Chess in Nazi Germany

So who were the top players in the Third Reich?  The only one i know is Alekhine.

Is that it?

Alekhine wasnt a nazi.. god forbid.

Oh he was.. maybe, okay I lost respect for him, I hate him now. His chess is crap, he sucked at the game, he would get destroyed in today's chess.. he was very weak.

Who is good that is from Argentina or Brazil?

There was Richter and Bogoljobow.   Rubinstein offered his services to the Nazis but at that point he was too crazy even for them.

Henrique Mecking was good enough to deserve better recognition. He was the 3rd ranked player in the world in the late 70's and suffered a severely impairing desease at age 27, on his way to peak performance.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/about-henrique-mecking

But yeah, he is an outlier and no other brazilian player has comparable achievements.

Semi on topic interesting, but very short story......

Grandpa was taught chess while in the trenches during WWII during the Nazi period, by a fellow soldier.  Chess helped them stay sane during that time, anyways that was what he told me.

I can understand that.

Alekhine was the world champion for a few years, and he could play great chess. I don't think he would get DESTROYED today, sure he wouldn't be world champion, but he would be considered a strong GM.

I believe I read it on chess cafe in article by Kmock.  Apparently it is a story that Najdorf likes to tell.  Edward Winters looked into it and tried to trace the story he could find no documentation.  There is some question on how Rubinstein managed to survive in Nazi occupied Belgium.  Here is Winters investigation of the story:

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/rubinstein1.html

Interesting stuff.  By the way: In 1936 the Nazis held a Chess Olympiad in Munich. There were a lot of International teams (21 countries): Brazil, Poland, France, Sweden, Holland, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria .........I think Hungary won.

Mallet, interesting "avatar" image for a thread about Nazi Germany!

AFAIK, two players were active Nazis: Emil Joseph Diemer and Klaus Junge.

Klaus Junge was killed in SS-uniform shouting "Heil Hitler!" when he refused to surrender to the Allied troops.

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and german war maschine

Miguel Najdorf