Lodewijk Prins (27 January 1913,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

– 11 November 1999) was a Dutch

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 ...

player and referee of chess competitions. Prins was awarded the

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...

title in 1950, and was made an

International Arbiter {{No footnotes, date=April 2022 In chess tournaments, an arbiter is an official who oversees matches and ensures that the rules of chess are followed. International Arbiter ''International Arbiter'' is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deeme ...

in 1960. In 1982

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

made him an honorary Grandmaster. Prins represented the Netherlands twelve times in all

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

s from 1937 to 1968. He won two individual silver medals (1939, 1950) and one bronze (1968). At the beginning of

World War II 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 ...

(1939–1940), he played in tournaments in the Netherlands. In 1940, he won jointly with

Salo Landau Salo (Salomon) Landau (1 April 1903, Bochnia, Galicia, Austria-Hungary – March 1944,Westerbork Cartotheek NIOD Amsterdam Grodziszcze, Świdnica County, Poland) was a Dutch chess player, who died in a Nazi concentration camp. Biography Early ...

and Nicolaas Cortlever in Leeuwarden, took 2nd, behind

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as ...

, in Amsterdam (VVGA), and tied for 3rd–4th in Amsterdam (VAS,

Hans Kmoch Johann "Hans" Joseph Kmoch (July 25, 1894, Vienna – February 13, 1973, New York City) was an Austrian-Dutch-American chess International Master (1950), International Arbiter (1951), and a chess journalist and author, for which he is best known. ...

won). After the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, his name did not appear in any tournament in the occupied Netherlands because of his Jewish origin. After the war, he took first place at Gijón in 1947, at Hoogovens Beverwijk in 1948 and at

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

1951 with 12.5/17, ahead of

Herman Steiner Herman Steiner (April 15, 1905 – November 25, 1955) was an American chess player, organizer, and columnist. He won the U.S. Chess Championship in 1948 and became International Master in 1950. Even more important than his playing career were hi ...

Hermann Pilnik Hermann Pilnik (8 January 1914, Stuttgart, Germany – 12 November 1981, Caracas, Venezuela) was a German Argentine chess Grandmaster. Career In 1929, he won the championship of Stuttgart. Pilnik emigrated from Germany to Argentina in 1930. ...

, and

Ossip Bernstein Ossip Samoilovich Bernstein (20 September 1882 – 30 November 1962) was a Russian-French chess player and businessman. He was one of the inaugural recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Biography Born in Zhytomyr, ...

. Prins qualified for the 1952

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the ...

and was Dutch Champion in 1965. Despite his strong performance at the 1968 Chess Olympiad in Lugano, where he scored 9/12 and gained a bronze medal, Prins was not selected for the Dutch team at the 1970 Chess Olympiad. Subsequently, he broke from the Dutch Chess Federation and played only occasionally after this. His final tournament was a large open in

Cattolica Cattolica (; rgn, Catòlga) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Rimini, Italy, with 16,233 inhabitants as of 2007. History Archaeological excavations show that the area was already settled in Roman times. Cattolica rose as a resting pl ...

, Italy in 1993, where he finished in the middle of the field.Cattolica Open 1993, Italian Chess Federation
/ref> Prins coauthored several chess books with

, including the 1949 biography of Capablanca ''Het Schaakphenomeen Capablanca'' and several tournament books.

References

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External links

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Tim Krabbe's tribute to Prins
Open Chess Diary #37 {{DEFAULTSORT:Prins, Lodewijk 1913 births 1999 deaths Dutch Jews Dutch chess players Jewish chess players Jewish Dutch sportspeople Chess grandmasters Chess arbiters Sportspeople from Amsterdam 20th-century chess players