Michael Negele in New York City

A promising alternative …

Now and then a welcome alternative arises from a cancelled appointment as it happened to me with my long planned meeting with my friend Andy Ansel at Long Island on 21/22 September. On short notice Andy had been occupationally recalled to Toronto where he stayed over the weekend.

So the New York stopover on my business trip to North Carolina on Friday afternoon suddenly seemed senseless, and such a short-dated rebooking of my trans-Atlantic flight much too expensive. But a few weeks before a "strange fortune" had brought me in contact with our New York KWA member Larry List. (See our Seewerk report.) Larry works as a free-lance curator for art exhibitions (with an essential focus on chess), so at the New York KWA meeting 2007, in his felicitous lecture on "The Imagery of Chess revisited" he had informed us about the artistic aspects of chess. Over the years I had kept loose contact to Larry, so it was a great pleasure for me to make a very short-dated meeting possible in Manhattan in the morning of September 22nd. But not only that: Larry helped me to organize the transfer from JFK to my hotel on Broadway (and back) for little money. Moreover he arranged quite spontaneously an extensive "sightseeing program" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the few hours in the morning. Thank you very much for that dear Larry, it was a great sign of American friendship.

Below a small selection of further photographs:

A famous painting (click to enlarge)
A famous painting (click to enlarge)

More pictures of New York City and the MET in the following gallery (34 photos).

At the joint breakfast in my hotel (ideally situated for a night-time stroll to Times Square, passing the Empire State Building and the fantastically illuminated main building of the New York Public Library – see our picture gallery New York City at night) we could intensely compare notes on Larry’s chess projects. He kindly gave me several documents on them which we can now present to our members and simultaneously to a broader chess audience as well.

Four folios from Firdausi's Shahnameh (The Epic of Kings):

2) A documentation of his exhibition "Imagery of Chess Revisited"

Brochure The Imagery of Chess … (PDF)

4) A brochure and some pictures of the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis

World Chess Hall of Fame Mission Statement (PDF)

Especially the "World Chess Hall of Fame" in St. Louis (there is also Larry’s brochure "Chess Masterpieces: Highlights from the Dr. George and Vivian Dean Collection" available – see www.worldchesshof.org/exhibitions/...) caught my close attention, as in the near future (2014?) we intend to hold there an annual meeting of the Ken Whyld Association with the friendly assistance of our American members. This institution in St Louis is particularly due to the personal commitment of Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield. I am really a little "aggrieved" if I imagine the problems to advance similar cultural chess initiatives in Germany (see for instance the Lasker touring exhibition).

From the "outside view" there is no understanding at all for this "German phenomenon". At least each American will wonder that in Germany – this "lighthouse" in the worldwide economic crisis – nobody succeeds in developing concepts for the world-famous German chess collections of Dr. Thomas Thomsen and Lothar Schmid. But in our country the decisiveness of individuals as to a long-lasting support of such an institution (i.e. a German Chess Museum) is obviously still lacking. It remains to be seen if a "diffident" pooling of interests becoming currently apparent with the German Chess Federation and the Emanuel Lasker Society could possibly be aimed at such a direction. Certainly a lecture of my friend Larry List in front of an interested audience would be a suitable advertising measure …

Michael Negele

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