The
Banco de Valencia in the historic city center |
It's more than a twist of fate that another business
trip finally took me to Valencia, the birthplace of modern chess. Unfortunately
a meeting of the Ken Whyld Association planned there had to be cancelled
for May 2009, and in September 2009 I couldn't accept the invitation to
the local Meeting of Chess Historians for
business reasons.
Meeting point Plaza de la Virgen - The Turia Fountain
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The
more pleasing it was that our founding member José Garzón
had made an appointment with me and my colleague at the Plaza de la Virgen,
in the middle of the historic city center. Probably Francesch Vicent and
Juan Timoneda have offered there to the public their books on modern chess
(Llibre dels jochs partitis dels schachs, Valencia 1495) and
on checkers (draughts) respectively (Libro llamado Ingenio, el qual
trata del Juego del Marro de punta) (see www.damasweb.com/).
At that time the book dealers settled in the vestibules of the churches,
certainly here in St. Catalina.
The
Santa Catalina Church |
José had to wait patiently for us as we had terribly underestimated
the previous march through the dry river bed of the Turia (1957 diverted
from the city) to the "Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias" with
its imposing modern "cathedrals" by Santiago Calatrava. There
we met amongst others this gentleman, facing a great challenge in a simul
in November 2009:
The
3D Cinema L'Hemisfèric
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In
the lovely Horchateria opposite St. Catalina - over a classic "Horchata"
(a milky refreshment made from tigernuts - a grass) - we were able to communicate
wonderfully despite all language problems. My Spanish friend had brought
a lot of documents and publications, inter alia the article reproduced below
from Jaque No 30/2004 dealing with the development of modern chess
in Valencia.
Michael
Negele and José Garzón in front of the Horchateria |
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