Talk:Sonja Graf

Buenos Aires Olympiad

It says here that "some teams withdrew" following the outbreak of WWII. As far as I know - and that is also what Wikipedia says - England were the only team to withdraw.Zamora1934 (talk) 08:30, 23 September 2010 (UTC)**

Went to play in the Olympiad?

The article (and also the Women's World Chess Championship 1939 article) says "In 1939, Sonja Graf traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina to play on the German team for the 8th Chess Olympiad.". The implication is that she was struck off the German Olympiad team and played in the Women's World Chess Championship 1939 instead (the events were concurrent). I think this is very unlikely; more likely she always intended to play in the womens WC. Adpete (talk) 03:50, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

I don't have many good sources on the women's championships, but I agree with you. Maybe we should just record the text here on the talk page and remove it from the articles until someone can provide a source. Quale (talk) 02:04, 9 January 2020 (UTC)

OK, there is a nice long article on her in German, here: https://www.kwabc.org/de/news/schicksal-eines-fraeuleinwunders-der-lebensweg-der-sonja-graf-stevenson.html . This appears to be the same one as reference 5 at the Women's World Chess Championship 1939 article, since the author and title are the same. The critical part says, in German:

Später in den USA verbreitete sie die Version, dass sich Josef Goebbels persönlich gegen ihre Nominierung für das Damenturnier in Buenos Aires 1939 ausgesprochen habe.

...

In dieser scheinbar verfahrenen Lage bewirkte die Intervention des niederländischen FIDE-Präsidenten Alexander Rueb, dass Sonja Graf für das Damen- Weltmeisterschaftsturnier in Buenos Aires nominiert wurde. Alleine und mit sehr gemischten Gefühlen begab sie sich mit dem britischen Postschiff „Highland Patriot“ (Bild 23) auf die lange Überfahrt nach Südamerika. Dort erwartete sie ab Mitte August 1939 gespannt die Ankunft der aus Europa anreisenden Olympiadeteams, darunter auch ihre Rivalin Vera Menchik, alle auf dem belgischen Liner „Piriapolis“ versammelt. In CHESS, Oktober 1939 S. 18 f berichtete B.H. Wood von der Überraschung, die „unbezähmbare“ Sonja Graf in Buenos Aires vorzufinden. Natürlich gab dies sofort zu besorgten Spekulationen Anlass, wie der direkte Vergleich zwischen Menchik und Graf in dem ansonsten relativ schwachen Feld der 20 Teilnehmerinnen ausginge, da diese einzige Partie über den Turniersieg entscheiden könnte.

Es kam zum erwarteten Kopf an Kopf-Rennen: Sonja Graf (Bild 24), als „Staatenlose“ unter einer Phantasie-Flagge des fiktiven Landes „Libre“ antretend, ...

Which Google translates as:

Later in the United States, she published the version that Josef Goebbels had personally spoken out against her nomination for the women's tournament in Buenos Aires in 1939.

...

In this apparently troubled situation, the intervention of the Dutch FIDE President Alexander Rueb resulted in Sonja Graf being nominated for the Women's World Cup tournament in Buenos Aires. Alone and with very mixed feelings, she embarked on the long journey to South America with the British mail ship "Highland Patriot" (Fig. 23). From the middle of August 1939, she eagerly awaited the arrival of the Olympic teams from Europe, including her rival Vera Menchik, all gathered on the Belgian liner "Piriapolis". In CHESS, October 1939 p. 18 f. B.H. Wood was surprised to find the “indomitable” Sonja Graf in Buenos Aires. Of course, this immediately gave rise to speculation as to how the direct comparison between Menchik and Graf would come out in the otherwise relatively weak field of the 20 participants, since this single game could decide the tournament victory.

The expected head-to-head race came: Sonja Graf (Fig. 24), appearing as "stateless" under a fantasy flag of the fictional country "Libre", ...

So I think it is pretty clear that the original editor(s) misread the source, and she always went with the intention of playing in the Womens WC, as we suspected. Adpete (talk) 04:35, 9 January 2020 (UTC)