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: John Hartmann

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.

Our member and temporary deputy chairman John Donaldson has published his third book on Bobby Fischer:

Bobby Fischer and his world - The man, the player, the riddle, and the colorful characters who surrounded him.

Includes 99 annotated games
Los Angeles: Siles Press, © 2020; xx + 664 pp.
ISBN 9781890085193

This real magnum opus is John Donaldson’s third book on Fischer after his A Legend on the road: Bobby Fischer’s 1964 simul tour (1994) and, with co-author Eric Tangborn, The unknown Bobby Fischer (1999). So it is – in terms of soccer – also his hattrick on the 11^th world champion.

Already at first glance we see that the work is the result of his chess life long preoccupation with all aspects of Fischer’s chess life. At the same time, browsing the almost 700 pages is enough to understand that the author documents more or less ‘en passant’ important parts of the American chess history of the second part of the 20^th century. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future the register of his book (pp. 633-644) will be also used by historians as a kind of encyclopedic reference work. If ever the ‘definitive’ biography of Bobby Fischer will be written, here the biographer finds an essential part of its foundation.

[Update 2020-12-30] John has sent us following reactions in response to some of our remarks regarding his book:

“Like many players of my generation I started playing as a result of the Fischer - Spassky World Championship match. While I never saw Fischer play or had the opportunity to meet him many of my friends did. Their stories of Bobby, often at odds with accounts of him in the main stream media, piqued my interest. Of course I was always interested in his games and what he wrote. My fascination with Bobby only increased after I wrote two small books on him roughly twenty years ago (A Legend on the Road and The Unknown Bobby Fischer).

by Michael Clapham

The auction house Antiquariat A. Klittich-Pfankuch held its bi-annual chess auction last week with many rare and important books, manuscripts and other collectable items going under the hammer. Recent auctions in Braunschweig have included many rare items from the library of the late Lothar Schmid and again, some of the choicest items came from this source.

Approximately 750 lots of books included the following Schachraritäten:

• An Inquiry into the Antient Greek Game, supposed to have been invented by Palamedes..., by James Christie, London 1801 which sold for €1,200;
• the first printing of the first edition of Philidor's L'Analyze des Echecs, London 1749 - €1,600; and a later printing in the same year - €950