Emmanuel Sapira (1900–1943) was a Romanian-born Belgian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

master. Born in Romania, he moved to Belgium. He shared 2nd, behind

George Koltanowski George Koltanowski (also "Georges"; 17 September 1903 – 5 February 2000) was a Belgian-born American chess player, promoter, and writer. He was informally known as "Kolty". Koltanowski set the world's blindfold record on 20 September 1937 ...

, at Ghent 1923 ( Belgian Championship), took 2nd at Brussels 1923 (Koltanowski won), finished 1st at Antwerp 1924 (''Quadrangular''), took 10th at Brussels 1924 ( Edgard Colle won), took 2nd at Brussels 1925 (Colle won), took 3rd at Spa 1926 ( Fritz Sämisch and

George Alan Thomas Sir George Alan Thomas, 7th Baronet (14 June 1881 – 23 July 1972) was a British badminton, tennis and chess player. He was twice British chess champion and a 21-time All-England badminton champion. He also reached the quarterfinals of the ...

won), tied for 5–9th at Antwerp 1927 (Koltanowski won), and twice tied for 5–7th at Hastings 1927/28 and Hastings 1928/29, both ''Major A''. Sapira played for Belgium at first board in the

2nd Chess Olympiad The 2nd Chess Olympiad ( nl, De 2e Schaakolympiade), organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between ...

at The Hague 1928, and in a match against "World" at Antwerp 1931. He took 2nd at Hastings 1931/32 (''Major A''), took 6th at Antwerp 1932 (Koltanowski won), tied for 4–7th at Brussels 1937 (BEL-ch, Paul Devos and Alberic O'Kelly de Galway won), took 7th at Namur 1938 (BEL-ch, O'Kelly won). Sapira and his parents escaped from Belgium to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

; he died there in 1943.

References

1900 births 1943 deaths Romanian Jews Belgian Jews Belgian people of Romanian-Jewish descent English people of Romanian-Jewish descent Romanian chess players Belgian chess players Jewish chess players Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century chess players World War II refugees Romanian refugees Belgian refugees Romanian expatriates in England Belgian expatriates in England {{Romania-chess-bio-stub