Horst Lüders Memorial Page
Horst Lüders was one of our earliest friends and advisers for our still young association. Born and resident all his life in Kiel, he already joined the Kieler Schachgesellschaft von 1884 [KSG, i.e. Kiel Chess Society of 1884] as a young person in 1943. There he developed into a strong player who, as a member of the top team of the KSG, contributed considerably to its advancement as a top team of Schleswig-Holstein during the sixties. His passion for chess remained unbroken in his advanced years and so in his last 4 years he strengthened the senior team of the chess club SV Eutin when competing in the “Verbandsliga” [a kind of regional league].
Horst Lüders
*02/13/1927 †09/21/2003
(Brunswick, June 23, 2001)
But Horst Lüders was not only a keen club player, he was also particularly active as a chess reporter and organizer. Above all we wish to point here to his contributions in organizing the Alfred Brinckmann Memorial Tournaments (these were international team rapid chess tournaments for four-man teams, which were held between 1968 and 1994, alternately in Kiel and Hamburg) and to the extension of friendly connections with other chess clubs such as SV Manhem in Göteborg, which culminated in mutual visits with concurrent team competitions.
In the field of chess reporting Horst Lüders has made a remarkable name for himself nationwide with numerous articles, and his valued book reviews of new publications in a column in the magazine Schach in Schleswig-Holstein still appeared until shortly before his death.
Horst Lüders was in a lucky situation, he was able to integrate his passion for chess into his occupation as a librarian: being an employee of the Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesbibliothek [SHLB, i.e. Regional Library of Schleswig-Holstein] (from 1964 to 1992). It was due to his influence that in 1974 the library and the collection of miniatures of the Kiel jurist and problem composer Dr Wilhelm Maßmann were left to the Regional Library. Horst Lüders has catalogued this collection; the first edition of the Schachbibliothek Maßmann [Maßmann Chess Library] was published in 1982. This in turn induced the well-known Lübeck collector Gerd Meyer also to donate his own very extensive and valuable chess library as a legacy to the Regional Library. As a result of the unexpected early death of Gerd Meyer the chess collections Maßmann and Meyer, which jointly comprised about 13,000 volumes (without duplicates), were unified by 1994 under the roof of the SHLB.
A new edition of the Maßmann catalogue in 1995 by Horst Lüders, who even after his retirement in 1992 attended on a voluntary basis to the ”Special Chess Collection”, was therefore only a preparation for a more enormous task, namely the bibliographical recording of the entire library and its publication in book form. He succeeded within 5 years, initially cooperating with his club companion Franz Felser and afterwards with Mrs. Christine Möhle, and in 2000 the Kieler Schachkatalog [Kiel Chess Catalogue] appeared in a small edition of 300 copies.
This chess catalogue represents an outstanding bibliographical piece of work and may be considered with complete justification as the high point of Horst Lüders’ life work in chess. In future his name will remain associated with chess bibliography throughout the world.
In 2002 Horst Lüders, who was already honorary member of the KSG for many years, received the Certificate of Honour of the German Chess Federation as a tribute to his many years of commitment to chess.
His colleagues have learned to appreciate Oberamtsrat Horst Lüders as a competent employee of many years' standing and as an expert committed to regional bibliography, who especially distinguished himself in paving the way for electronic data processing in this field. We will join in honouring his memory.
The club chronicle 100 Jahre KSG von 1884 e.V. communicates some details about the board activities and the achievements of Horst Lüders in chess: voluntary works and successes (in German only).
You will find some additional information on Horst Lüders on the next page
(in German only!)