*: The Austrian team included French player Quetier.

Most of my information comes from a rather long article in [1]. A part of the individual results comes from [2], the individual results of the British team come from [1]. [1] is also the source for most of the games I have; one more comes from [3], which also gives the picture given below.

A very strong team from the Soviet Union was expected (Taimanov, Geller, Moiseev, Suetin), but apparently their visas arrived too late. However, at the beginning of the tournament, the hope was still that they would participate and they were taken up in the pairings. This scheduled was not changed when it became clear they wouldn’t participate. As a consequence, there were only three matches in the first few rounds.

The Belgian Chess Federation was apparently none too happy with this tournament and refused to offer it support. There was even talk of excluding the players and tournament director O’Kelly, but this apparently didn’t come to pass. The four top teams got four cut-glass vases. Støre, who got the best score on first board, won a silver cup. Barden and Rubinstein, who scored half a point less, as well as Ólafsson, who got the best score on second board, received a set of chess men, as did O’Kelly.

The individual results, insofar as I have them, can be found here. The individual results given below are very much incomplete. It seems like there was no fixed board order, despite there being a prize for the best score on board 1.

From left to right: Lindblom, Jacobsen, Bukne, and Støre.

Wanted

• Many games.
• Some detailed results.
• Some first names.

Sources

1. Ed.: Handley & Hart, University Chess, 1953-54/4
2. Le Soir 19-28/03/1953
3. Norsk Sjakkblad Vol.25 No.6