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 19^th 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

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 14^th, Gaige March 15^th. 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:

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.

On July 1^st our senior member Stellan Persson celebrated his 85^th 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