Antichi scacchi italiani - front cover

Recent book written by our former KWA-member Massimiliano [Max] De Angelis (President of CCI Italia)

The book is in English and Italian, and the preface is by the renowned Alessandro Sanvito who confirms it fills a void in our knowledge of the history of chess and is a detailed research showing a passion for the subject. It deals specifically with antique Italian non-figural chess sets, used in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The topic required careful research as these pieces are rare and unknown even to the most knowledgeable collectors. There are coloured photographs on most pages. Basically the study confirms that chess playing Italy produced its own chess sets and used them routinely.

Michael Wiltshire

More information:

Calle Erlandsson and Bernd Schippan, June 2014
Michael Negele
Calle Erlandsson and Bernd Schippan, June 2014

Bernd Schippan

* 09-01-1946   † 07-02-2019

Again it is my sad obligation to say "farewell" to a long-term chessfriend, but a quite silent member of our small collector's realm. When I moved to Wuppertal in 1999, Bernd Schippan was a well-known (and renowned) chessplayer of master strength in the so-called "Industriegebiet".

However, I only noticed him as an ardent collector of valuable chess literature and especially of chess autographs, after the foundation of the Ken Whyld Association. In the early years of our association, we had many email exchanges about "market evaluation" and "prices", mainly based on David DeLucia's A Few Old Friends (2003). Laterly, I was often amazed by the "bidding contests", Bernd Schippan was involved at the auctions in Brunswick.

We are now looking for persons who are willing to contribute to the Tobiblion project. We are especially looking for someone who has a keen interest in bibliography and would like to enter data on books into our system.

As a bibliografer you must obey to the rules on the classifications you are working on and must be meticolous and accurate when entering meta data and descriptions on books.

Our Tobiblion webmaster and advisory board, will facilitate instructions on rules and policies on the individual classifications. You must have your own scanner and IT equipment in order to fill the position.

Salary will be 2,- € for each fully described item, approved by the webmaster.

If you are interested, please contact the Tobiblion Webmaster at

Michael Negele
Günter Büsing
Michael Negele

Shortly before the 150th birthday of Emanuel Lasker, the first volume of the new Lasker biography was published. Hartmut Metz conducted an interview with Michael Negele, one of the editors of the three-volume monograph. The English translation is now available on ChessBase:

The German original version is available here:

Alessandro Sanvito at a lecture in Bolzano, May 2011, assisted by Luca D'Ambrosio.
Michael Negele
Alessandro Sanvito at a lecture in Bolzano, assisted by Luca D'Ambrosio: KWA Meeting at Bolzano 18 to 20 May, 2011

Alessandro Sanvito from Bresso-Milano, celebrates yesterday his 80th birthday.

Unfortunately, his appreciation in Wikipedia is still only insufficiently maintained.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Sanvito

However, it expresses in a way, the importance of this Italian chess scholar in our small realm of 64 squares.

Ad multo annos, dear Alessandro

Michael Negele

Since the recent launch of our new website our webmaster Wilfried Krebbers, together with especially Michael Negele, but also with other members of the Board, has done a lot of work to get the website going. But now the point of no return has arrived: the growing number of news entries and other informative contributions makes it necessary to create the function of web editor.

The task of the web editor will consist mainly of:

A good two and a half years ago, our member Alan McGowan announced in a query a book about the German chess master Kurt Richter (A query by Alan McGowan). He has now completed this book and has been published by the publisher McFarland. His 368-page biography contains 499 games and 93 photos.

See also:

Publications of our Members: McGowan, Alan

[Update 2018-11-15] The author, Alan McGowan, sent us the following words about his work:

This is the first work in English devoted to the life and games of a significant figure in German chess.

Kurt Richter (1900-1969) won the Berlin championship many times, was German champion in 1935, and represented his country in the Olympiads at Hamburg 1930, Prague 1931 and Munich 1936. He was awarded the International Master title in 1950.

Invitation for our chess friends after the auction viewing on Friday 23rd November 2018, Theaterwall 17 in Braunschweig.

Mrs. A. Klittich-Pfankuch and Karl Klittich are pleased to welcome IM Bernd Schneider for a special event: from 4:15 pm to 6:30 pm. There will be 3 rounds of a special handicap simultaneous over 25 minutes on 4 boards. Afterwards at 7:15 pm there is the chance of a get together with dinner at the restaurant Genusstresor, Bankplatz 8, in Braunschweig.

For more information please contact: .

Forum Auctions

We received the following announcement of Rupert Powell of Forum Auctions that could be of interest for some of our members:

I wonder if I might draw your attention to a copy of a rare 17th century book on Chess which will be coming up for sale in our auction of Fine Books and Works on Paper on Thursday 29th November. It is a 1673 (sixth) edition of the first published work on chess in English and written by an Englishman, Saul Arthur’s The Famous Game of Chesse-Play, 1673.

Here is a link to the full description and an image: https://goo.gl/xEPJqY.

pixabay.com
pixabay.com

There are two events that we want to point out to our members.

As already reported (Meeting of the German Section of CCI), the meeting of the CCI, German section, will be held in Seiffen (Ore Mountains) from 25 to 28 October. Et al Michael Negele will introduce the Lasker book once more.

On the 22nd and 24th of November, the 75th auction of the auction house Klittich-Pfankuch will take place. A list of the auction objects can be found on the website.