Salo Flohr

Salomon Flohr, known as Salo Flohr, was a chess player of Jewish origin born in Horodenka, then in Austro-Hungarian Galicia and now in Ukraine. He spent much of his career in Czechoslovakia and later in the Soviet Union. His active years span the interwar period and the postwar era, and he matters because he was one of the most serious challengers for the world title before the Second World War.

Orphaned after World War I, when his parents were killed in a massacre, he settled in Prague, where he built a reputation by playing for stakes in the city's cafés. He won the Kautsky Memorial tournaments of 1928 and 1929 and made his international name at Rogaška Slatina. His best years came in the 1930s: he was champion of Czechoslovakia in 1933 and 1936, won many European tournaments and the Hastings events, and excelled at the Chess Olympiads, where he took two individual golds. His style was patient and positional, with outstanding endgame technique. FIDE proposed him as the official candidate to face Alekhine in 1937, but the war ended those plans. After the German invasion he fled to Sweden and then to Moscow, where he became a Soviet citizen in 1942. His result at the AVRO tournament of 1938 was badly affected by these circumstances.

After the war he finished sixth at the 1948 Interzonal, but he shared last place at the 1950 Candidates in Budapest. He then focused mainly on journalism and tournament organisation. He received the International Grandmaster title in 1950 and the International Arbiter title in 1963. His legacy lies largely in opening theory: a variation bearing his name appears in several openings, and the Flohr–Zaitsev Variation of the Ruy Lopez was adopted by Karpov in the 1980s. His later caution earned him a reputation as a drawing specialist.