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March 2018

CCI - 18th Biennial Convention Prague

Michael Wiltshire, Franzensbad 2017
Michael Wiltshire, Franzensbad 2017

Dear Friends and Members of CCI

Our next international meeting will be in the beautiful central European city of Prague, the birth place of world champion Wilhelm Steinitz in May 1836. There is much history to be seen as Prague Castle dates from the end of the 9th century and the city flourished during the 14th-century reign (1346-1378) of Charles lV, Holy Roman Emperor and the king of Bohemia of the new Luxembourg dynasty. As King, Charles transformed Prague into an imperial capital and at that time it was the thirdlargest city in Europe after Rome and Constantinople.

We anticipate a high attendance for this meeting as many members and friends have already indicated their wish to participate. Early bookings are therefore advised, to take advantage of the special discounted room rates. Members of the Chess History & Literature Society, which is dedicated to the collection of chess books, are again cordially invited.

Yours Sincerely

Michael Wiltshire
Chairman

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A Chess Expedition to the Other Hemisphere

View from Stephen Street 10 to Table Mountain
View from Stephen Street 10 to Table Mountain

by Michael Negele

Dear Fellow-Members,

some of you may remember my reports on certain visits to chess places or to some of our members during the years 2003 to 2013. These travels were mostly related to business trips. So after some changes in my job position my "collection of collectors" didn't increase too much during the last couple of years. However, after my retirement a nice holiday trip to South Africa in January 2018 was combined with a visit to a long-term chess friend. By chance this opportunity led to the highest concentration of CH&LS founding members on the African continent ever since.

Manfred Mittelbach, formerly located in Hamburg, moved to Cape Town after his retirement in 2012. Every Christmas season Manfred kindly invited me to visit his wife Pauline and him in Stephen Street, Gardens, a very nice quarter of the "Mother City". So at the end of January this ideas materialized and so each morning I had a very impressive view of the Table Mountain.

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This Hair has to Move! ("Das Haar muss ziehen!")

"Das Haar muss ziehen!" - front cover
"Das Haar muss ziehen!" - front cover

150th Anniversary of the Bamberg Chess Club, founded in 1868

If any book may deserve to be the first one, to be introduced on our new web presentation, it is this anniversary publication of my Bamberg chess friends. All aspects, the Chess History & Literature Society is representing, are reflected on its 264 pages with many unknown illustrations and documents. And, it is also clearly, demonstrating the long tradition of organized chess in Germany, but also the importance of a diligent collector to conserve this documentation.

So we all should remember the late Lothar Schmid, a good friend of Kenneth Whyld. And we should thank the respresentatives of the Bamberg chess community, foremost my friend, Bernhard Schmid, for this wonderful book, published in his Karl-May publishing house.

The only drawback: The book is written in German language, which will not harm any diehard chess collector *).

Michael Negele

[Update 2018-05-24] A Luxury Edition is now available: https://www.karl-may.de/modules/produkt.php?nummer=B-06511 [/Update]

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Dear Fellow-Members of the Chess Literature & History Society

Manfred Mittelbach and Michael Negele at Chapman's Peak, Cape of Good Hope, 2018
Manfred Mittelbach and Michael Negele at Chapman's Peak, Cape of Good Hope, 2018

We have all been eagerly awaiting the launch of our new website for a long time. There were various reasons for the delays, however be assured that our two webmasters, Wilfried and Frank have done their very best to develop this new website with modern functionality and design as quickly as possible. Both friends were not members of the Ken Whyld Association when they committed themselves to these responsibilities in autumn 2016.

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