1953

January

USSR. E. Bykova with 11,5 points became the winner of the World Women’s Championship. Heemskerk shared the second place with Ignatieva USSR with 10,5 points. There followed Keller, Bylova and Zvorykina USSR with 10 points.
East Germany. The East German Championship at Binz ended with a tie between Koch and Muller with 10 points out of 14.
Poland. Sliwa and Makarczyk with 16 points shared the victory at the Polish Championship at Katowice in November-December last year.
Sweden. A play-off match for the Swedish title was played  at Stockholm in December, and G. Stoltz won it with 3,5-0,5.
Finland. K. Ojanen won the 20th Championship of Finland ahead of T. Salo.
Netherlands. N. Rossolimo (FRA) scored the outstanding victory with 9 points without a loss in the 15th Bewervijk tournament. The second was A. O’Kelly (BEL) with 7,5 points, there followed JH. Donner, M. Euwe (NED), Kramer, R. Toran (ESP) with 7 points…
Austria. The American A. Bisguier became the winner of the  3rd Christmas Tournament which was held in Vienna. He scored 9 points, ahead of  S. Nedeljkovic with 7,5 points, E. Stoeckl with 6,5 points, B. Rabar and E. Grunfeld with 6 points…
France: N. Rossolimo with 9 points out of 11 won the Cercle Caissa’s Christmas Tournament followed by Dr.Tartakower with 8,5 points, Molnar and Thiellement with 7,5 points…
England. The international tournament at Hastings  ended with a shared victory of Golombek (ENG) , Medina (ESP), Penrose (ENG) and Yanovsky (CAN) who scored 5,5 each.
Switzerland. C. Kottnauer (GER) acted the first at the Christmas Tournament at Lucerne. He made 6,5 points out of 7, followed by F. Scafarelli (ITA) with 4,5 points, L. Barden (ENG) with 4 points…
USA. R. Byrne was the winner of the Manhattan Chess Club tournament held in December, he made 6,5 points out of 8, ahead of Pavey with 6, Kupchik with 5, Sherwin with 4,5…C. Pilnick won the Marshall CC

February

Brazil. Carvalho won the Brazil Championship having scored 11 points out of 13.
Hungary. Szabo with 13 points scored the victory at the Hungarian Championship.
Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Championship was won by Dr.Trifunovic who scored 13,5 points, followed by 13 points…
Australia. Sarapu and Purdy become joint Champions of the Championship of Australasia NZL, after the play-off match which ended with a draw 5-5.
Romania. Troianescu and Ciocaltea tied for the victory at the Romanian Championship, and the latter won the play-off match by 2,5-0,5.
Twenty contestants were invited for the Bucharest Tournament. More than 700 spectators were present every day. G. Stoltz (SWE) in his late forties was the oldest player and the youngest was 16-year-old B. Spassky (URS). Finally, A. Tolush (URS) managed to keep the lead and finish one point clear ahead of T. Petrosian 13 and V. Smyslov with 12,5
South Africa. 32 players took part in the 1st South Africa Championship to be held on the Swiss system. Eriksen came the first with 9 points

March

Sweden. The “Landslagsklass” Tournament in Stockholm ended with a triple tie of Bergqvist, Nilsson, Danielsson with 6 points each ahead of Stoltz with 5,5 points, Backlund with  5…
The Finnish E. Book with 6 points  won the IT at Goteborg, in front of Laurine with 5 points, Goode and Kinnmark with 4,5…
Iceland. The young F. Olafsson won the national championship.
Latvia. The rising star M. Tal won the Latvian championship ahead of A. Koblenc and A. Giplis.
USSR. The 20th USSR Championship was won by two players M. Taimanov and M. Botvinnik, they scored 13,5 points each, followed by E. Geller with 12 points, I. Boleslavsky and Tolush with 11,5 points…

