The Clare Benedict Cup was a chess tournament for national teams from Europe that took place 23 times between 1953 and 1979. It was founded by Clare Benedict, who wanted to organise an international championship after moving to Europe. It was held in Switzerland while Benedict was still alive, but was later also hosted by Germany, England, Spain, Austria, and Denmark.
Overview and History Foundation
Clare Benedict (1871–1961), author and patron, was originally from Cleveland, Ohio, but moved to Switzerland in 1945, where she founded the tournament. She was a distant relative of author James Fenimore Cooper.
Benedict spent her twilight years on Lake Lucerne and met Max Euwe, who helped Clare in finding Alois Nagler (a Swiss chess player) and the Chess Society of Zurich, who appreciated her vision of a peaceful nations tournament in an exalted and sophisticated atmosphere.Richard Forster: Schachgesellschaft Zürich 1809 bis 2009. Chess Club, Zürich 2009,
Tournament Style The Clare Benedict Cup was organized as a round-robin tournament, where everyone plays against each other. Each team was made up of four players plus a substitute. They played using only five boards at the first tournament in 1952. In the original rules it stated that six teams participated. However, in recent years this has increased to up to eight teams. The teams were first evaluated by game points.
In 1954 in Zurich, they changed the tournament style from the teams playing against each other to a single player tournament consisting of 12 players. The German Grandmaster Lothar Schmid took first place followed by Erwin Nievergelt from Switzerland and finally ex-champion Max Euwe.
Participating Countries
Country Participations Wins Hosts 2 0 0 4 1 1 21 12 2 18 2 2 2 0 0 10 0 0 21 5 0 1 0 0 23 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 23 1 15 17 1 2
Results # Sezon Miejsce 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Source 1 1953 Mont Pèlerin, Switzerland 2 1955 Mont Pèlerin, Switzerland 3 1956 Lenzerheide, Switzerland 4 1957 Bern, Switzerland 5 1958 Neuchâtel, Switzerland 6 1959 Lugano, Switzerland 7 1960 Biel, Switzerland 8 1961 Neuhausen, Switzerland 9 1962 Bern, Switzerland 10 1963 Luzern, Switzerland 11 1964 Lenzerheide, Switzerland 12 1965 Berlin, Germany 13 1966 Brunnen, Switzerland 14 1967 Leysin, Switzerland 15 1968 Bad Aibling, Germany 16 1969 Adelboden, Switzerland 17 1970 Paignton, England 18 1971 Madrid, Spain 19 1972 Wien, Austria 20 1973 Gstaad, Switzerland 21 1974 Cala Galdana, Spain 22 1977 Copenhagen, Denmark 23 1979 Cleveland, England
References