News archive
2021
A request from Norway
Our member Claes Løfgren has received a request from Terje Kristiansen from Tønsberg, Norway. Mr. Kristiansen is a member of Sjakkhistorisk Forum and specialist for Soviet chess history.
Here is the request:
Dear Mr. Løfgren,
Dr. Albrecht Buschke, the German Jew who emigrated to the USA in 1938 with a huge collection of chess books, letters, autographs and magazines, wrote many columns in the 1952 American chess magazine Chess Life called: Alekhine’s Early Chess Career. Additional data by A. Buschke. V. Alekhine in Soviet-Land. He claimed that the 1921 versions of Das Schachleben in Sowjet-Rußland were either edited or shortened by the publisher Bernhard Kagan:
Brochure to the exhibition "Schach. Spiel - Sport - Wissenschaft - Kunst" appeared
Dear Colleagues,
the chess exhibition in the Thüringischen University and State Library has now been closed. But for all those who did not have the opportunity to go to Jena, a real “consolation” has just appeared, the brochure with the title
Schach
Spiel / Sport / Wissenschaft / Kunst. Aus den Beständen der ThULB.
(Chess
Game / Sport / Science / Art. From the ThULB holdings.)
76 p. With numerous colored illustrations. The brochure costs 4.25 EUR / pc. The delivery will be on account (plus shipping and packaging costs). Please send your orders directly to Ms. Heike Rothenburg: heike.rothenburg@uni-jena.de
The following three photos are intended to give a first impression of the new release. Pages 42-43 are from the VI. Section: Schachmeister (Chess masters).
Read more … Brochure to the exhibition "Schach. Spiel - Sport - Wissenschaft - Kunst" appeared
The date of Rubinstein’s death 4
The well-known Belgium chess historian Hans Renette, the author of inter alia thoroughly researched biographies on Henry Bird and Louis Paulsen, has solved the problem of the correct date of Akiwa Rubinstein’s death. He has sent us a copy of the official death certificate:
LSAK chess book auction November 2021
by Michael Clapham
Lund Chess Academy recently held the latest of its regular online chess book auctions and many interesting and valuable lots went under the hammer. The auctions are admirably organised and conducted by Per Skoldager abd Calle Erlandsson whom I thank for allowing reproduction of the auction details and images.
There was keen competition for several scarce and sought after periodicals including the following:
- British Chess Review, edited by Daniel Harrwitz, London, volume I only for 1853. This sold for €500 which was possibly good value as a full run of this periodical (12 issues for volume I and six issues in 1854 for volume II) sold in an LSAK auction earlier this year for €2,071.
- A complete three volume run of The Amateur Chess Magazine, edited by James Chatto, London, 1872 to 1874, realised €270. From May 1873 the title changed to The Amateur and the chess content gradually diminished in favour of other amusements.
Chess exhibition in Jena and chess museum in Löberitz
Siegfried Schönle, Kassel, reports on his visit to a chess exhibition in Jena in the ThULB (Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek) together with Konrad Reiß, Zörbig, and the two-day visit to the Löberitz chess museum in eastern Germany.
Schachausstellung in Jena und Schachmuseum in Löberitz (in German)
New Member: Noémie Dumont
Our new member, Noémie Dumont from Lyon (France), introduces herself in the members area (You must be logged in to read).
Klittich Auction only online
As the website of Antiquariat Klittich reported today, the auction on Saturday 27th November cannot be attended, due to the Corona situation in Germany. The auction can only be carried out “online”, or otherwise by written in bids, by telephone or by fax until two days before the auction. For further details, please see the Klittich website (www.klittich-pfankuch.de/indexengl.htm).
Bob van de Velde
The auction days of Antiquariat A. Klittich-Pfankuch November 26th and 27th, 2021
After three consecutive online auctions due to Covid 19, our member Karl Klittich has hoped for a 'normal' biennial auction with normal customer participation on 25th to 27th November. It goes without saying that our Board has the same hope. After all, since almost two years we will have our first normal meeting of the board, and we could also organise our usual informal member meeting at the end of the viewing hours on 26th November.
