This match, organised by the Cercle Colle of Brussels, pitted two of Belgium’s strongest players against each other. Devos was in his most active years just after the second World War. He had won the previous Belgian championship as well as the championship of the Belgian chess federation and he had gotten valuable international experience in Hastings and London. Soultanbeieff had less recent international experience, but he had been one of the country’s best players for well over two decades. In the previous year’s Belgian chess federation championship, he had finished just half a point behind Devos.

It was a tense and hard-fought match. After an early defeat, Devos struck back at the end of the match and took victory with the smallest margin. In his comments in [2], Soultanbeieff complains of time trouble, despite the rather slow tempo of 40 moves in 2:30. [1] and [2] both have all the games, although both sources are missing a few moves.

Wanted

• Not much.

Sources

1. La Nation Belge 03, 03 12, 13 & 26/03/1946
2. Revue Belge des Echecs Vol.2 No.7