Meanwhile it has a good tradition, that CCI German invites the members of the Chess History & Literature Society to their annual meetings. So Wolfgang Angerstein has sent already the preliminary information, see below.

In 2006 the KWA had already the opportunity to visit Ströbeck village:

• Meeting in Brunswick and trip to Ströbeck, the Chess Village
• Meeting in Brunswick and trip to Ströbeck, the Chess Village - Photo report

by Michael Negele

All of a sudden I was reminded to my old story about Susanna (Sonja) Graf-Stevenson (Schicksal eines „Fräuleinwunders“ – der Lebensweg der Sonja Graf-Stevenson | Life story of female prodigy Sonja Graf-Stevenson). A new novel, published by an Argentinian author (Ariel Magnus), but in German language, immediately reminded me to think of an update of my own research of 2007.

Through Willibald Müller who was in contact to Mrs. Joyce Graf (in Hildenborough, Kent) I received a bunch of letters by Sonja to her brother Alex Graf. In 2011 the English version of my article was translated - thanks to Vlastimil Fiala. In 2013 I had been in Buenos Aires and Juan Morgado brought me to some place where Sonja had lived (The Chess Treasures of CABA).

In 2016 I had found new material in the Rueb scrapbooks in the Royal Library in The Hague. So in 2019 it may be it is high time to get a clue what happened in Munich in 1926 ...

by Michael Dombrowsky

It seems an irony of history that he of all people wrote a biography about Kurt Richter. I talk about Alan McGowan who has written the biography “Kurt Richter – A Chess Biography with 499 Games”. There are some differences between protagonist and author: The year the book comes on the market is the 50^th anniversary of the day of death for Richter and the 65^th birthday of the author.

And something else distinguished both: McGowan is born in Glasgow. He saw most of Scotland and the rest of Great Britain. When he was 34 years old he moved to Canada and saw a lot from North America. He still lives in Waterloo (Ontario), not far away from Toronto. Richter was born in Berlin (1900) and died in Berlin (1969). He hated it to travel. Inside Germany it was ok. But journeys over the border were very, very seldom. For playing chess Richter left Germany only three times. Once for the Chess Olympics 1931 at Prague, where he wins the bronze medal with 10,5 points out of 15 games (+7 =7 -1) at board four. The second time he played 1936 in an international tournament of Podebrady in Czechoslovakia (a small spa around 40 kilometers east of Prague), where he wins the ninth prize with 9 points out of 17 games (+5 =8 -4) behind Salo Flohr, Alexander Alekhine, Jan Foltys, Vasja Pirc, Gideon Stahlberg, Erich Eliskases, Paulin Frydman and Jiri Pelikan, but ahead of greats like Valdimirs Petrovs, Lajos Steiner or Karel Opocensky. And the third time was a match Germany – Hungary 1939 at Karlsbad, the city was after the German annexation part of the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moldavia” and belonged for six years to Germany. Kurt Richter wins both games against Geza Füster, who immigrates after WW II to Canada.

On March 28, Forum Auctions is auctioning off some interesting chess books, including the only known Greco manuscript that is not in a state library or similar facility.

For more information about the books, visit the Forum Auctions website.