Chris de Ronde

{{Short description|Dutch-Argentine chess player}} '''Chris (Christiaan) de Ronde''' (1912 in Schiedam<ref>[http://www.ara.org.ar/chs/ajedrez/perlas/piriapolise.html Passengers of the Piriápolis]</ref> – 1996 in Buenos Aires) was a Dutch–Argentinian chess master.<ref>[http://www.sport-stat.ru/chess/players.php?id=37104 Sports Statistics. Chess. Players]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

He was a champion of Rotterdam. He had studied mathematics in Leyden and Paris.

De Ronde played for the Netherlands in the 8th Chess Olympiad at Buenos Aires 1939, scoring 8½ in his 14 games.<ref>[http://www.olimpbase.org/1939/1939in.html OlimpBase :: 8th Chess Olympiad, Buenos Aires 1939, information]</ref> After the tournament, during which World War II broke out in Europe (September 1939), De Ronde, along with many other participants of the Olympiad (Miguel Najdorf, Gideon Ståhlberg, et al.) decided to stay permanently in Argentina.<ref>{{cite web|title=List of players who remained in Argentina in 1939 (notes in '''Spanish''') |url=http://ar.geocities.com/carloseadrake/AJEDREZ/Asilados_1939.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091018211031/http://ar.geocities.com/carloseadrake/AJEDREZ/Asilados_1939.htm |archivedate=2009-10-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He played in Buenos Aires in 1940, and tied for 12-13th at Buenos Aires (''Circulo'') 1945 (Miguel Najdorf won).<ref>[http://www.rogerpaige.me.uk/Tables%2016.htm Vina del Mar] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103064604/http://www.rogerpaige.me.uk/Tables%2016.htm |date=2009-01-03 }}</ref>

==1939 Chess Olympiad and stay in Buenos Aires==

In 1939 de Ronde qualified for the Dutch Candidates Tournament, finishing with 3½/9 (shared 7th–8th; Salo Landau won). As several leading Dutch players declined to travel to Argentina, he was selected at short notice for the national team at the 8th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires.<ref name="Krabbe1999">{{cite web |last=Krabbé |first=Tim |title=De Ronde - NN. A Dutch immortal unearthed |url=https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/deronde.htm |year=1999 |access-date=15 February 2026}}</ref>

At the Olympiad, played in the same venue as Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca, Paul Keres and Savielly Tartakower, de Ronde scored 8½ points from 14 games, the second-best Dutch result, as the Netherlands finished eighth among 27 teams.<ref name="Krabbe1999" />

During the tournament World War II broke out in Europe. De Ronde chose to remain in Buenos Aires, as did several other masters including Erich Eliskases, Gideon Ståhlberg, Miguel Najdorf and Moshe Czerniak.<ref name="Krabbe1999" /> According to later journalistic accounts, he had held left-wing political convictions in the Netherlands of the 1930s and was opposed to the coming war; the Olympiad invitation provided an opportunity to leave Europe permanently.<ref name="Krabbe1999" />

Databases record at least one game played in Buenos Aires in 1940 and participation in a strong Buenos Aires tournament in 1945 featuring Ståhlberg, Czerniak and Najdorf, where de Ronde scored 1/12.<ref name="Krabbe1999" /> After that event he disappeared from international chess records.

==De Ronde–Kamstra (Dutch Championship 1938)==

For decades Dutch chess literature circulated an anonymous “immortal game” known only as ''De Ronde–NN'', consisting of a spectacular sacrificial sequence. In 1999 Tim Krabbé established that the full game was De Ronde–Kamstra, played in the preliminaries of the Dutch Championship in 1938.<ref name="Krabbe1999" />

The complete score is:

