Stories of Romanian Sports – Chess player Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu had a major contribution to the development of chess in Argentina

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Florin Orban, 05.06.2020, 13:30

Major historic
events can be life-changing in the life of an athlete. Such is the case of
Romanian-born chess player Juan Iliescu, whose contribution to Argentinian
chess has been most notable. Born Ion Traian Iliescu on April 18, 1898 in
Braila, Ion Iliescu was a seaman in the Romanian navy when Romania entered the
war in 1916 on the side of the Entente. He was taken prisoner by the German
army, and was released at the end of the war, after 18 months of captivity in
Havelberg, Germany. Upon his release he decided to roam the world. He reached
Paris, a city his French mother had told him stories about, then crossed
Antwerp, Brussels and Ostend. In 1921 he crossed the Atlantic, reaching Buenos
Aires, Argentina. He could neither speak Spanish, nor play chess, a sport
widely spread amongst inmates.

He did learn to
play it at Café Marzotto in Buenos Aires, from two players with diverging
playstyles. Over the next two years he managed to beat all players that
frequented the venues. He started playing in professional tournaments in 1924,
and in 1928 he won his first major competition, under his Hispanicized name,
Juano Iliesco. He then starting coaching chess players at San Lorenzo de
Almagro, a local sports club. He is widely acknowledged for his notable
contribution to the development of chess in Argentina. This is noted down in
the book Lights and shadows of Argentinian chess (Luces y sombras del ajedrez
argentine), published in 2014. In 1939 Argentina was the first country outside
Europe to host the chess Olympiad. That year Juan Iliesco won the Argentinian
chess championship, but he was denied the title, as he wasn’t an Argentinian
national. When rules changed, Juan Iliesco won and received the champion’s
title in 1943. A year later he missed another title, losing the playoff against
Hector Rossetto.

He defeated all
of Argentina’s top-notch players, including those who settled there during the
war, the most famous of whom is Miguel Najdorf, one of the best chess players
in the world in the late ’50s. Iliesco defeated Najdorf at the tournament held
in Mar del Plata in 1941. Najdorf at the time was the Olympic vice-champion
representing Poland. Juan Iliesco went on to become a chess sports commentator,
featuring as a contributor to El Dia and La Plata sports magazines in the
1960s. He passed away on February 2, 1968 in Mar del Plata, where he spent the
last years of his life.

(Translated by V. Palcu)