Three CH&LS members met at Emanuel Lasker´s birthplace

Bernd Schneider and Tomasz Lissowski in the Museum Garden
Bernd Schneider and Tomasz Lissowski in the Museum Garden

by Michael Negele

Interesting enough, I never had the opportunity to visit Emanuel Lasker´s birthplace in Barlinek (in Lasker´s time: Berlinchen in der Neumark),
a small town in Myślibórz County, in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northwestern Poland.

So I was most pleased, when the German Chess Federation asked me to be one of the representatives of the DSB at the Lasker Memorial rapid tournament.

And when my friend, IM Bernd Schneider, agreed to join me on that trip, and Tomasz Lissowski also promoted my idea to talk about Lasker during the break.

Prof. em. Hans-Jürgen Hochgräfe - officially the DSB-representative for German-Polish chess relations - from Rostock was most helpful to get my stay organised.

On 7th September I had a pleasant trip (about 760 km distance from Wuppertal to Barlinek), as Bernd was the driver ... When arriving in Barlinek, we started a first sight-seeing to the tiny township, very well maintained and quite touristic, especially focussed on Danish guests. This has to be discussed with our Nimzowitsch expert ...

We met Tomasz and Hans-Jürgen already in the evening in our hotel, and I received a marvelous "Diploma", a real artwork, created by Tomasz´daughter.

Exchange of gifts
Exchange of gifts

The next moring we walked to the tournament hall, a very nice building erected with support of the European Union - thank you for that, EU. Unfortunately, after several short and friendly speeches, the start of the rapid tournament turned out to be quite complicated. So we started very delayed, but the small German team was quite successful in the beginning.

In the break, Tomasz had organised a short visit to the regional museum, to see the Lasker room.

Mrs. Halina Olkiewicz-Fijałkowska, the director of the museum, was most friendly to give a the opportunity to browse through the very nicely arranged exhibit. At the end Tomasz and I took the opportunity to sign the Lasker monograph of 2009, which is one of the "treasures" of the museum.

We rushed back to the tournament hall and Tomasz and I started punctually our Lasker presentation - I talked in English and Tomasz translated in Polish, simultaneously. This enterprice - already practiced in Ostrow in 2013 worked quite well. We could save a quarter of an hour and the tournament started at 3:30 pm again - with round 5, not 6, as planned.

May be the break was to long for friend Bernd, he seemed to be too sleepy and overstepped the time limit in two games - in totally winning positions. Your humble one was very lucky - may be the Lasker molecules inhaled were also inspiring - so at the end I was able the reach a decent position in the final ranking. But also friend Tomasz did well, so CH&LS team scored 18 of 27 = 66,6%.

Most happily I received a wonderfull brochure of Andrej Mrowinski Emanuel Lasker Król Szachów Historia opowiedziana znaczkami i fotografiami.

https://www.kzp.pl/index.php?artykul=nws-n26-n2644

Kazimierz Hoffmann, the profound Lasker researcher of Barlinek - some of you may know his booklet Król z Barlineka - gave us the opportunity to accompany him on a short trip to Lasker birthplace in "Hopfensackgasse" - nowadays ul. Cmielna. The building is still in the original style, which impressed me most. Mr. Hoffmann told us, that it is most certain, the Lasker family lived in the ground floor.

That evening Tomasz and I discussed several aspects of chess historical research in the only restaurant, still open at the Barlinek market place. Bernd joint us, but preferred to ponder on some lost opportunities in the tournament.

Overall, a nice visit, which can be recommended to our members.

See also:

PS: Most happily we - the three editors Richard Forster, Raj Tischbierek and me - can announce the launch of
Emanuel Lasker Volume I during the coming week.

Emanuel Lasker Volume I - Cover
Emanuel Lasker Volume I - Cover

The book is available through Exzelsior Berlin

http://www.zeitschriftschach.de/verlagsprogramm/buecher

In Saturday, 13th October the book will be officially inaugurated at the Lasker Day of Chess. This event is organised by the Schachclub Bayer Leverkusen 1910 in the Casino of the Bayer AG in Leverkusen. Several CH&LS members will participate - here you can see the programm (sorry, only in German):

http://www.schachclub-bayer-leverkusen.de/images/stories/Bilder01/Programm_LaskerTag_des_Schachclub_Bayer_Leverkusen_2018.pdf

All CH&LS members and friends are invited to join this event.

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