News archive
2013
Crumiller article
Today you may take delight in reading an article by our member Jonathan Crumiller, published in Chess Life, September 2013: "The Jonathan Crumiller Collection. A premier collector’s exhibition at the World Chess Hall of Fame." Besides the article (7.3 MB) we link the title page of the a.m. issue, both as PDF.
Courtesy of Dan Lucas, Editor of Chess Life, www.uschess.org.
Alessandro Sanvito 75!
Today our Italian member and friend Alessandro Sanvito (Milano) is celebrating his birthday – he can now look back on three-fourths of a century.
Dear Alessandro, we all wish you a happy and prosperous birthday and many more to come!
Graphische Kunst
Mrs Eva Masthoff (Haltern am See) has informed me about a chess related article in the (just published) current issue of the German magazine Graphische Kunst.
Read more in our column New Chess Literature.
[Updated 23-12-2013]
Braunschweig XI 2013
Certainly this year’s November event in Braunschweig was particularly inviting: on the one hand the 10th anniversary celebration of the KWA, on the other hand a first-class chess book auction of the house Klittich-Pfankuch with numerous rare items (duplicates) from the collection of our late member Lothar Schmid.
Enjoy our large pictorial report!
KWA Jubilee Publication
illustrated, color print.
Limited and numbered edition of 250 copies.
With a foreword by Guy Van Habberney.
Simpson’s, Headquarters of the World is the title of an hitherto unpublished manuscript by Ken Whyld which our board has chosen to publish on the occasion of our tenth anniversary.
Wien 1943
Our Czech member Jan Kalendovský has written a contribution about the Vienna 1943 tournament, we have linked it as PDF in our member section - see the page Lectures and Articles.
Larry List in Düsseldorf
Our member Larry List, inter alia well-known from our report Michael Negele in New York City, paid a short visit to Düsseldorf on 10th - 11th of October, so this was a fine opportunity to meet our US friend personally.
Grave Bent Larsen
In January 2011 Stellan Persson visited the grave of GM Bent Larsen near Buenos Aires. His photographs are now included in our collection.
Luke Honey
After leaving Bonhams Auctioneers Luke Honey has set up his own antiques business (new website). Members who are interested in rare chess books should visit directly the Luke Honey Ltd Rare Chess Books Page. Contact by email: luke@lukehoney.co.uk.
Graves Richter and Teschner
Our photo collection of chess graves is still growing - see the Graves of Kurt Richter and Rudolf Teschner in Berlin.
New KWA Statutes
As already announced, the KWA plans to reorganize this year into a Foundation and Association (a split stipulated by the Dutch law). Guy Van Habberney as well as Bob van de Velde have prepared the corresponding papers in English and Dutch, the latter are intended for the registration at the Amsterdam notary. Beforehand our members will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the texts of the new statutes and to comment / amend them where appropriate. You will find the texts linked in our Member section – Documents. At our general meeting in Braunschweig on 22 November 2013 the texts will be due for approval by our members.
Ostrów 2013
Michael Negele was happy to combine a business trip to Warsaw with a chess event, the latter took place in Ostrów Wielkopolski on 1st of September (official promotion event of Paweł Dudziński’s new book Szachy wojenne 1939-1945 - War chess). Here is his pictorial report.
[Updated 2013-09-25: YouTube videos, see page 4 of the report]
Enquiry S. Schönle
Enquiry
Our member Siegfried Schönle (Kassel, Germany) is in search of the CD Königsindischer Angriff by Don Maddox, published by ChessBase in 2002 and meanwhile sold out. Who can help? Please mail to hsschoenle2@aol.de.
Gligoric's grave
Our member Dušan Drajić (Belgrade) has sent us photographs of Svetozar Gligorić's grave. We have included them in our collection of Chess Graves.
PS (02/09/2013): Our new junior member Paweł Dudziński (Ostrów Wielkopolski) has provided photographs of Akiba Rubinstein's grave - have a look at our Chess Graves.
War chess 1939-1945
An important and thematically most interesting book on chess in Poland during WW II has just been published, covering the years 1939-1945. Written in Polish, there is a 5-page summary in English at the end of the book.
Read more in our column New Chess Literature.
(Updated 5/09/2013)
Remembrance of Ken Whyld and Visit to Cambridge
On the 10th anniversary of the death of Ken Whyld who passed away on 11th of July, 2003 we feel obliged to give a note of remembrance. Moreover we can offer a pictorial report on Michael Negele’s meeting with Tony Gillam in Cambridge last week.
[Slightly updated 2013-07-13]
[Second update 2013-07-21]
Chess events in Prague and Brunswick
The recent chess events in Prague and Brunswick were both visited by Michael Negele, we present a short résumé and quite a lot of photos.
Brunswick 2013
Several KWA members attended the Brunswick event on last Friday (21/06/2013), i.e. Michael Negele’s lecture on blindfold chess, as well as the chess auction on Saturday – it was the 64th (! – a magic chess number) auction of the house Klittich-Pfankuch. A pictorial report will still follow, here are the first photos provided by Michael Negele.
