News archive
2025
CHLS General Assembly 2025 in Valencia!
In 1475, Francesco Vicent wrote his famous manuscript about chess with the modern rules in Valencia. Our member José Garcon has organised an exhibition to celebrate the 550 anniversaries thereof! Our society will visit the town and hold its general assembly from 5.-6. September 2025 with a first-class programme. We will hear lectures about different phases in the Spanish chess life, visit the old town and enjoy the exhibition. Details of the programme are enclosed.
Members and non-members are invited to register with our Secretary-General, Claes Løfgren (claes.lofgren54@gmail.com). We would look forward to numerous participation!
Frank Hoffmeister, President
Chess in the Philippines
by Frank Hoffmeister
Introduction
The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7.000 islands in South East Asia, offers a stunning array of landscapes, cultures, and experiences that captivate travelers from around the world. It is probably most known for its pristine beaches, rich history, and diverse wildlife. But the country has quite some attractions to offer as well or the chess historian, albeit less visible and hard to find without connections.
From 13 – 24 April 2025, I had the chance to discover some of those hidden treasures during my family vacation in the Philippines. Thanks to the amazing help of Joan Joy, an excellent free lance tourist guide from the “Blue Horizon” travel company, I was able to meet the living legend GM Eugenio Torre in Manila and the life-long friend of FIDE President Campomanes Leonides Bautista in Baguio City, a co-organiser of the world championship between Karpov and Korchnoi in 1978 in his home town. The present report tries to present to our society the hidden chess beauties of this amazing country.
The origins of chess in the Philippines
The origins of chess in the Philippines are obscure. What can be said with certainty that the Spaniards, who colonized the islands in the 16th century, had chess in their baggage. The impressive San Augustin Church in Manila can serve as a good example. Located in Intramuros, it is one of the oldest stone church complexes in the Philippines. It was built by Spanish friars of the Order of St. Augustine in the late 16th century and completed in 1607. In the recreation rooms of the first floor, I could detect an old wooden chess board. The guide confirmed that the inhabitants played chess and billiard as their pastime. It can therefore be assumed that the game found its way into the Philippines at least through this Spanish avenue.
Photos of Alexander Alekhine's death
Mr Terje Kristiansen (Norway) has written to us with a very interesting question about Alekhine and photos taken after his death.
Mr Kristiansen writes:
On 24 March 1946 Luís C. Lupi sent a letter to Robert Bunnelle of the Associated Press in London with “four (4) negatives and three prints of EXCLUSIVE ASSIOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS taken by me [Mr Lupi]. They are ALEXANDER ALEKHINE last photographs … Pixs show ALEKHINE lying dead in his hotel room.”
Note that the text of the letter appears in an article on Edward Winter's website here:
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/alekhine3.html
And the question from Mr Kristiansen:
Only two of these four photos have been published. Is there any way to locate the other two photos?
Please send your reply to Jean Olivier Leconte lecafedelaregence@free.fr who will forward it to Mr Kristiansen.
Chess in the Jewish Refugee camp Landsberg am Lech (1946) and in the Ghetto Terezín/Theresienstadt (1942-1944)
by Frank Hoffmeister
I. Introduction
When our member Siegfried Schönle read the autobiography of the Jewish painter Samuel Bak (“Painted in Words”, Boston 2001) he noted that the author refers to the second husband of his mother as a “chess player”. Mr. Nathan Markowski hailed from Lithuania and was interned in the Conzentration Camp in Dachau (near Munich) during the second world war in 1944-45. After his liberation, he had no home anmore, and stayed in the Jewish refugee camp Landsberg am Lech, located west of Munich (1946). During his research about Markowski Schönle also received a number of chess related documents from the Ghetto Terezin/Theresienstadt (near Prague). During Nazi occupation of Czechia, a great number of the Jewish population of the region was transported there. Most interestingly, Schönle found that a certain Isidor Schorr organised chess activities in the Ghetto from 1942 to 1944. The present book presents the outcome of his meticoulous research on both Markowski and Schorr, as well as associated persons. The book is written in the German language and contains many pictures and documents, printed as facsimiles, which have never been published before.
Following up on the first laudatory reaction from Konrad Reiss, published in November 2024 on our webpage (Schach im DP-Lager Landsberg und im Ghetto Terezín / Theresienstadt [Chess in the Landsberg DP camp and in the Terezín / Theresienstadt ghetto]), the low number of copies has already been sold out. As the book is thus not anymore publicly available, it is all the more important to sum up the main points in English. In my view, some substantive points made in this original and high-quality research deserve particular attention among international chess historians.
New Member: Pablo Moujan
Our new member, Pablo Moujan from the USA, introduces himself in the members area (you must be logged in to read).
