News archive
November 2024
Schach im DP-Lager Landsberg und im Ghetto Terezín / Theresienstadt [Chess in the Landsberg DP camp and in the Terezín / Theresienstadt ghetto]
Schwarzweiße Wege der Forschung zu Nathan Markowsky und Isidor Schorr [Black and white paths of research on Nathan Markowsky and Isidor Schorr]
Comments on the current book by Siegfried Schönle from Kassel
by Konrad Reiß
[Original article in German is here. Translation with DeepL.com (free version)]
I used to travel through Theresienstadt a lot. The town was on the route to Schneekoppe, where my club, the 1871 Löberitz chess club, combines chess with a holiday for a few days every year around Easter.
Every time I drove through the town or even just heard the word Theresienstadt, I had to think of the misery that Jewish people had to endure there. At the same time, scenes from the Nazi propaganda film entitled "Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt"1 [The Führer Gives a City to the Jews] darken my mind.
The Theresienstadt ghetto could not have been described in a more perfidious and perverse way. Well, the camp was not an extermination camp, but it still served as a forecourt to hell. These hells existed as main camps (24) and subcamps (1,000) between around 1933 and 1945 and were called Auschwitz, Majdanek, Belcek, Sobibor and Treblinka.
Capablanca, the prodigious ascent (1888-1920) - by Georges Bertola
Georges Bertola, editor-in-chief of the magazine Europe Echecs and chess historian, has just published in French a book on Capablanca, with a preface by the Ukrainian champion Vasyl Ivanchuk.
Coincidentally, 19 November (today) also happens to be his birthday!
This fascinating, richly illustrated book takes you back through the career of this chess prodigy.
The first volume covers his rise from birth in 1888 to the year before he won the World Championship against Lasker in 1921.
An excellent gift for the festive season.
You can buy the book on the Europe Echecs magazine website
Price 39,90 €
Here's what the back cover says:
Read more … Capablanca, the prodigious ascent (1888-1920) - by Georges Bertola
Unveiling the Victory – How Spassky Won The Third World Junior Chess Championship Antwerp 1955 – Henri Serruys
Our friend Henri Serruys, treasurer of the CH&LS association, has just published a book with Thinkers Publishing about the 1955 Junior World Championship won by Boris Spassky.
Henri presented his great work to us two years ago in Marostica. The project has now become a reality!
The 3rd World Junior Chess Championship in Antwerp, Belgium in 1955
Another great Swedish Biography
Our member Peter Holmgren recently published the first of two planned volumes about his great countryman GM Gideon Ståhlberg (1908-1967), for decades one of the world’s strongest masters.
We are hoping to bring an in-depth review of the magnificent work later – in the meantime you may watch Daniel King’s presentation of the book on his YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqkqze-tKdg