’s brilliant future in world chess was smashed brutally by the Holocaust and the World Wars.
In September 1939, the German invasion of Poland sealed the end of the golden age of Polish chess. The 8th Chess Olympiad held in Buenos Aires, Argentina closely before the invasion turned out to be the swan song for a glorious future.
Poland’s Najdorf, who had been successfully confronting his Dutch opponent Nicolaas Cortlever was shocked by the news of Nazi invasion and was barely able to continue and lost the game. The tragic story doesn’t end there. The master player lost his entire family to Nazi brutality and he could know only after the war ended!
Ironically, in the Buenos Aires chess Olympiad, Poland lost to Germany – both over the board and in the war field – and finished second.
As the brutalities of the Second World War drastically changed the political, social, and geographical dimensions of the nation, Chess and its dignitaries bore the brunt as well. The eminent chess players of the country were scattered by the war, some never to return to the native soil and others ended up as sacrificed pawns at the hands of the Nazis.
When players like Najdorf and Frydman chose to stay back in Argentina, Sulik joined the Polish army in Italy to fight the Nazis. He later immigrated to Australia where he kept in touch with his game. Izaak Appel vanished following Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 while Przepiórka met his tragic death in one of the mass executions in 1940 at Palmiry near Warsaw.
From the Ashes: The Strategic Move to a Brighter Future
The final emergence of Polish chess from its dark shadows happened at the onset of the 21st century. Michał Krasenkow crossed the 2700 rating threshold, becoming the first Polish player to accomplish the feat. Two years later, yet another victory happened in 2002, with Bartłomiej Macieja winning the European Championship in Georgia. Simultaneously the first ever Polish Women’s team won their bronze at the 35th Chess Olympiad 2002, held in Bled, Slovenia. Later, in 2005, the team won its first gold at the European Chess Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden.
It was in the beginning of the millennium that Poland saw its master player Radek Wojtaszek’s brilliance shining through the world chess podiums. In 2008, Wojtaszek became the European Rapid Champion and later won the silver medal at the European Chess Championship in 2011 thus emerging from his second place behind India’s Viswanathan Anand for decades.
Leveraging the golden opportunity the Polish Chess Federation along with the Comarch company, gave shape and form to the Wojtaszek Comarch Team in the year 2011. The team consisted of the champion along with other members like grandmasters Grzegorz Gajewski, Kamil Mitoń , Bartosz Soćko, and Artur Jakubiec.
The idea of a robust national chess team was primarily to secure its victory at the Chess Olympiad in 2018, the year of the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence. The team was also intended to encourage and nurture future master players like Jan-Krzysztof Duda and to celebrate the old Polish tradition of pre-war chess.
Poland today stands proud before the world in the chess arena with its 19 years old chess prodigy Jan-Krzysztof Duda and its strongest master player Radosław Wojtaszek (peak rating 2750). Duda won the title of grandmaster at the age of 15, becoming the then second youngest grandmaster in the world and the second youngest Polish grandmaster after Dariusz Świercz. With 43 grandmasters the nation’s average rating in world chess is 2638. Poland’s Grandmaster Radoslaw Wojfaszek enjoys a stature among the elite chess masters till date.
Moulding a Smarter Generation: Poland’s Chess Education Program
Joining the bandwagon with peers Armenia and Azerbaijan, Poland also made chess part of its primary school curriculum with an aim of upgrading the mathematical skills of its young students.
The trigger for educational chess was the declaration by the European Parliament in 2013 initiating member states to launch chess as part of educational curriculum in schools.
The “Education through Chess in school” program was launched by the Polish Chess Federation (PCF), along with the Polish Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Sports & Tourism.
While Armenia brought chess into its education system with an intention of character development for its young generation, Poland is more academically inclined. Holding a prestigious 11th position in the global ranking for maths/science performance, Poland has introduced the program to foster an aptitude for the subjects in children.
The chess classes are taken by PCF-trained educators who successfully complete a 72 hour training program. There are textbooks, methodological guides, and other study material for students along with chess sets. Every year there is a student tournament as well.
As chess stimulates the cognitive part of the brain, the project intends to improve logical and analytical thinking among students, sharpening their problem-solving skills, spatial-orientation, concentration, memory etc. The program designed to develop and nourish the social, intellectual and emotional growth of children in the country is a significant step in the evolution of Polish Chess as well as its promising future.