Invitation to this year's General Assembly in Budapest (Hungary)
Dear members of the society!
At General Assembly on 2 September 2023 in Belfort, the Chair of the FIDE Historical Commission, Willy Iclicki, has kindly indicated the possiblity to meet in 2024 in the margins of the next Chess Olympiad in Budapest. Responding positively to the idea, the Board proposes the following draft program for 13.-15. September 2024 in Budapest.
Read more ... (You must be logged in to read)
Egbert Meissenburg (26.6.1937 – 29.12.2023)
by Siegfried Schönle [Original article in German is here. Translation by DeepL]
" ...who is interested in that?" This was the meaning of the deceased's quickly formulated and dismissive comment when the author wanted to ask Egbert Meissenburg a few questions about him on the phone in around 2006, but then another personal meeting over coffee and cake in Seevetal ensued.
It will be difficult to summarise a life of 86 years that has now come to an end in just a few lines, and it will certainly not be possible to describe almost 60 years of chess in this obituary.
New Member: Luis Fernández Siles
Our new member, Luis Fernández Siles from Spain, introduces himself in the members area (you must be logged in to read).
New Member: Alain Barnier
Our new member, Alain Barnier from France, introduces himself in the members area (you must be logged in to read).
New Member: Roger Lorenz
Our new member, Roger Lorenz from Bornheim (Germany), introduces himself in the members area (you must be logged in to read).
Matthias Aumüller - Das Schachspiel in der europäischen Literatur [Chess in European Literature]
by Siegfried Schönle [Original article in German is here. Translation by DeepL]
Das Schach hat wie die Liebe, wie die Musik die Fähigkeit, den Menschen glücklich zu machen.
[Chess, like love, like music, has the ability to make people happy.]
Source: Dr. Tarrasch, Das Schachspiel. Systematisches Lehrbuch für Anfänger und Geübte, Berlin, 1st ed. 1931 : Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft, Preface p. 4.
or
Für das Schach ist wie für die Liebe ein Partner unentbehrlich.
[For chess, as for love, a partner is indispensable.]
Source: Stefan Zweig (writer); https://www.schachbund.de/zitatensammlung.html
Whether the reader of Matthias Aumüller's treatise Das Schachspiel in der europäischen Literatur will be "happy" or happier remains to be seen. But he certainly learns a wealth of knowledge and background - Europe-wide - to the texts presented, which are "primarily ... about love and its connection to chess" (p.9).
The book, which is highly recommended here, contains detailed reflections on five great chess poems
- Fenollar, de Castellvi, Vinyoles - Scachs d’ Amor (nach 1470)
- Vida - Scacchia ludus (1527)
- Kochanowsky – Szachy (ca 1564)
- Marino – L‘ Adone (1623)
- Jones – Caissa (1763/1772)
Collector's corner: Two different editions of a chess magazine issue
Here is the support for the last presentation at the CH&LS general meeting in Belfort on Saturday 2 September.
Henri Serruys (Belgium) presented the very special January 1888 issue of the BCM (British Chess Magazine).
Henri pointed out a curious feature of the January 1888 issue of BCM.
In fact, this issue of BCM was printed twice with slightly different layouts, by two different printers.
Read more … Collector's corner: Two different editions of a chess magazine issue
Collector's corner: Draughts and Academie des Jeux
The CH&LS General Meeting concluded with two presentations of collectors' books.
The first was by Jurgen Stigter (Netherlands) and the Academy of Games.
Extract from the presentation at the AGM on Saturday 2 September: Annual Meeting of the CH&LS in Belfort
In German on the ChessBase website, by Herbert Bastian: Jahrestreffen der CH&LS in Belfort
A fascinating day at the municipal library ended with a talk by Dr Jurgen Stigter on the classic works devoted to the popular games of the time, (...). Jurgen used the example of draughts to show that it is not always possible to draw reliable conclusions about the spread of the game from the contents of books, as draughts, although a popular game, is not mentioned in some of them.
Read more … Collector's corner: Draughts and Academie des Jeux
The Chapais-Manuscript
Herbert Bastian (Germany) devotes a large part of his spare time to studying the Chapais manuscript, a revolutionary manuscript for the game of chess in its day.
Extract from the presentation at the AGM on Saturday 2 September: Annual Meeting of the CH&LS in Belfort
In German on the ChessBase website, by Herbert Bastian: Jahrestreffen der CH&LS in Belfort
Let us leave the floor to Herbert Bastian:
I was then given the honour of reporting on the state of research on the Chapais manuscript, Mennerat's most important contribution to chess history. The chess-historical significance of the work is now well understood and will be described in my forthcoming book on it. Chapais coined the concept of opposition, which is extremely important for endgame theory, and was the first to use the multifunctional king movement (as I call it) in a whole series of examples, which only became generally known through the famous Réti study of 1921. Chapais was the first to study the endgame king and two knights against king and pawn, which Alexei Troitsky (*1866-†1942) later used as a model, and probably communicated with André Danican Philidor (*1726-†1795) about the endgame king, rook and bishop against king and rook. My investigations of various kinds have used a variety of clues that Chapais could be a pseudonym and in fact the famous French mathematician Gaspard Monge (*1746-†1818) is hiding behind it. Even if there is no 100% proof, the weight of circumstantial evidence is, in my opinion, overwhelming.
Folke Rogard, President of FIDE - the lawyer who organised chess in the shadow of the Cold War
Here is the presentation given by Mr Henrik Lindberg (Sweden) at the CH&LS association's general meeting in Belfort.
Extract from the presentation at the AGM on Saturday 2 September: Annual Meeting of the CH&LS in Belfort
In German on the ChessBase website, by Herbert Bastian: Jahrestreffen der CH&LS in Belfort
Henrik Lindberg, assistant professor for economic history in Stockholm, reported in an extremely interesting lecture on the life story of the Swede Folke Røgard (*1899-†1973), lawyer and FIDE President from 1949-1970. Those who are interested in chess history during the Cold War can already look forward to the hopefully imminent publication of Henrik's book, as the title of the lecture reveals: Folke Røgard: organiser of modern world chess in the shadow of the cold war. Røgard was a well-known personality and made headlines, among other things, as the lawyer of the famous Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman (*1915-†1982), who was seen in the 1942 film Casablanca alongside Humphrey Bogart (*1899-†1957), incidentally also a chess enthusiast. Røgard got the FIDE World Championship cycle off the ground when the first interzonal tournament went to Saltsjöbaden in Sweden (1948). Through his good contacts on both sides, he also repeatedly succeeded in bringing the Soviet Union and the USA together, for example by preparing the bilateral match of 1955.