However, in the meantime the new Covid wave makes it doubtful that the German authorities will allow the usual presence of attendees. The latest information about the situation in Germany and especially in Braunschweig can be found on the website of the Antiquariat (http://www.klittich-pfankuch.de).
Read more … The auction days of Antiquariat A. Klittich-Pfankuch November 26th and 27th, 2021
The date of Rubinstein’s death 3
Our member Wilfried Krebbers took another step towards solving the problem of the anniversary of Rubinstein's death. In the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir of March 17, 1961, he found an obituary notice from Rubinstein on page 7. The date of death is mentioned there as March 14, 1961.
This should be another indication that Rubinstein died on March 14th and not on March 15th.
Wayne Komer, RIP 1941-2021
Wayne Komer
* 01-09-1941 † 13-09-2021
From Canada comes the sad news that our senior member Wayne Komer passed away on September 13. Wayne was a devoted chess historian and collector of chess litterature, which he presented to a larger audience on the Chesstalk page. Tony Peterson has supplied this link to his obituary on the page:
ChessTalk / Parlons Échecs: R.I.P. Wayne Komer, 09-01-1941 - 09-13-2021
The date of Rubinstein’s death 2
Our member Alan McGowan has sent us a reaction on the question of the correct day of the demise of Akiba Rubinstein. The question was put forward by Mr. Philip Jurgens (Ottawa, Canada) and commented by our member John Donaldson (see the contribution on 2021-08-30: The date of Rubinstein’s death). Alan asks:
"Could you perhaps induce a Belgian member of CH&LS to look at the newspapers of the day; a death notice would help solve the issue. Or, going to the heart of things, acquire a copy of the death certificate?”
Well, this sounds like a challenge to our Belgium members! Who of them meets this challenge?
Bob van de Velde
Swiss Chess Museum checkmate
Our member Bernd Schneider has sent us the bad news that the Chess Museum in the Swiss municipality Rain near Luzern has gone bankrupt. Its founder and owner Werner Rupp hadn't pay rent for quite a long time. Recently, in the presence of the police, but without the presence of Mr. Rupp, the building of the Museum was closed. In it the 32.000 chess boards, sets and pieces, together with 10.000 books, stay behind, partly packed in boxes, and waiting till the financial debt has been paid. Among the objects are the legacy of Viktor Kortchnoi and 3000 chess related stamps. The Luzerner Zeitung has published details about the background of this bankruptcy: Miete nicht bezahlt: Schachmuseum ist schachmatt
Alain Biénabe, RIP 1958-2021
Recently, we have received the sad news that our long-time member Alain Biénabe is deceased on February 22th 2021 after suffering from Parkingson’s disease during 12 years.
This offers ...
[Read more in News for members (You must be logged in to read)]
Chess, Draughts, Morris & Tables. Position in Past & Present
For chess historians it seems important, at least to me, to have a broader view on the history of the game than more or less exclusively on the sources that offer mainly chess material. We may realize that the history of chess is part of the history of mind games or mind sports, which is a much larger field of research, and no less complicated, even when we focus only on the history of the board games. The annual colloquia of the Board Games Studies are there to prove this.
Another proof is the recently published book Chess, Draughts, Morris & Tables. Position in Past & Present by the Dutch authors Arie van der Stoep, Jan de Ruiter, Wim van Mourik. As experts on the history of draughts (checkers) they are well known in Dutch draughts circles, and this background becomes clear already on the first pages, not by discussing in the first place the position of draughts and its history, but by immediately presenting the question whether draughts have been developed from chess, or … just the other way around. But this is not their main concern. Their aim is another, they try to find answers to the many questions that arise about the position of the discussed board games in the societies of the past and the present. To this end they compare the positions of the games in the different phases of history and in doing so they make use of sources from various fields of expertise, such as philology, literature, art history, sociology. Many beautiful illustrations, lavishly spread throughout the book, support this approach.
