One of the biggest international chess tournaments in the life of displaced persons was the Meerbeck chess tournament, which was held from March 7 to March 19 in the Meerbeck DP camp. The tournament was organised by the Lithuanian chess player J. Repecka and it attracted 14 players from the British and American zones. The winner was former champion of the Ukraine J. Bogenko (F. Bogatircuks, Latvian spelling; despite the fact that he played under an assumed name, both of his names appear in the bulletin in the headings to his games - editor), a well known personality in chess circles. Second and third places were shared by L. Endzelins (several times a member of the Latvian national team in the chess Olympiads) and R. Arlauskas (a Lithuanian chess master). Fourth was the champion of Kurzeme (one of the 4 provinces of Latvia, known in the West as Courland - editor), A. Rankis, who had very bad luck in the middle stages of the tournament. Rankis was the only one to beat veteran master Bogenko. Fifth was E. Saltovskis (Sadovsky - editor) who played very aggressively, scorning draws and having his share of luck. 6th-8th places were shared by the Lithuanians P. Tautvaisas (a national team representitive on several occasions), K. Skema (champion of Mazeiki, a town in Lithuania) and J. Repecka. Tautvaisas is strong on theory but often made bad mistakes. Skema had no luck, losing several games that began well. Repecka, one of the younger genaration of players, was dangerous to the higher placed competitors. Further back were A. Darznieks (champion of Blomberg) and M. Jursevskis (champion of the Riga beach suburbs), neither of whom did well as expected.
One game was played every day. The rate of play was 36 moves in 2 hours. - Tony Gillam.