De Ronde – Kamstra, Dutch Championship (Preliminaries), 1938 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. e4 d6 4. d4 Bg7 5. f3 Nbd7 6. Be3 e5 7. d5 a5 8. Qd2 b6 9. g4 Nc5 10. Nge2 h5 11. g5 Nfd7 12. Qc2 Nb8 13. O-O-O Nba6 14. a3 Bd7 15. Kb1 O-O 16. Nc1 Qe7 17. Be2 Rfe8 18. Rdg1 Qd8 19. h3 Qc8 20. Bf1 Re7 21. Rh2 Qb7 22. Bd3 Nxd3 23. Nxd3 Nc5 24. a4 Qc8 25. Nf2 Na6 26. Qd1 Nb4 27. Nb5 Qb7 28. Bd2 Na6 29. Qe1 Nc5 30. Be3 Nxa4 31. Ng4 hxg4 32. hxg4 Ree8 33. Qh4 Kf8 34. Qh7 Nc5 35. Nd4 exd4 36. Qxg7+ Kxg7 37. Bxd4+ Re5 38. f4 Nxe4 39. fxe5 Nxg5 40. e6+ f6 41. Rf1 Rf8 42. exd7 Qb8 43. Rxf6 Rxf6 44. Rf2 Ne4 45. Rxf6 Qd8 46. g5 Nxg5 47. Rxd6+ Kf8 48. Bf6 cxd6 49. Bxd8 Nf7 50. Bf6 1–0.<ref name="Krabbe1999" />

Krabbé noted that while the first 30 moves were strategically conventional, the final sacrificial sequence secured the game’s place in Dutch chess folklore.<ref name="Krabbe1999" />

==Life in Argentina==

Contemporary accounts describe de Ronde as a reserved, meticulous man who spoke grammatically precise Spanish with a noticeable foreign accent and avoided social prominence. In Buenos Aires he supported himself largely by giving private lessons, including English and mathematics.<ref name="Revu2018">{{cite web |last=van Kleef |first=Joost |title=Christiaan de Ronde, de statenloze schaker |url=https://revu.nl/artikel/2035/biografie-christiaan-de-ronde |website=Nieuwe Revu |date=8 March 2018 |access-date=15 February 2026}}</ref>

He lived for years in the San Telmo neighborhood in modest rented rooms described as filled with books, newspapers and multilingual clippings; part of his library was devoted to Nietzsche. Visitors noted an austere domestic setting and that he wrote at a kitchen table rather than at a desk.<ref name="Revu2018" />

Accounts portray him as politically disillusioned both with European fascism and later Argentine politics. He never returned to the Netherlands and reportedly ceased following competitive chess decades before his death.<ref name="Krabbe1999" /><ref name="Revu2018" />

==Final years and death==

De Ronde died at home in Buenos Aires in 1996.<ref name="Revu2018" /> Reports describe chronic respiratory problems in his final years and a long history of heavy smoking. During his last period he reportedly devoted himself to reading newspapers such as ''La Nación'', the ''Argentinisches Tageblatt'' and ''The Buenos Aires Herald'', and to listening to classical music.<ref name="Revu2018" /> He was buried at La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires.<ref name="Revu2018" />

==Cultural and literary reception==

De Ronde’s life in Argentina and his decision not to return to Europe after 1939 have been revisited in Argentine cultural journalism, which portrays him as a marginal yet intellectually committed figure who gradually slipped into anonymity while surviving through private teaching.<ref name="Clarin2020">{{cite web |last=Muscillo |first=Adriana |title=Aquella sombra que pateó el tablero |url=https://www.clarin.com/revista-n/literatura/sombra-pateo-tablero_0_zzt0gPsB.html |website=Clarín (Revista Ñ) |language=es |access-date=15 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="DiarioCultura">{{cite web |title=Trebejos y resonancias políticas |url=https://www.diariodecultura.com.ar/literatura/trebejos-y-resonancias-politicas/ |website=Diario de Cultura |language=es |access-date=15 February 2026}}</ref>

In 2019 Argentine author Gustavo Bernstein published ''De Ronde. Retrato de un apátrida'' (Ítaca Ediciones, Buenos Aires, ISBN 978-987-45493-8-9), a documentary-literary reconstruction of de Ronde’s life that combines archival material, narrative reconstruction and political context.<ref name="Clarin2020" /><ref name="DiarioCultura" />

Reviews note that the work is structured in 64 chapters and incorporates chronicle, interview fragments and historical commentary to situate de Ronde’s trajectory within broader twentieth-century Argentine political history, including Peronism and the military dictatorship, as well as themes of exile and ideological conflict.<ref name="DiarioCultura" /><ref name="Clarin2020" />

==External links== * [http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/deronde.htm Chris de Ronde: a Dutch immortal unearthed]

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ronde, Chris de}} Category:1912 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Dutch emigrants Category:Immigrants to Argentina Category:People from Schiedam Category:20th-century Argentine chess players Category:Chess Olympiad competitors Category:20th-century Dutch chess players