News archive

please select ...

2007

In memoriam Dr Jean Mennerat

(* 11 August 1917 - † 21 September 2007)

Only very late we received the sad news: Dr Jean Mennerat, the doyen of our association and the greatest French chess collector of our age is no longer alive. We don’t know anything about his last months, unfortunately we had lost contact already since August 2006.

After many years of active life as a doctor in Paris he had settled with his wife in the small village of Amancey in the French Jura Mountains where he lived a very secluded life devoted in great parts to the extension of his collection.

He had entrusted only few with his address, and certainly the number of those who were permitted to reach his "Holy of Holies" was still much smaller. Christophe Bouton belongs to this small circle of chosen ones, he reports in his obituary (worth reading, see Echecs64 blog), that tough preliminary negotiations were required at that time to get to an on-site interview with Dr Mennerat and to have a look at his very impressive collection. It is known that C. Bouton reported on this unique event in New In Chess 2005/5.

Read more …

The Imagery of Chess

Sarah Cohen: The Imagery of Chess – Surrealism and Chess

Interview with David Shenk ...

... on "The Immortal Game" at ChessCafe

Egbert Meissenburg 70 years!

Egbert Meissenburg (Posen, 2002)
Egbert Meissenburg (Posen, 2002)

Egbert Meissenburg from Seevetal, renowned chess historian and bibliographer as well as one of the most eminent German chess collectors, is well-known far beyond the borders of our country, so there's nearly no need for an introduction. Owing to his chess historical knowledge which he has acquired by self-education he considers himself (with a slight understatement) as a "Leisure Time Historian". Our member Siegfried Schönle has written a more detailed appreciation, here once more the link to his article (in German only) Egbert Meissenburg zu Ehren.
On this special day Egbert Meissenburg can look back on seven decades, we wish him all the best and hope that many further years of successful chess research are still to come.
Ad multos annos!

A little chess mystery book

Anfrage von Tim Harding

In memoriam René van der Heijden

René in his family circle
René in his family circle

In memoriam

René van der Heijden

(August 29, 1951 – April 6, 2007)

René van der Heijden, a founding member of the KWA and a passionate collector of chess books, has passed away much too young. In his struggle against cancer he was playing a losing game. We wish that his partner Tia van der Let together with her children Gwendoline, Natalie and Angelique may summon courage and strength to endure and to overcome this severe loss.

Read more …

Egbert Meissenburg's 70th birthday

An initiative of our member Siegfried Schönle on the occasion of Egbert Meissenburg's 70th birthday - here his circular (in German) and his article at the DSB site "Egbert Meissenburg zu Ehren".

Kasparov in Cologne

A short report by Michael Negele

Read more …

Valdespino, un poco más conocido

An article by our member
José A. Garzon at the Spanish ChessBase Site.

Life story of female prodigy Sonja Graf-Stevenson

Sonja Graf
Picture 1: Sonja Graf

By Michael Negele (a version from 10th February 2007; an abridged version appeared in Karl 3/2004, pp. 28-34.)

While leafing through some old issues of Schach-Echo I came across a photo (Picture 1) of a young woman whose enigmatic smile instantly aroused my curiosity. Who was this “Miss Sonja Graf” and why does Dr. Eduard Dyckhoff (Picture 2) refer to her as “the German champion” (Text A..) in Magyar Sakkvilag (April 1934, pp. 83-85) when there is hardly any mention of her in German chess magazines of that time?

This was the beginning of my extensive research which revealed some interesting facts about the eventful life of this mysterious figure.

According to some sources, Sonja Graf was born on 15th May 1912 in Munich. This date is also mentioned by Alfred Diel in “The Bavarian Chess Federation – Beginning of the Third Millennium” (2000). However, after consulting the „Chess Personalia A Biobibliography” (1987) things became more complicated. Jeremy Gaige, who has a reputation for being extremely careful, gives 16th December 1914 as Sonja’s birth date, referring to the information in her death certificate. And finally, the third birth date that I came across was 18th December 1912 – this was mentioned explicitly in a laudatory article on Sonja Graf in the short-lived Czech weekly Šachový týden (Chess Week) published on 8th April 1937 before the commencement of the Prague tournament (Text B).

Read more …

Calle Erlandsson in Cuba

At the beginning of January our friend Calle Erlandsson returned to Sweden from a two-week trip to Cuba - just in time to take successfully part in the ChessCafe Holiday Quiz. We would like to show you some of his photos he recently sent us.

Read more …

KWA members successful at the ChessCafe Holiday Quiz

Again a success of our quiz solvers!

Our Nordic members achieved a remarkable success at the 10th edition of the ChessCafe Holiday Quiz: this time the top trio is formed of Claes Løfgren (in first place), closely followed by Knud Lysdal (2nd) and Per Skjoldager (3rd), completed by Calle Erlandsson (4th) and Miquel Artigas (8th) – so five KWA members can be found among the top ten, a fine recommendation for our association.

Read more …