The second lecture of the CH&LS General Meeting was given by Matthias Johansson on the subject of the Chess Olympiads before the Second World War. As we can see, these Olympiads were strongly influenced by the political events of this troubled period in history.

Here is an extract from the presentation text for the General Meeting on 13 and 14 September 2024.

On Friday 13 September 2024, the CH&LS held its annual meeting in Budapest in parallel to the 45^th Chess Olympiad. Upon invitation of the Hungarian Chess Federation, roughly 20 members and guests convened at the historic premises of host. Members that could not make it to the Hungarian Capital in person, could follow the deliberations online.

Established in 1921, the Hungarian Chess Federation also became a founding member of the Word Chess Federation (FIDE) in 1924. The marvellous meetings rooms paid tribute to the long tradition in various ways. Next to an impressive amount of trophies gained in international tournaments, the Federation is also equipped by 30 wooden tournament tables, in which already the former Socialist Prime Minister, Kadar, used to play when he trolled over to Falk Utca 10, not far away from the marvellous Parliament building. The Secretary-General, IM Ivan Sipos opened the conference with a welcome speech. Paying tribute to the 100-years jubilee of FIDE, the CH&LS focussed its deliberations on the role of FIDE for international chess.

by Siegfried Schönle [Original article in German is here. Translation with DeepL.com (free version)]

Bitterfeld - who doesn't know this place name in East and West Germany and associate it above all with brown coal, the chemical industry, the so-called “Bitterfeld Way” in literature, environmental pollution and now also

- chess on 358 pages!

I would like to contradict a possible reaction to the name Schach-Verein Bitterfeld (Bitterfeld Chess Club) right at the beginning and point out what the reader of this book can expect in terms of “much more”. But first things first!

A wealth and variety of problem chess from the Bitterfelder Tageblatt, expertly explained by Dr. Ralf Jürgen Binnewirtz in his foreword. Ralf J. Binnewirtz also checked the individual “lightweights” for their coherence. In the appendix, p. 333ff, he provides a “historical excursus on the Chinese family” in order to gain “clarity on the development of the Chinese pieces in problem chess”. The reason for his reflections was the discovery of the “Paoma” article by Prof. Dr. P. Seyferth from Bitterfeld in 1936.
Problem chess fans should be delighted.

I would like to emphasize two things from the foreword by the author, Konrad Reiß. He has rightly worked through the life and chess history of the Jewish merchant Max Nussbaum in this chronology (pp. 169-177 and others) and, this should also be emphasized, he has formulated it in an appropriate and source-oriented manner in terms of chess and history. As Konrad Reiß's research has shown, Max Nussbaum was a co-founder of the Bitterfeld chess club, was excluded from the board in 1933 like thousands of other Jews and was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
The reader will be interested!

From Austria we have received the sad news that our friend and fellow CH&LS member René Wukits passed away on July 20^th, only 52 years old.

See also: Wiener Schachverband