John
Donaldson at the demo board |
After that John Donaldson who on his journey from San Francisco to
Turin via Amsterdam could only stay for 20 hours with us gave a fine
lecture which took us to the North American world of chess. |
|
He talked about his present work on the Canadian Frank Anderson (picture
below), on the forthcoming new edition of his two volumes on Rubinstein
as well as on the Mechanics’ Institute (a nice jubilee book with numerous
pages on the history of the Chess Room in San Francisco, the oldest chess
club of the United States – see pictures below), and on additional
interesting subjects such as the US-American chess magazines or the current
chess scene.
I was particularly pleased that John succeeded in leading his team in Turin
to the bronze medal – congratulations! – and that unshaven for
several days (because a bag had been left in my Audi).
'An
Illustrated History of the First 150 Years
of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco' |
Click
on the picture
to read the text verso! |
After a break (where John had already to leave) it was again Richard Forster
who told us about his current work on the commemorative publication of the
200th anniversary of the foundation of the Zurich Chess Society 1809. We
are all longing to see this extraordinary contribution to chess history.
Richard
Forster
giving the prospects for a future commemorative publication |
Just as fascinating was Toni Preziuso’s report on his own research
in chess primary sources (articles in papers / chess columns) and the methodology
of the "Top-down" or "Bottom-up" search respectively
for previously unknown facts and games.
Toni
Preziuso gripped the audience too |
Bernd Ellinghoven presented a totally different subject using audiovisual
media: his topic was titled "Kambodschach" and
he told about the acquisition of a chess set for the Swiss Museum of Games.
|
bernd
ellinghoven is able to fall back on extensive Cambodia experience
... |
| You
will find more on "Kambodschach" in -be-’s
article of the same name published in Kambodschanische Kultur
no 8, Berlin 2003. |
|
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