From September 17th to 19th, 2004 more than 35 members and guests of
the "Ken Whyld Association" visited this year’s meeting
in the Franconian town of Forchheim. The KWA which was not founded until
November 2003 now already numbers more than 110 members world-wide who
are joined by a common interest in chess literature and chess history.
The meeting gave the KWA board for the first time the opportunity of presenting
the preliminary results of their previous activities to the members; it
was prepared in an exemplary manner by the two Forchheim founding members
Rudolf Glenk and Udo Güldner. Apart from the meeting the chess friends
who had arrived from the whole of Germany, from the European neighbouring
countries and even from the USA had sufficient time for personal conversations,
additionally a guided tour of the Forchheim old town centre and a book
market for exchanging or buying antiquarian chess literature were offered.
The Sunday visit of the exhibition "Fascination and Terror"
at the Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally Grounds was an impressive ending.
At the general meeting in the hall of the inn "Roter Ochs" –
also meeting place of the local chess club – the chairman of the
KWA Dr. Jurgen Stigter (Amsterdam) and the other present board members
Hans Engberts (Utrecht), Roger Klittich (Brunswick) and Dr. Michael Negele
(Wuppertal) could point to an encouraging progress during the first months
after the foundation. The initiators showed themselves impressed by the
immense popularity of the KWA which should not least be attributed to
the terrific internet website designed by the webmaster Dr. Ralf Binnewirtz
(Meerbusch). In spite of these initial successes the board is aware of
the requirement for further improvements of cooperation and for intensifying
the contacts among the regional member groups in order to pursue permanently
the ambitious aims of the association. So Andrew Ansel (Walnut Creek,
USA) intends to contribute more to the board work in future and to coordinate
some projects from the USA.
Apart from the planned publications [End of this year the Zukertort biography
by the Polish historians Tomasz Lissowski (Warsaw) and Dr. Cezary Domanski
(Lublin), translated into German by Thomas Lemanczyk will be published
by the Exzelsior publishing house.] the production of an internet database
as a universal bibliography of chess literature is in the focus of the
attention of the KWA. Andreas Saremba (Brieselang) delivered to the present
members an interesting lecture on the basic concept of an hierarchical
data structure favoured at the moment; afterwards Jurgen Stigter explained
the next steps for a technical realization of this internet project.
Also a second lecture of the young Swiss chess historian Richard Forster
(Zurich) about his work of 900 pages that has appeared recently, a biography
and game collection of the English chess master Amos Burn, met an active
interest. Especially the demonstration of the required techniques to form
such a thick chess historical book in consistency offered valuable suggestions
for potential emulators in the auditorium.
Finally the board gave an outlook for the next meetings of the KWA [Informal
meeting at Brunswick on 2004-19-11, on the evening before the 45th auction
in the auction house Klittich-Pfankuch; Board Meeting on the occasion
of the book market taking place in the Max-Euwe-Centre at Amsterdam on
2004-11-27; General Meeting expected in the middle of September 2005 either
in the Musée Suisse du Jeu, La Tour-de-Peilz (Switzerland) or in
the Max Euwe Centre, Amsterdam (Netherlands).] and appealed to the members
for more commitment regarding the collaborative work on club activities.
(Initially intended to use for a press report
by Michael Negele)
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