We are awaiting a further jubilee in the Swedish town of Tyresö (near
Stockholm), our deputy chairman Peter Holmgren will look
back on half a century there on August 18th. Peter, like his (fatherly)
friend Rolf Littorin is particularly active as a collector – even
if we are not able to give a more detailed information his collection
has to be classified as a very significant one. Apart from his commitment
to the KWA Peter Holmgren also gives some assistance to the Scandinavian
chess history group Schackets Kulturhistoriska Sällskap (publishing
the online magazine Meddelandeblad),
he is holding there the post of the treasurer. Increasing business commitments
(in the marketing department of an IT company) involve extensive travelling
- unfortunately his remaining free time for family and hobbies is shrinking
more and more: we hope very much that this will not have an all too dramatic
effect on his absolutely desirable co-operation with the KWA. We wish
Peter every good fortune and success for the second half of his life!
Robert Coffman from Minnesota is receiving congratulations
shortly after his joining the KWA – he turned 46 on August 20. As
a collector he has focused on the field of problem chess, we hope to hear
a little more about him and his chess activities soon.
Further birthday greetings go to Lauterberg, a small village beautifully
situated in the national park Hoher Vogelsberg: the same day (August 20)
chess friend Wolfgang Remin celebrated there his 51st
birthday. We also got to know him primarily as an enthusiastic collector
of earlier German chess literature (tournament books, magazines), he has
recently extended his interests a bit to problem chess which we (zealous
to chess culture) like to encourage.
So there is already a transition to our next candidate who has largely
devoted his life to problem chess – particularly to fairy chess:
bernd ellinghoven (he always writes in small letters)
celebrated his 51st birthday at Aachen on August 24. For 30 years now
-be- (so his initials which found their way into the
specialist literature a long time ago) has dealt with the heterodox chess
problem, at first in the Schwalbe (starting as a specialist in
1974), later on (since 1989) as the editor of feenschach, the
zeitschrift für märchenschach (magazine for fairy chess)
– we have already shortly appreciated the latter at our page Publications.
His further activities in publishing shouldn’t be left unmentioned
(in cooperation with Denis Blondel, Paris): the black FEE=NIX book series
which is unparalleled in the quality of its production and therefore is
a pleasure for each collector’s eye, and the "FIDE Alben"
(together with additional Annexe volumes) which turned into usable reference
books only by a reformation and modernization under his patronage. In
addition -be- is active as a FIDE delegate and as a printer for the Schwalbe
as well, not forgetting his numerous activities as a judge in problem
tournaments: in view of all these merits it is nearly no wonder that he
was already in his forties elected a honorary member of the Schwalbe,
an honour which is generally given to only (about) eighty-year-old "swallows".
Even for composing some time is still left occasionally - then -be- often
tends to cooperate with other renowned composers, there resulted many
a masterpiece or prize problem from such co-productions. Worth mentioning
is also his most interesting account of a journey and research report
"Kambodschach – Work in Progress zur Geschichte des Schachspiels
in Kambodscha" (... on the history of chess in Kambodscha) in Kambodschanische
Kultur, Heft Nr. 8, Berlin 2003, S. 90-122.
Those who wish to hear something more about -be- should read the excellent
laudatory speech written by Hans Gruber on the occasion of the 50th birthday
of our "Jack-of-all-trades of fairy chess" (Schwalbe
202, August 2003, p. 184-186).
Chess friend Éric Ruch reached his red-letter
day on August 26, he turned 43. Éric has played chess since nearly
three decades; after starting a family 15 years ago he finally lacked
the time to continue devoting himself seriously to OTB play and he changed
completely to correspondence chess. He became French CC champion in 1998,
afterwards he concentrated more on the international CC scene and the
IM title followed in 2001. In the meantime he got promoted to a SIM ("Senior
IM") and during the ICCF Congress 2003 he was elected Qualifications
Commissioner. Éric is particularly interested in the French CC
history, we are awaiting full of curiosity his publication on this subject
which is still in preparation.
In closing our birthday greetings we will go again to the Netherlands,
this time to the city of Utrecht – our friend René
van der Heijden celebrated there his 53rd birthday on August
29. He is not in the least related to his namesake Harold v. d. H. what
many a person may suspect, but he is also a formidable collector, we could
convince ourselves of that during several (also spontaneous) visits to
the very hospitable Biltstraat. His collecting passion has not only focused
on chess literature but also on music CDs of any provenance, he has a
huge collection of the latter in his shelves comprising probably all that
is available in this field. René is still a bit active in playing
in his Utrecht chess club but after all his great commitment to his family
and his job (lecturer in mathematics and physics) is limiting his time,
too.
Congratulations to all!
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