KWA Trip to Wroclaw

Short Report on a Visit to the Metropolis on the Oder
10-11/11/2008

For the KWA group who had stayed in Dresden the departure for Wrocław was on the programme in the morning of November 10th, but that could only occur with a certain delay as our deputy chairman Jurgen Stigter had slightly overrun his night’s rest.

Owing to the reduced attendance the journey by three private cars was practicable without any problems, and the short KWA convoy was safely led to Wrocław by GPS. We would like to thank here once more the three drivers Hans-Jürgen Fresen, Michael Negele and Bob van de Velde who willingly offered their services as chauffeurs.

Notice at the front of the hotel – formerly "Deutsches Haus", now "Bürgerhaus" Zum Storch.
Notice at the front of the hotel – formerly "Deutsches Haus", now "Bürgerhaus" Zum Storch.

On arrival at the hotel our Polish friends had invited to a welcoming tea party in Jerzy Kot’s chess café, besides our member Tomasz Lissowski who had come from Warsaw we could greet the president of the Silesian Chess Federation, Wojciech Zawadzki and his son, the International Master Stanisław Zawadzki. There belongs an ensemble of further rooms to the café of Fide Master Jerzy Kot, namely a chess shop, a show of chess tables and a restaurant where we should take the evening meal later on.

After tea a walk with a tour of the city was on the agenda, at this point the dusk had already set in: here a first picture gallery Tour of the City (with 32 photos) as well as a picture series on visiting Jerzy Kot's chess shop (19 photos).

In addition a map of Wroclaw from 1910 as well as an old graphic giving a bird’s-eye view of Wrocław (signature A. Eltzmer):

Being Wojciech Zawadzki’s guests at the following dinner we could once again enjoy the Polish hospitality. We were able to return their generosity by a kind gesture only – each of our hosts received a signed copy of the Zukertort biography published by the KWA. >> Picture gallery Dinner (7 photos)

By the way the well-known Polish WGM Jolanta Zawadzka is a daughter of Wojciech Zawadzki – for further information on one of the currently strongest female players of Poland we refer to her web site: www.zawadzka.eu

After dinner our group went for another night stroll to Cathedral Island, the oldest part of Wrocław. For a long time though this Cathedral Island is not an island any more as a branch of the Oder has been filled up. Here too we present a picture series Cathedral Island (with 16 photos).

On the whole we can give in this report only sketchy (textual) information about Wrocław, much more is easy to find in the internet. For example the following page seems to me to be a quite successful combination of pictures and writings (in German and English): www.capper-online.de/Travel/Poland/...

For Michael Negele the next morning began with an extended walk through Wrocław’s city centre about which he brought back numerous snapshots, a selection of 50 pictures is spread on two additional galleries: Michael's walk I and Michael's walk II.

The "official" programme on Tuesday morning was meant for visiting the cemeteries, on the visit to the Cemetery Osobowice (with Adolf Anderssen’s grave) as well as to the old Jewish Cemetery (with Arnold Schottländer’s grave) we offer two separate picture galleries: Anderssen's Grave and Jewish Cemetery (9 + 22 photos).

The return journey to Dresden led via Görlitz where we took the opportunity for an evening meal (in the restaurant "Vierradenmühle" in the Polish part of the town – Zgorzelec). We add a final small picture series Görlitz with 7 photos.

Having reached the end of our short account we would like to say many thanks to our Polish hosts for their commitment and their hospitality. The visit to the historical capital of Lower Silesia with its far going back chess tradition was of great benefit to all participants.

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