April

Argentina. S. Gligoric (YUG) with 16 points out of 19 became the winner of the traditional Mar del Plata Tournament. He was followed by M. Najdorf (ARG) with 14,5 points, J. Bolbochan (ARG)  with 13,5, P. Trifunovic YUG with 13 points…
Australia. Lajos Steiner with 8,5 points out of 9 regained the Australian champion’s title played in Hobart Tasmania.
New Zeeland. Sarapu won easily the New Zealand Championship played on the Christmas with 8 points out of 9.
Scotland. J. Aitken  won the 60th championship of Scotland.
USSR. In the play-off match for the Soviet champion, the title went to M. Botvinnik won from M. Taimanov with a score of 3,5-2,5.
S. Furman won the 26th Leningrad championship ahead of V. Korchnoi and G. Borisenko. P. Keres won the 21st Estonian championship.

May

Germany. 16 competitors took part in the IT at Saarbrucken. The winner was N. Rossolimo (FRA) with 13,5 points, JH Donner (NED) was the second with 12, Jager (GER) with 11,5 points was the third, ahead of Bisguier (USA) with 11
England. H. Golombek (ENG) won the 1st Bognor Regis tournament.
Hungary. J. Szily won the Charousek Memorial held in Budapest.
Sweden. Lindqvist with 4 points out of 5 points won the Stockholm championship.
Switzerland. The traditional Clare Benedict was played at Mont Pelerin . Teams from 6 countries took part in the It and the Dutch team won the tourney with 17,5 points, the second was Austria with 16, SUI with 15, France with 13, Italy with 9,5 points and Belgium with 4.
USA. Pavey with 10,5 points out of 13 became the winner of the Manhattan Club Championship.

June

Argentina. O. Panno was the strongest at the Club Argentino tournament.
Belgium. An international students’ team tournament was played at Brussels in May and The Norwegian team came the first with18,5 points, followed by Great Britain with 18, Finland and  Iceland with 16,5 points…
France. Popel became the winner of the IT at the Caissa Club of Paris with 7,5 points, ahead of Raizman with 6, Simonovic with 5,5, Ravn with 5…
Germany. W. Unzicker with 12 points became the FGR Champion at the tournament played in Berlin.
Italy. G. Primavera (ITA) and A. Santasiere (USA) with 5,5 points each shared the victory at the international tournament of Milan, ahead of E. Engalicew (POL) and C. Kottnauer (FRG)with 5

July

Argentina. S. Reshevsky lost the match held at Buenos Aires against Najdorf with a score 5,5-4,5.
Belgium. A. O’Kelly won again the Belgium Championship with 9 points out of 10 ahead of R. Lemaire.
Denmark. O. Panno (ARG) won the 2nd World Junior Chaùpionship ahead of K. Darga (FRG) and J. Sherin (USA).
Italy. The team match Italy- Yugoslavia ended with a victory of the Yugoslavs – 14-6.
Spain. The double-round match at Barcelona ended with a win of the Spanish team over the Swiss with a score of 13-7.
Switzerland. M. Blau is the new Swiss Champion.
USSR. The Moscow Championship was won by D. Bronstein who scored 12,5 points out of 15.

August

Argentina. The return match Najdorf-Reshevsky at Buenos Aires ended with a victory of Reshevsky- 9,5-8,5.
Denmark. Pedersen won the Championship of Denmark with 8,5 points out of 11.
East Germany. R. Fuchs won the 4th national title with 8/11.
England. In Hastings, the Canadian D. Yanofsky won the 40th British Championship ahead of Milner Barry and R. Wade.
Netherlands. N. Cortlever  with 9,5 points became the winner of the Dutch Championship.
Italy. The Italian Championship was won by V. Castadi who scored 5,5 points out of 7.
USSR. Firman won the Leningrad Championship with 9,5 points.
Denmark. O. Panno won the world junior 1953 in front of Draga, Ivkov and Olafsson. Larsen finished 8 and last.