Prague - Braunschweig 2013
Once again Michael Negele was on a chess tour last week: he visited the ČEZ Chess Trophy 2013 in Prague (match David Navara vs Yifan Hou) and gave a lecture there on the history of blindfold chess.
ASymmetrie
A just released problem book by Michael Schlosser and Martin Minski stands in the tradition of T.R. Dawson’s and W. Pauly’s classic Asymmetry (A.C. White’s Christmas Series, 1927). Their work ASymmetrie contains a stupendous wealth of problems from all genres composed in the last ca 170 years, the earliest dating from 1841.
Read a short review in our column New Chess Literature.
Moreover our Italian member Marco Campioli has given a lecture on endgame studies to the players of the Club 64 (Chess club of Modena), for some photographs have a look at this gallery.
PS (07/06/2013): Due to losing his interest in chess, our English member Steve Giddins has decided not to rejoin the KWA, so I have deleted him from our lists. (R.B.)
Obituary of Lothar Schmid
Michael Negele has provided an obituary of our late member Lothar Schmid as well as a series of photos from his archive, and Tony Gillam has contributed some memories of the friendship of Lothar Schmid and Ken Whyld.
In Memoriam Lothar Schmid
In Memoriam
Lothar Schmid
* 10/05/1928 Dresden-Radebeul
† 18/05/2013 Bamberg
Our famous member Lothar Schmid, Karl May publisher from Bamberg, chess grandmaster and arbiter of the century, who owned the biggest and most eminent private chess book collection worldwide, is no longer with us. Last Saturday he died of age-related illness, only a short time after his 85th birthday.
Conference in Kraków
At the first May weekend a group of chess historians met in Kraków to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the first Kraków chess club (founded 1893). Tony Gillam has written a summary of the event and Marek Skrzypczak has provided a lot of photographs.
In Memory of Knud Lysdal
In Memory of
Knud Lysdal
* 6/04/1950 † 12/04/2013
Our member Per Skjoldager has written an extensive obituary of his late friend Knud Lysdal, sharing some of his personal memories with us:
In Memoriam Albert Frank
In Memoriam
Albert Frank
*28/09/1943 †02/05/2013
Again we have to forward sad news: Our Belgian member Dr. Albert Frank passed away on Thursday, 2nd of May. His son Bernard Frank told us that he died after more than five months of severe sufferings. We offer our sympathies to his family and his friends.
The funeral will take place on Friday, 10th of May at 11:30 am at the crematorium of 1490 Court-Saint-Etienne – Belgium.
Joining the KWA in February 2012, Albert Frank could be a member of our association only for a quite short time, and he had no chance to visit one of our meetings. The book Chess and Aptitudes published by him 1978 is included in our Members' Publications. Leo Hovestadt has dedicated a full page to Albert Frank - including a short interview with a photograph - at Carolus Chess.
The Hague 1928
Our member IM John Donaldson has made a great find: a marvellous historical photograph of brilliant quality, and John was so kind to allow us to publish it on our site. We combine this photo with a little competition …
The Chess Treasures of CABA
Dear chess friends,
On the old KWA website you may find some of my reports of former expeditions, often in combination with one of my business trips.
However, the last report (no. 22) was dated Warsaw November 2011 ... Easy to explain: With the relaunch of our website, Ralf Binnewirtz and I decided to put such "expeditions" no longer on my own member site. So, if I count correctly, the following report is my expedition no. 28, maybe one of the most impressive ...
Open Norwegian Championship
Our Norwegian member Øystein Brekke, organizer of the Norwegian Chess Festival in Fagernes, has sent us two photographs and the press release.
Busnardo Lorenzo
Stefano Zulian has sent us his essay on a 16th century chess player, Busnardo Lorenzo, a priest born in Veneto, and his discovery. We hope that an English version will be available soon. For our Italian speaking members the contribution is linked in our member section.
Steano Zulian has been a member of the Marostica Chess Association for more than 20 years, he and Antonio Rosino have published two articles on the above subject in the March issue of Torre e Cavallo.
Michael Negele in Buenos Aires
Our treasurer was on a business trip to Argentina last week and has already provided us with first pictures.
Friedrich Löchner
In February the Heilbronn chess master Friedrich Löchner passed away at the age of 97. See our column Chess Graves for more details.
Santo Daniele Spina
Regional KWA Meeting in Wijk aan Zee
Once again the traditional January meeting in Wijk aan Zee was well-attended by our members. This time, besides Michael Negele also Tony Gillam and Guy Van Habberney have contributed to our pictorial report.
Interview with Rudolf Glenk
On the occasion of his 75th birthday (on 12th of December, 2012), our Forchheim member Rudolf Glenk has given an interesting interwiew to Udo Güldner which was published on the website of the chess club Forchheim: www.schachclub-forchheim.de/... - Rudolf Glenk delivers some insight into his collection (in German).
Rolf Littorin turned 90!
On 3rd of January, 2012 our Swedish senior member and KWA founding member Rolf Littorin could look back on 9 decades. So he now belongs to the small group of the doyens of the KWA.
Congratulations!