Saturday, July 6, 2019

Weiz Cup: first League Championship in Palestine


Source: see below


A frequent correspondent notified us of the Weiz cup, which took place in 1938. This was, in effect, the first league championship in Israel. Our correspondent gives us Marmosoh's contemporary report in Davar, 29/4/1938, p. 3 (top cutting). We note Fascher notes the exact details 20 year later, in La'merchav,  29/4/59, p/ 6 (bottom cutting).

Marmorosh notes this was a four-team event (Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, and 'the settlements', i.e., the agricultural smaller communities). Each team had 8 players ; Haifa won. Fascher add the name is because the prize -- a silver cup -- was donated by Menachem Weiz

Almost "anybody who was anybody" in Palestinian chess played -- with some exceptions. Marmorosh notes that, in Haifa, the 'top players' Rabinovich-Barav and Enoch didn't play, but the team still 'surprised everybody' and (eventually) won. Fascher adds that, in Tel Aviv, Blass and Rauch didn't play, either, and in Jerusalem, Burnstein was missing. 

Fashcer also notes this was the third major achievement of the Palestine Chess Federation (est. 1934), after the individual Palestine championships and the Warsaw Olympiad. 

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