Eliskases Erich (02.02.1997)

Argentine Grandmaster (1952) born in Austria. Eliskases could become one of the top players, but the Second World War broke his chess career.

At the age of 16 Eliskases became the Austrian Champion. He succeeded as a very young man in winning four matches against experienced grandmasters: Rudolf Spielmann in 1932 (+3 – 2=5), again in 1936 (+2 – 1=7), and yet again a year later (+2 – 0=8); and Efim Bogoljubow in 1939 (+6 – 3=11). During the same period, he won many first prizes in smaller tournaments, such as Budapest 1934, Vienna 1935 (jointly with Lajos Steiner), Swinemuende 1936, Milan 1938 (jointly with Monticelli), Bad Harzburg 1939. His finest achievement was when he took the first prize at the strong tournament of Noordwijk in 1938 (ahead of Paul Keres, Vasja Pirc, Max Euwe, Efim Bogoljubov and others).

Having realized that his style tended towards excessive caution, Eliskases decided to play more enterprisingly in this event. For bigger events he was not quite ready, finishing unplaced in Moscow 1936 and in Semmering 1937; equal 6th in Podebrady 1936. He represented Austria in the Olympiad of 1930, 1933, 1935 and 1936, and ‘Greater Germany’ after the Anschluss at Buenos Aires 1939, after having won the championship of Germany with record scores in both 1938 and 1939. In 1941 Eliskases was projected as a possible World Champion, but along with many other competitors in the 1939 Olympiad at Buenos Aires, he was stranded there when the War broke out.

He started his second career first in Brazil, then in Argentina.
Best results: won or shared first at Sao Paulo 1941, 1947; Mar del Plata 1948, Punta del Este (Uruguay) 1951; South American Zonal 1951, Cordoba 1959. Also 3rd prizes at Mar del Plata 1941 and 1947, as well as the double round-robin event (with Gideon Stahlberg, Miguel Najdorf, Max Euwe and others) at Buenos Aires 1947; equal 4th in the Capablanca Memorial at Havana 1952.

Eliskases had maybe a record by playing Olympiads for 3 different countries. Austria, Germany, and Argentina. He died in 1997 in Cordoba, Argentina.