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March 2023

Ghosting Karl Marx. Hidden Agendas of a Muzio Gambit

Karl Marx's grave, Highgate, London
Karl Marx's grave, Highgate, London

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.

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75 Jahre Uedemer Schachklub 1948 – 2023

75 Jahre Uedemer Schachklub - frontcover
75 Jahre Uedemer Schachklub - frontcover

by Siegfried Schönle

Surely some readers immediately have questions when hearing this title:

Uedem? Where is it? I don't know (the reader will find an answer briefly and with spice on pages 36-39 - of 251 pages - without advertising)!

In short: near the Dutch border, on the Lower Rhine, in the district of Kleve and has around 8,600 inhabitants.

A club unpacks? What is the content of the "package" and how could it be packaged?

A package is generally looked at after it has been received, and the type of packaging allows initial and quite vague conclusions to be drawn about the content. This "package" is now exceptionally carefully packed:

  • format 215x300 mm;
  • 251 p.;
  • solid cardboard cover;
  • colored print, numerous easy-to-read facsimiles, photos, tables on good quality paper;
  • 25,- €, edition 200 pcs.

All this is offered in a professional layout and in high print quality! The editors were the association members Heinz Aldenhoven, Hans-Josef Arts and Michael Venhoff.

To order: https://uedemer-schachklub.de/kontakt-2/ and/or

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A Letter from our president Frank Hoffmeister

pixabay.com

Dear members of the society!

This year, our society will exist for 20 years. After its initial conception in Amsterdam, the founding session took place in November 2003 in Braunschweig. In view thereof, the board has decided to organise a little birthday celebration on 23/24 June 2023 also in Braunschweig.

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