by Jean Oliver Leconte

Third part of the articles dedicated to the 1^st Chess Olympiad and the creation of the FI(D)E.

Part one: The 1st Chess Olympiad and creation of the FI(D)E - The first steps (1/4)
Part two: The 1st Chess Olympiad and creation of the FI(D)E - Getting organized (2/4)

I would particularly like to thank Mr Guy Gignac, who sent me an exceptional document. It is the programme for the "International Amateur Chess Tournament", photos of which you have on the left and below.

by Jean Oliver Leconte

The year 2024 corresponds to the centenary of the creation of FIDE - Fédération Internationale Des Échecs. More precisely, it was in Paris on 20 July 1924 that FIDE was created (originally called FIE - The current acronym FIDE would be adopted at the 2^nd FIDE Congress in Zurich, Switzerland in 1925, but the meaning did not vary: Fédération Internationale Des Échecs).

I propose to retrace this creation of FIDE, as well as the first Chess Olympiad via several articles. These two events are closely linked. Moreover, as we shall see, the idea of an International Chess Federation came after the launch of the organization of the international chess tournament alongside the Olympic Games.

This first part is devoted to the beginnings of the first Chess Olympiad.
To date, the FFE has said very little about this FIDE centenary event. You can find an article on its website here. But these events seem to me to be very meager (reconstruction of the act of signing the creation of FIDE and giant simultaneous).

There is no mention in these events, for example, of Pierre Vincent, the driving force behind the creation of FIDE. His grave is in the Montmartre cemetery.

The CH&LS General Meeting concluded with two presentations of collectors' books.

The first was by Jurgen Stigter (Netherlands) and the Academy of Games.

Extract from the presentation at the AGM on Saturday 2 September: Annual Meeting of the CH&LS in Belfort
In German on the ChessBase website, by Herbert Bastian: Jahrestreffen der CH&LS in Belfort

A fascinating day at the municipal library ended with a talk by Dr Jurgen Stigter on the classic works devoted to the popular games of the time, (...). Jurgen used the example of draughts to show that it is not always possible to draw reliable conclusions about the spread of the game from the contents of books, as draughts, although a popular game, is not mentioned in some of them.

Here is the presentation given by Mr Henrik Lindberg (Sweden) at the CH&LS association's general meeting in Belfort.

Extract from the presentation at the AGM on Saturday 2 September: Annual Meeting of the CH&LS in Belfort
In German on the ChessBase website, by Herbert Bastian: Jahrestreffen der CH&LS in Belfort

Henrik Lindberg, assistant professor for economic history in Stockholm, reported in an extremely interesting lecture on the life story of the Swede Folke Røgard (*1899-†1973), lawyer and FIDE President from 1949-1970. Those who are interested in chess history during the Cold War can already look forward to the hopefully imminent publication of Henrik's book, as the title of the lecture reveals: Folke Røgard: organiser of modern world chess in the shadow of the cold war. Røgard was a well-known personality and made headlines, among other things, as the lawyer of the famous Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman (*1915-†1982), who was seen in the 1942 film Casablanca alongside Humphrey Bogart (*1899-†1957), incidentally also a chess enthusiast. Røgard got the FIDE World Championship cycle off the ground when the first interzonal tournament went to Saltsjöbaden in Sweden (1948). Through his good contacts on both sides, he also repeatedly succeeded in bringing the Soviet Union and the USA together, for example by preparing the bilateral match of 1955.