Read more … Chess, Draughts, Morris & Tables. Position in Past & Present
We received a remarkable letter
As far as we can remember, it is the first time we received a reaction on our website as such, and not a reaction from a collector, an historian or an author who wanted to add some information or was asking a question with regard to any specific topic. The email letter we received from Mrs. Bianca P. [Name and contact address are known to the editors.], we like to share with our members:
Name: Bianca P[...]
Email: biancap@[...]
Subject: KWA, chess newbies here
Message: Hi all, I hope it's okay to reach out like this but I wanted to give the Ken Whyld Association a big thumbs up from my son and I. He has a newfound obsession with chess but is a beginner (and I am totally clueless about this stuff so as he learns he is teaching me lol), your information here came in handy: https://www.kwabc.org/en/links.html.
Van Spel tot Duel. Het schaken in het jonge België
We are delighted to announce a new publication of our Belgium long-time member Henri Serruys, who embarked on an exploration of a terra incognita of the European chess history, namely chess life in 19th century Belgium. In his Dutch language book Van Spel tot Duel (From game to duel) he reports his many discoveries that put Belgium on the map of European chess in that century.
Our Society supported the publication of the book. We draw the attention of our members to the possibility to receive a copy of the limited special edition at the same price as a standard copy.
Bob van de Velde
Read more … Van Spel tot Duel. Het schaken in het jonge België
Another mystery gravestone
Our new member Jon Jacobs has a historical observation and a question regarding the grave of Steinitz, and hopes the members of the CH&LS, or other interested persons, could help him answer this question:
My research collaborator, IM Yury Lapshun, made an interesting discovery when examining and comparing two widely published photos of Steinitz’s grave, and a third photo that we took in 2019 when we visited the grave. The two photos that appear on the CH&LS website (Steinitz, William) and many other websites (copied below), show apparent differences in both the vertical headstone itself, and the wider, ground-level stone on which the vertical headstone rests.
The date of Rubinstein’s death
We received an interesting question concerning the date of the death of Akiba Rubinstein from Mr. Philip Jurgens (Ottawa, Canada):
“[…] I noticed on your following web page: Rubinstein, Akiba K., that you give 15 March 1961 as the date of Rubinstein's death. However, below this information you present photographs of Rubinstein's grave which clearly show 14 March as his date of death. Is there an explanation for the discrepancy?”.
As our member John Donaldson, co-author of the two-volume monography on Rubinstein (The life & games of Akiva Rubinstein, 2nd ed. 2006), is an authoritative expert with regard to the great Polish chess master, I forwarded this question to him:
“[…] As far I can see, remarks of Philip Jurgens are correct. Everybody can see that discrepancy and I wonder why he seems to be the first one who draws attention to this question. Anyhow I couldn’t find an earlier discussion on Rubinstein’s day of death. Wikipedia mentions March 14th, Gaige March 15th. In the 2nd edition of your book on Rubinstein’s ‘chess life’ it seems that you didn’t pay any special attention to the day of his passing away. The picture on p. 424 shows his grave with the illegible date of 14 [-03-1961]. Do you have an explanation for these different dates?”.
Prompty I got his reply from John:
New Member: Jon Jacobs
Our new member, FM Jon Jacobs from New York (US), introduces himself in the members area (You must be logged in to read).
Indian chess historian Vijay Pandit died
Already in April, the Indian chess historian Vijay Pandit died on the consequences of Covid-19. Vijay Pandit was (co-)author of Indian chess history and other publications on Indian chess history. On the page Chess News and Views two obituaries (Remeberin Vijay Pandit, Vijay Pandit –An Eulogy) appeared about him, whereby our honorary member Michael Negele is mentioned, who has already visited several times India.
Special exhibition of ThULB Jena: Chess. Game - Sport - Science - Art ("Schach. Spiel - Sport - Wissenschaft - Kunst")
Our member Siegfried Schönle would like to draw our attention to an interesting special exhibition of the ThULB (Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Jena):
Sonderausstellung der ThULB Jena zum Thema: Schach. Spiel - Sport - Wissenschaft - Kunst (in German)
Congratulations on the 85th birthday, Stellan Persson!