September

Brazil. S. Gligoric (YUG) scored a nice victory at Rio de Janeiro with 9,5 points out of 11, ahead of Trifunovic with 9, Engels with 8,5, Medina and Cruz with 7…
Germany. The team match between West Germany and Austria was played at Aschaffenburg GER and was won by the host team with a score 15-5.
30 competitors took part in the German Championship at Leipzig , W. Unzicker and L. Schmit shared first.
Iceland. F. Olafsson won the Icelandic Championship with 6,5 points out of 9.
Itay. C. Kottnauer (FGR) and K. Robatsch (AUT) with 10 points shared the victory at San Benedetto del Tronto I ahead of N. Karaklaric (YUG) with 9,5 points.
USA. A Bisguier won the US Candidates Tournament organized in Philadelphia ahead of H. Berliner.

October

Austria. In Vienna, the Soviet team was too strong for Austria, beating the national team easily with 2,5-17,5.
Sweden. The Northern Championship with the participation of all Scandinavian countries was held at Esbjerg. The Masters’ tournament was won by F.Olafsson ISL with 9 points out of 11, followed by Skold SWE with 7,5 and Nielsen DEN and Sterner SWE with 7 points.
France. X. Tartakower and C. Hugot shared the victory in the French Championship at Paris having scored 7 points out of 9. The former was adjudged to be the champion on Sonneborn-Berger count.
Spain. R. Toran won the 18th Spanish National Championship having scored 16,5 points out of 19, in the absence of Medina.
Switzerland. The World Championship Candidates’ Tournament was held in Zuerich. V. Smyslov (URS) was victorious with 18 out 28 ahead of D. Bronstein (URS) , S. Reshevsky (USA) and P. Keres (URS) all at 16 points. The next spring Smyslov will meet Botvinnik in the World Championship match – if he plays then as he did in this tournament most people would back him to win.
At the beginning of the tourney Reshevsky was the leader, but at the end of the first 15 rounds, he was one point behind Smyslov. The latter showed his calmness and nerves control throughout 30 rounds contest during a couple of months and finished 2 points ahead of his nearest opponents.
The Soviet team beat the Austrian team at Zurich with a convincing score 17,5-2,5.
USA. 181 participants played in the 13-round US Open Championship at Milwaukee. D.Byrne acted the first with 10,5 points , ahead of Pavey with 10, Rossolimo FRA, Sherwin, Horowitz, Anderson CAN, Hearst and Cross with 9,5 points.
USSR. D. Bronstein and T. Petrosian shared first at the Moscow Championship with 14,5 points each.
R. Nezhmetdinov won the R.S.F.S.R. championship.

November

Denmark. The double-round team match Denmark-Sweden was played at Copenhagen, the Swedish team won by 11-9.
Poland. In Krakow B. Sliwa won the 11th Polish championship ahead of H. Szapiel
USSR. In Kiev, the Ukrainian championship was won by J. Yukhtman with 8/11.
In Gorky, the team of Leningrad won the RSFSR championship ahead of Sverdlosk and Saratov. In Leningrad, the local team won the USSR Republics Championship ahead of RSFSR and Moscow.

December

Argentina. O. Panno won the 32bd Argentine championship ahead of C. Guimard and E. Eliskases.
Austria. The team of Belgrade won the Mitropa Cup for city teams.  
Australia. Diamant with 7 points out of 9 scored the victory at the Australian Championship.
Bulgaria. The team match between East Germany and Bulgaria was played in Sofia, it ended with a score 11,5-8,5 in the host team favor. N. Minev is the new Bulgarian champion.
Czechoslovakia. In Prague, M. Filip and L. Pachman are both the winner of the 23th CSR championship.
East Germany. Fuchs won the play-off match from Koch with a score 2-1 for the East German champion title.
Teschner with 9,5 points out of 12 won the title of Championship of Berlin.
Hungary. B. Sandor won the 9th national championship.
Israel. Porath with 10,5 points out of 14 won the Israeli Championship.
Italy. The traditional Venice Tournament was won by E. Canal who scored 10 points, followed by Castaldi and L. Schmid with 9 points.