DTFC Karel Opocensky Memorial Tournament

5 DAYS, VACATION ALLOWED, WILL BE 4 ROUNDS AND THE FINAL BETWEEN THE BEST SIX. 10 CONCURRENT PER ROUND.

Karel Opocensky (February 7, 1892 - November 16, 1975) was an IM who had the distinction of being the first Czech chess professional.

     His father was a well-known building tycoon in Prague and decided that Karl, the middle and most gifted of the even children, should take over the family business, but he preferred chess instead. His father was furious with the decision and gave him an ultimatum, the family business or chess. Opocensky chose chess and said he never regretted his choice.

     He won the Czech championship four times (1927, 1928, 1938 and 1944) and played for Czechoslovakia four times in the Chess Olympiads with a +30 – 11 =14 record.

    When World War II broke out, Opocensky, Jan Foltys, and Frantisek Zita were playing for the Bohemia (the westernmost and largest region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic) and Moravia (a region in the Czech Republic forming its eastern part) team in the Olympiad in Argentina. They chose to return home while their teammates Jiri Pelikan and Karel Skalicka decided to remain in Argentina.

     During the war Opocensky remained quite active and achieved moderate success. After the war, he played in several international and Czech tournaments, again with modest success. In 1951 and 1954, he was the chief arbiter for the World Championship matches in Moscow and in the 10th Olympiad at Helsinki 1952 and in the second Candidates Tournament at Zurich 1953.

     Opocensky was also an opening theoretician with two variations named after him: in the Gruenfeld and the Sicilian. Czech GM Vlastimil Hort knew him personally and attested to the fact that it was Opocensky who once showed another variation in the Sicilian to Miguel Najdorf who was so successful with it that the variation came to be called the Najdorf Sicilian.

     In 1910, while still in grammar school, he played the first tournament at the Cafe Louvre in Prague. The Cafe is still in existence today...for starters their Braised Beef with Creamy Sauce, Cranberry Target and Bread Dumplings for less that $10 looks pretty good.

     Opocensky scratched out a living by writing chess articles, reporting on tournaments, annotating games and giving lessons. When WW I broke out he was playing in Mannheim, not in the Meisterturnier, but in the Hauptturnier A group where he was in 11th place (out of 17) with a +2 -3 =6 score. When the tournament broke up, Opocensky, a staunch Communist to the end, returned home and was upset to find that his oldest brother Jan had started a political career as a right wing politician.

     In spite of his political leanings, which didn’t change much even after Russia invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 to halt reforms that were taking place, Opocensky was well liked and respected by all the great players who knew him.

     He was known for a style that was surprising and trappy and when he stood worse, patient defense was not his preference; he preferred a quick counterattack with tactical chances.

By Tartajubow

tartajubow.blogspot.com