This time our Finnish chess friend Kimmo Välkesalmi
is at the top of our birthday list, he turned 43 on 1st May and thereby
is the "junior of the month". The chess IM and collector runs
an antiquarian bookshop at Helsinki and chess is the clear focus in his
online bookshop (see our page Links), an additional area of his interest
is "cinema and film".
In the name of all members but also of all other chess friends who visit
our website regularly I would like to congratulate heartily our webmaster
Ralf Jürgen Binnewirtz on his 53rd birthday which
he celebrated on May 3. It is owing to his tireless and professional work
that we possess such a rich and well-kept Internet site.
My friend Ralf is a remarkable phenomenon (to me):
On the one hand he has an immense specialized knowledge of chess history
and (naturally) he possesses a select collection on subjects in this field
which he knows to use very skilfully for investigations. (Our German members
will remember the chess puzzle competitions in "Schach-Report"
and in "Schach" where Ralf Binnewirtz was very successful as
a solver and later on as a puzzle supplier.)
Moreover he is a pronounced specialist in the subject "artistic chess"
– which is among other things shown by his unique book on "Schlagabtausch
im Räuberschach" (Exchange of blows in Losing Chess) and his
worth reading Internet article on "Collectors
in the field of artistic chess" (in German). Ralf always pursued artistic
chess as a solver and not as a composer; it is the main emphasis of his
fine collection.
On the other hand Ralf never played a single tournament game and only
occasionally correspondence chess (with friends) and he never became a
member of a common chess club – hence we complement each other perfectly
in our cooperation. (Michael Negele)
Postscript:
At this point Ralf’s twin brother Bodo Binnewirtz should not be
left without congratulations, time and again he as an Anglist has given
us valuable assistance in translation.
The same day the well-known problemist Günter Büsing
turned 57. He is heavily involved in the board activities of the "Schwalbe"
(German Association for Problem Chess), since about 10 years he has held
the position of a second chairman and secretary. In addition he has acted
many a time as a judge for chess compositions and he is also active in
the international arena [in the subcommission "Codex" of the
PCCC (Permanent Commission of the FIDE for Chess Compositions), at the
moment as spokesman]. One cannot hold it against him that he has nearly
no time left for composing let alone other chess activities, after all
he has to pay considerable tribute to his profession (European Patent
Office Munich) and his family, too.
Our next greetings go to the "Green Isle" of Ireland where
Tim Harding celebrated his 56th birthday on May 6. The
Dubliner is internationally so well-known – as editor of the magazine
Chess Mail, as columnist at the Internet ChessCafe ("The Kibitzer")
and as author of numerous publications (more than 20 books and CDs) –
that we hardly need to introduce him. His next book, a sequel to his excellent
"64 Great Chess Games" bearing the title "50 Golden Chess
Games" is announced for May-June 2004, please find more detailed
information on his website.
In the Swedish north we say hello to our chess friend and collector Calle
(Carl-Eric) Erlandsson, he looked back on whole 62 years on May
20. The activities of his chess life are so variable and extensive that
we can only offer them here in a separate file – Calle himself has
made his Curriculum
Vitae available to us.
Four days later Dusan Vukovic was next in line, our
country’s representative of Yugoslavia celebrated his 57th birthday
on May 24. Above all he is known as a chess dealer who attends also to
the field of chess stamps and motifs.
In closing our May series we would like to congratulate chess friend Bernd
Segebarth, he completed his 59th year on May 27. Located in the
German north-east (Pingelshagen, near Schwerin) he is familiar to us as
a collector of chess books and as a frequent visitor to the Klittich-Pfankuch
auctions.
Congratulations to all!
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