The Clare Benedict Tournament is an annual team event among eight Western European countries. It was organized and sponsored for a number of years by Miss Benedict, an American woman living in Switzerland.

It was held this year in Minorca, Spain. The defending champions from West Germany were favored to repeat, with Holland and Denmark likely to furnish stiff competition.

It was the English team which won, however, for the first time in the series. Though without a grandmaster, they had the youngest and most ambitious lineup.

Of the seven matches, all with four men on a side, the English lost to West Germany by 3-1, tied with Denmark, and won the other five. Their point score was 18½ of a possible 28.

The West Germans, who had been victors 12 times in the previous 20 tournaments, and had two grandmaster, Lothar Schmidt [that's how Kashdan spelled it - WJB] and Hans Hecht, on their side, were in second place with 17½ points. They did not lose any matches, but tied with Holland, Sweden and Switzerland.

In third place was Switzerland, with 15 points. This was quite a success, as the team was rated much lower on an individual basis. The other final standings were: Denmark 14½, Sweden 14, Holland 13, Spain 10½ and Austria 9.

Bent Larsen of Denmark and Ulf Andersson of Sweden, top players for their teams, missed several of the early matches because they were in a tournament in Las Palmas, Spain.

/ Written by Isaac Kashdan, Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1974 /