Failing better. Beckett's game with chess in Murphy
by Dr. Bernd-Peter Lange
A game's trajectory
Beckett´s lifelong obsession with chess has become a household word. From his childhood with its games in the family, through his participation in matches of the chess team of Trinity College Dublin, facing the Danish master Aaron Nimzowitsch in a simultaneous exhibition, losing many chess games to Marcel Duchamp in his French exile, games in the Vaucluse hideout in the second World War to many occasional friendly games against many partners well into old age, Beckett never lost his fascination with the game. (Knowlson, 1996) The chess books in his library had a focus on the contemporary chess scene, specializing on game collections of the World Champions of chess from Capablanca in the 1920s to Kasparov in the 1980s. (Van Hulle/Nixon, 2013, 261-287) The most concentrated literary reflection of Beckett´s preoccupation with chess came early in his career with the writing and publication of Murphy. The novel is a rarity among thematically related fictions since it integrates the notation of a complete chess game and notes commenting on some of its moves.
Read more … Failing better. Beckett's game with chess in Murphy
Literature, women playing chess and Bertolt Brecht
The society has recently published a very interesting essay from our member Bernd-Peter Lange about the German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht and chess playing women around him.
As it is in German, you can find the article in our German website here:
Ghosting Karl Marx. Hidden Agendas of a Muzio Gambit
by Dr. Bernd-Peter Lange
The Marx that nobody Read
In a recent film directed by the Haitian director Raoul Peck, The Young Karl Marx, the eponymous hero appears as, among other better known pursuits, a genius on the chess board. In two of the scenes set in pubs he triumphantly checkmates Friedrich Engels and clinches a victory over his political rival, the Anarchist Bakunin by decisively pinning one of his opponent´s pieces.
Neither of these games in the film relies on documentary evidence. However, there are two notations of chess notations that Marx has been credited with for a long time, one an impressive win in a Muzio gambit against the contemporary problemist Heinrich Meyer, the other one a mating attack against the famous Prussian master Gustav Neumann, both around 1870. The notations of these games have been republished frequently in Russian journals from 1926 and 1938, respectively, but also in other countries, even though doubts on their authenticity have accompanied their publication throughout. In recent articles in chess journals, these doubts have peaked in definitive refutations of the involvement of Marx in the two games he has been credited with, albeit without much of an impact on the conservation of the view of the philosopher as chess prodigy.
Read more … Ghosting Karl Marx. Hidden Agendas of a Muzio Gambit
The long-forgotten Turkish chess automaton of the Italian Joseph Morosi
by Jean Oliver Leconte
In a previous article on my website (in French) I wrote about the visit of Kempelen's chess-playing Turkish automaton to Paris in 1783.
During my research I discovered many newspaper articles about a chess-playing Turkish automaton in Paris in the year 1800. At that time Kempelen was still alive and his automaton had not yet been sold to Johann Maelzel. But curiously, the name of the person who brought the automaton to Paris in 1800 was not Kempelen. In 1783, the newspaper articles mention a certain Anthon (who I have not yet identified). And in 1800, it is a certain Morosi. And that's when I thought something was wrong. And "Hey presto!", in the reference book "Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne" (Paris 1843), we find in volume 74, page 417 a short biography of someone called Joseph Morosi (26-06-1772 - 27-09-1840) presented as an Italian mechanic born in Ripafratta, a small village in Tuscany. The text indicates:
Read more … The long-forgotten Turkish chess automaton of the Italian Joseph Morosi
The 1974 Nice Chess Olympiad
Dominique Thimognier, editor of the excellent site Héritage des Échecs Français, has presented the last conference in Marostica (Italy) on Saturday September 10th. You have below the support of his conference devoted to the 1974 Nice Chess Olympiad.
This is the only Chess Olympiad organized in France, except for the one in 1924, during the Olympic Games in Paris, which was considered as unofficial. Dominique Thimognier benefited from two testimonies of the time, with Michel Benoit, French champion 1973 and member of the French team in Nice, and Louis Risacher, referee during these Olympiads.
A difficult organization: with 10 times fewer volunteers than the previous Olympics, while many more teams took part, the hotel to accommodate the teams was still under construction, etc.
The 3rd World Junior Chess Championship in Antwerp, Belgium in 1955
This is the material of the third lecture given in Marostica on Saturday 10th September 2022 during the general assembly of the international association CH&LS. The 3rd World Junior Chess Championship in Antwerp, Belgium in 1955, by Henri Serruys, treasurer of the association.
Lasker's difficult journey after the First World War
This is the material for the second lecture given during the general assembly of the CH&LS association.
Frank presented the lecture "Lasker's Difficult Journey after the First World War" by Frank Hoffmeister, of which you have the support below.
Interestingly, one of the audience members added that Lasker had gone broke twice in his life. Firstly, just after the First World War, because he had invested in German government loans to finance the war, and then after the krach of October 1929.
Chess as a means of moral education in the Middle Ages
Here is the support of the first lecture by Björn Reich.
Russian Chess Literature: Early Periodicals - Table
by Michael Clapham
Part one: Russian Chess Literature: A brief history
Part two: Russian Chess Literature: Early Periodicals
Part three: Russian Chess Literature: Early Periodicals - continued
Below is a Table of bibliographic references from four sources for Russian chess periodicals up to 1917. The sources are as follows:
- Sakharov 1968 - Shakhmatnaya Literatura SSSR; Bibliografia (1775-1966), Moscow 1968
- Sakharov 2001 - Shakhmatnaya Literatura Rossii; Bibliograficheskiy Ukazatel (1775-1997), Moscow 2001
- LN - Bibliotheca van der Linde - Niemeijeriana, The Hague 1955
- Di Felice - Chess Periodicals; An Annotated International Bibliography, 1836-2008, Jefferson 2008
Read more … Russian Chess Literature: Early Periodicals - Table
Russian Chess Literature: Early Periodicals - continued
by Michael Clapham
Part one: Russian Chess Literature: A brief history
Part two: Russian Chess Literature: Early Periodicals
7. Shashechnitsa: Ezhemesyachnyĭ Zhurnal, Moscow 1891. edited by D. I. Sargin and P. P. Bobrov. Sakharov (1968) 211, Di Felice 2439, LN 6314.
Shashechnitsa was launched in July 1891, six months after the St Petersburg magazine Shakmatnyĭ Zhurnal had commenced, and for the first time, Russia had two contemporary chess journals. Although titled Shashechnitsa (Draughtsplayer), the magazine was conceived as a publication equally devoted to chess and draughts. However, chess predominated from the outset; the first issue included 38 pages of chess and 10 pages of draughts.
Read more … Russian Chess Literature: Early Periodicals - continued