6 Player round robin, that's 5 simultaneous games. The tournament will run for 6 rounds (barring annoying tiebreak ties) as half of every group advance.

Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a leading Czech and later Soviet chess grandmaster of the early 20th century. He became a national hero in Czechoslovakia during the 1930s and his name was used to sell many of the luxury products of the time, including Salo Flohr cigarettes, Salo Flohr slippers and Salo Flohr eau-de-cologne. He dominated many of the chess tournaments of the pre-WWII years, and at one point looked to be a genuine contender for the World Chess Championship. Flohr was also a well-respected chess author, and an International Arbiter.

Vlastimil Hort on Salo Flohr

Before World War II Salo Flohr was one of the world's best players. In 1939 Flohr was to play a World Championship match against Alexander Alekhine but the outbreak of the war destroyed Flohr's hopes to become World Champion. Vlastimil Hort knew Flohr well and shares memories.

Salomon Flohr was born on 21. November 1908 in the west of Ukraine. His parents were jewish, had eight children and were very poor. Thus, Salomon and his older brother Moses were soon seeking greener pastures elsewhere. They finally ended up in Prague where they sold pickled cabbage, was stored in heavy barrels. Whereas the burly Moses rolled these heavy barrels with ease, the small and delicate Salo Flohr found this task more challenging.

Salo was clever enough to change his métier. Around 1923 he found a job that was much easier: he delivered newspapers to all cafés and restaurants in Prague that he knew. On his rounds he was particularly fascinated by the sight of people who were arguing or triumphing or quietly brooding while sitting opposite each other while having a board with pieces between them. Salo Flohr's interest in chess was awakened.

Flohr's incredible talent for the game quickly became apparent. It did not take long and he beat all the coffeehouse players. The contact to Czech chess players also helped him to learn Czech and thanks to the support of the chess players he soon no longer had to deliver newspapers.

How did I love to play through the games of the International Tournament Podebrady, 1936! Flohr lost only one game - against Eliskases - and won the tournament half a point ahead of Alekhine. In the thirties Flohr met Vera Meisner - his great but unhappy love - her parents did not want to have a stepson of jewish origin. But was it a platonic relationship, Salo? At any rate, he did not marry Vera, he married Raissa.

Parallel to the Chess Olympiad in 1937 in Stockholm the Fide met to establish who would have the right to challenge World Champion Alexander Alekhine. At that time the Fide delegates decided the challenger by vote. Flohr won with 8-5 votes over Capablanca, and Alekhine both agreed to the proposed financial conditions of a possible match and to Flohr as challenger.

War instead of a World Championship match

The match should go over 30 games and was scheduled to be played in various cities in Czechoslovakia. The Czechs were euphoric. Till then Flohr had won no less than 24 international tournaments and a number of individual matches.

But when the guns speak, the muses keep silent. Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia. Salo and his wife fled to Russia, as did Andor Lilienthal, Flohr's best and only real friend.

After the war Flohr did not have another chance to play for the World Championship. In an interview with N. Borisov which was published in the famous Soviet chess magazine 64 (21/1970) Flohr harshly criticized his own approach to chess after the war.:

"The war severely affected my health and my nervous system. My way to think about chess needed a change. I have never had a particularly good knowledge of theory because in my youth other factors were more important. After the war young Soviet masters sprang up like mushrooms. They pushed not only me aside but also the other Western grandmasters. But the main reason for my failures after the war has to be sought elsewhere. Fighting for the chess throne requires a boundless will to work. Which I no longer had. No sweet without sweat! I was spoilt by my great successes before the war. My character was not strong enough. I stopped fighting; I basically did not care. A pity! As Steinitz used to say: chess is not for the faint-hearted but demands your all.“

In this interview Flohr poured out his heart. But it is also a message to the following generation of chess players:

„I should have fought. Every chess player has his own style, that is his potential. But he should never be passive. Man has the duty to fight, it is natural. If I could start again, I would try to become a fighter. Like Lasker or Kortschnoi. Then I did not need to regret that I gave the world a wealth of draws.“

The short jovial man with a Soviet passport enjoyed all the pleasures and privileges of the higher communist nomenklatura but still liked to hear news from the chess scene in Czechoslovakia. In November, the month of Soviet-Czechoslovakian friendship, he was often invited to give simuls or lectures. His old buddies Karel Opočenský, Vita Houstka and Alois Hruska with his famous spouse Nina Hruskova-Belskaja helped him whenever and as much as they could. Afterwards, the night train Prague-Warsaw-Moscow had a heavy burden to bear: luxury goods which were not available in the Soviet Union and which Flohr carried with him.

Later in the west I met Flohr on countless occasions. Sometimes we played cards. Sometimes I entertained him with jokes - they were always unpolitical. When we met we often drank Russian tea (I had no other choice) because Flohr did not drink alcohol. At that time Flohr had stopped playing tournament chess but still gave simuls. At some of them I was present and could admire as I did in Kladno a long time ago.

If he did not happen to play chess one could often see how Flohr was busy running quickly from shop to shop, a long list with wishes by the Soviet nomenklatura in his hand. By now he had become "purveyor of the court".

He was very happy to hear that I later visited his brother Moses who survived the German occupation by hiding in the small village of Pchery. Without doubt Flohr contributed to the creation of a Czech School of Chess. Even though Flohr emigrated to Russia where he also spent the last years of his life the Czechs still consider him as their master. Flohr died on 18. July 1983 in Moscow.

In the history of soccer the famous pass of the Czech soccer player Josef Masopust is known as “Czech lane". Flohr's move 4.Qd1-c2 in the Nimzo-Indian will always have admirers and followers - far beyond the Czech borders.