On July 1st our senior member Stellan Persson celebrated his 85th birthday.
Stellan became a well-known figure to the Danish chess community during the 25 years he ran Skakhuset in Copenhagen, a classic chess shop of a type hard to find nowadays. New as well as a wealth of antiquarian books often made a visit longer than planned.
Stellan joined Malmö AS only 12 years old when his father brought him to the club. He had a talent for the game and became strong enough to win the club championship in 1955. During his active years Stellan occasionally worked as a chess journalist for various local newspapers. Even if Stellan today shares his life between Gothenburg and Mallorca, his heart is still with Malmö AS whose history he has documented in the book En gyllene epok from 2010. Another historical work by Stellan is a collection of the round tables from the Swedish Chess Congresses from 1939 to 1970.
After closing down Skakhuset in 1998 Stellan has continued dealing with chess material online and also by leading the chess book auctions of SS Manhem, the club in Gothenburg he now belongs to.
Congratulations!
Peter Holmgren / Claes Løfgren
New Member: Xavier Boltaina-Bosch
Our new member, Xavier Boltaina-Bosch from Barcelona (Spain), introduces himself in the members area (You must be logged in to read).
New Member: Jean Olivier Leconte
Our new member, Jean Olivier Leconte from Saint-Mandé (France), introduces himself in the members area (You must be logged in to read).
New Member: František Štross
Again we welcome a new member: František Štross from Prague, Czech Republic.
In the members area he introduces himself (You must be logged in to read).
New Member: Anders Thulin
Our new member, Anders Thulin, introduces himself in the members area (You must be logged in to read).
Tobiblion update
Per Skjoldager has updated the database of the BoC-Project. 79 new descriptions have made it into Tobiblion as well as the data of the 79th Klittich auction. They are now available for members in Tobiblion.
New Member: Kevin O'Connell
Our new member, Kevin O'Connell, introduces himself in the members area (You must be logged in to read).
New Member: John Hartmann
Another new member of the CH&LS, John Hartmann from Omaha (Nebraska, United States) is presented in the member area (You must be logged in to read).
New Member: Carsten Hansen
Our new member, Carsten Hansen, introduces himself in the members area (You must be logged in to read).
100 years of the French Chess Federation
On 20 March a Zoom online conference for interested chess historians will take place on the occasion of "100 years of the French Chess Federation". It is a joint initiative of the CH&LS members Prof. Dr. Frank Hoffmeister (Bruxelles) and Herbert Bastian (Saarbrücken) together with Jean Olivier Leconte (Paris). Partners of the event are the French Chess Federation (FFE) and the German Chess Federation (DSB).
Originally, the conference was to take place locally in Paris, at the same time as a general meeting of the CH&LS. This was prevented by the Corona pandemic. Now all members of the CH&LS are invited to attend the interesting lectures by leading chess historians. Registration is free of charge by sending an email to one of the organisers (see the programme below). About a week before the conference, participants will then receive the access code by email. The Zoom programme is available free of charge on the internet (Zoom software download page) and must be installed on the participant's computer beforehand.
Homage to Yuri Averbakh
This month Yuri Averbakh, our oldest member, celebrated his 99th birthday. On behalf of our Society we send him our warmest congratulations and wish him many years to come in good health!
Yuri Averbakh is not only our oldest member, but also of the Chess Collectors International. Its President, Michael Wiltshire, has received a request from Raymond Keene to share his tribute to Averbakh, published in The Times on February 20th, with all CCI members and other interested parties. It was the former President of the CCI, Thomas Thomsen, who was so friendly as to send us the link to The Article, where Keene’s panegyric, as he himself called his article, can be found:
https://www.thearticle.com/averbakh-at-99-mens-sana-in-corpore-sano
It goes without saying that we are glad to comply indirectly to Raymond Keene’s request and to give our members the opportunity to take note of his contribution to the celebration of Yuri Averbakh’s birthday.
Bob van de Velde