Our Prehistory
“All has occurred before“, to quote rabbi Ben Akiba in Karl Gutzkow’s Uriel Acosta (1846). First plans to create a universal chess bibliography already evolved 16 years ago, namely during a discussion between the French collector Jean Mennerat and Rob Verhoeven from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Hague). Some time later Rob Verhoeven and Ken Whyld developed a more extensive concept of a CHESS RESEARCH SOCIETY, which should include the bibliographical aspect. Jean Mennerat, Rob Verhoeven and Ken Whyld surely recognized the enormous extent of this project, as shows their interesting correspondence from the years 1987-1991 (see below).
Putting these concepts to practice proved impossible at that time, at least the Initiative Group Königstein could be based on them. (Thanks to Egbert Meissenburg for this hint.)
Abridged version of the Marburg Presentation
Dr. J. Stigter gives a lecture on our project at the International Colloquium "Board Game Studies VI" (Marburg, April 6–10, 2003): abridged version of the Marburg Presentation
First meeting of the Amsterdam Group
On November 30, 2002, a group of about 20 chess enthusiasts (collectors, chess historians, librarians and second-hand booksellers) met in Johannes Vermeerstraat 37 at the invitation of the Dutch collector Jurgen Stigter.