Gerbert of Aurillac (future Pope Sylvester II) and his possible relationship in the diffusion of Chess in the 10th century
by Alejandro Melchor
In the commendable work of Helena M. Gamer “The earliest evidence of Chess in the western literature - The verses of Einsiedeln” (1954), this author placed in the Monastery of Einsiedeln, founded by Otto I, the earliest literary evidence of Chess in the European West (around the year 990). Evidence perfectly coinciding in the first documentary mention we find precisely in "Hispania" (Spain) with the will of Ermengol I, Count of Urgell, in the year 1007 carried out on the occasion of the campaign against Al-Andalus (Muslim area center and south of Spain) of the Catalan counts. However, the author, observing the absence of Saracen terminology in the Alpine verses, was rather in favor of an influence of Byzantine origin rather than Muslim, which in any case could have arrived either by Hispanic or - preferably - Italic way. Reasonings without seems definitive, are certainly very convincing, so it seems that it can be affirmed that Chess appears simultaneously in the Alpine monasteries of the Ottonian dynasty and among the Catalan nobility. Even in the case that the influence came from more than one source, as it could seem natural talking about something like a board game, the coincidence is remarkable. What could be the cause? It would be necessary to go further ...
New Member: Alejandro Melchor
Our new member, Alejandro Melchor from Spain, introduces himself in the members area (you must be logged in to read).
Online access to the Ken Whyld Library is available again
Dear members of the Society,
our member Francois Zutter has informed as that the online access to the Ken Whyld library in Switzerland has been reestablished. The general website is https://museedujeu.ch/le-musee/. You can also have direct access via https://biblio.la-tour-de-peilz.ch/tour-msj/.
I hope you find this information useful!
Best regards
Frank Hoffmeister, President
150 years chess club St. Gallen (Switzerland)
The CH&LS has the honour to publish a booklet about the history of the chess club in St. Gallen (in German) and wishes to thank the former President, Mr. Hans Altherr, and the author, Mr. Michael Nyffenegger, for their kind authorisation.
GM Dr phil. Robert Hübner (6.11.1948 - 5.1.2025)
- not only a chess genius -
by Siegfried Schönle
[Original article in German is here. Translation with DeepL.com (free version)]
Firstly, this remark before anything else:
In just a few words in this article, it is almost impossible to adequately honour the chess and academic work of the late GM Dr phil. Robert Hübner (6.11.1948 - 5.1.2025) in this article is simply not possible. The author would also like to ask for your understanding that he can only say a few things about Dr Robert Hübner. This is due to a lack of knowledge and language skills.
Instead, in reference to his own book title, Elemente einer Selbstbiographie [Elements of a Self-Biography], Berlin, Edition Marco 2015), some ‘elements’ of his biography will be recalled to the reader's memory.
This is an attempt to perhaps emphasise the lesser-known sides and interests of his personality.
A review of his entries in eight English- and German-language encyclopaedias revealed a fairly uniform picture: date of birth; learnt chess at the age of 5; his successes in decades after Büsum 1968 (see photo below); multiple World Championship candidate in around 20 years; participation in 6 World Championship cycles; papyrologist; various winning games at the end of the articles.
The focus of the articles in the encyclopaedias is, quite understandably, on the chess career. - So far so good!
Read more … GM Dr phil. Robert Hübner (6.11.1948 - 5.1.2025)
Jesus Diez del Corral: The Spanish Botvinnik
Mr Juan Carlos Sanz Menéndez has just published in Spanish, Jesús Diez del Corral: El Botvinnik español, about the second Spanish grandmaster, covering his entire chess career from 1945 to 1988, with over 1000 games, the vast majority of which do not appear in game databases. It is available from the specialist chess publisher Tienda Chessy: DIEZ DEL CORRAL El Botvinnik español
Description:
Book including all the games of Diez del Corral, the 2nd Spanish Grandmaster in history and one of the most talented. Covers his entire chess career, from 1945 to 1988.
This work is the result of a titanic effort by the author, who has endeavoured to bring together almost all the games played by one of the most talented Spanish grandmasters (and surely also one of the most professional in his preparation).
Not only is it a journey through Diez del Corral's chess career, but it is also a look at the leading Spanish masters of the time, who in most cases held the title of National Master by being placed prominently in the national championships. These now unknown players were among the strongest in Spain and with this work we make them known, with a brief biography.
Jesús Diez del Corral (1933-2010) was for more than a decade (from 1968 to 1979) the strongest player in Spain, although he had to combine chess with his demanding professional obligations (he was a land registrar and notary, for example).
Money makes the (chess) world go around
In the German chess journal Schach our President Frank Hoffmeister published recently an article about the difficulties of world champions and their challengers to find sponsors for their matches. With the kind authorisation of the publisher, our member Raj Tischbierek, please find attached his contribution (in German).