Personalia

Dear members,

with the present December column my regular mention of the member birthdays will run out. Having conducted this column now over 7 years, certain symptoms of fatigue can't be overlooked any more. In addition the KWA site will undergo a complete relaunch next year, the respective preparations are under way. Maybe new members will then be able to briefly introduce themselves - more interactivity of the homepage provided …

In every respect I wish you a happy and successful new year – and remain faithful to the KWA!

Ralf Binnewirtz




This time Santo Daniele Spina heads our birthday list, he celebrated his special day on Sicilian grounds: 4 years ago mentioned here for the first time, he has reached the "45" on December 2nd. On this occasion we would like to remind once more of Michael Negele's Meeting near the Obelisk of Catania. Again and again Santo Daniele has proved to be an enormously industrious author, many comprehensive contributions from his pen have been published in Scacchi e Scienze Applicate.

Our Forchheim member Rudolf Glenk followed on December 12th when he celebrated his 73rd birthday. Formerly we had already presented his wonderful tiled stove with chess problems on the tiles. His greeting cards too (like picture left) can be considered as little collector's items, now and then Rudolf Glenk delights his chess friends with such cards which he uses to decorate lovingly inside - naturally with problem chess contents to edify the addressee!

Our next greetings go again to Italy, Alessandro Sanvito looked back on 72 years on December 14th. In the meantime the Festschrift in his honour - announced long before - has come out as well, see the picture from our Vienna meeting this year.

79 years and still active as an author is Dale A. Brandreth who celebrated his birthday on December 17th. Together with Robert Sherwood he has published a tournament book on AVRO 1938, naturally at Caissa Editions in the usual red cloth. Here is an excerpt from the book: www.ukgamesshop.com/...pdf

As a new member we welcome Jon Crumiller from the US city of Princeton, he turned 53 on Dezember 17th. You will find numerous examples of his collector's passion (chess sets and books) at his web site, and we had already appreciated his playing skills: Jon Crumiller at the chess board.

One day later Harold van der Heijden had completed half a century, meanwhile the Dutch study expert has published the 4th edition of his electronic database which now includes more than 76,000 endgame studies. You can learn more about him and his HHDB IV at his web site (with a video presentation). See also the contribution Größte Studiensammlung der Welt by Karel van Delft at ChessBase (in German only).

Our Steinitz biographer Kurt Landsberger has often been mentioned at this site, on December 28th he will complete nine decades of an eventful life. It seems that his advanced age has hardly dampened his delight in travelling as still this year he has visited Europe and has participated in our KWA meeting at Vienna – the city of his youth. Below a photo from this event.
We wish him all the best!

A picture of fraternization: Kurt Landsberger with our host Karl Kadletz (Vienna 2010)

Congratulations!




PS: You will find all previous birthday greetings in our archives!