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.
General Assembly of the CH&LS Association and conferences in Marostica
Last Saturday 10th September 2022, the CH&LS "Chess History and Literature Society" met for its general assembly in Marostica, Italy. Marostica is famous for its chess show, which takes place every two years. A small town quite suitable for this General Assembly!
Four conferences on chess history were presented during this general assembly. I will publish the material of these four presentations on this website, as well as on my blog Le Café de la Régence.
Jean Oliver Leconte
- Lecture 1 - Chess as a means of moral education in the Middle Ages - By Björn Reich (document in English)
- Lecture 2 - Lasker's difficult journey after the First World War - By Frank Hoffmeister (document in English) [available from September 22nd]
- Lecture 3 - The 3rd World Junior Chess Championship in Antwerp, Belgium in 1955 - By Henri Serruys (document in English) [available from September 23th]
- Lecture 4 - The 1974 Nice Chess Olympiad - By Dominique Thimognier (document in French) [available from September 24th]
Announcement on the exhibition "Schach und Musik"
The event organized by Schach und Kulturstiftung G.H.S. "Schach und Musik" in Ebersberg near Munich is brought to our attention by our member Siegfried Schönle (Kassel).
CH&LS General Assembly on YouTube
Dear fellow members of the Chess History and Literature Society,
On Saturday 10 September, the General Assembly of the CH&LS will take place in Marostica, Italy, as of 10am. Thanks to our web editor Jean Olivier Leconte, it will be possible to attend the assembly via this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ874Q2WYKY
The agenda which we posted in May (News for members) on the website is confirmed. We are looking forward to hear four interesting speeches about Chess in the Middle Ages (Björn Reich), Lasker’s difficult journey after 1914 (Frank Hoffmeister), the World Junior Championship 1955 in Antwerp (Henry Serruys) and about the Chess Olympiad 1974 in Nice (Dominique Thimognier). We hope that many of you, who are not able to be present in Marostica, will take the opportunity to follow the proceedings online. See you there!
Best wishes,
Claes Løfgren
Secretary of the CH&LS
Tobiblion update
Per Skjoldager has updated the database of the BoC-Project. 43 new items and 214 new descriptions have made it into Tobiblion as well as the data of the 82th Klittich auction. They are now available for members in Tobiblion.
New Member: John H. M. Damsager
Our new member, John H. M. Damsager from Denmark, introduces himself in the members area (You must be logged in to read).
Rolf Martens - A New Swedish Biography
Rolf Martens (1942-2008) was a unique figure in Swedish chess. Already as a junior he showed promise, and as a student in Lund and a member of the strong local club LASK (Lunds Akademiska Schackklubb) his strength grew rapidly. When he took part in the top group for the first and only time he won the Swedish Championship in 1967. This victory gave rise to a lot of expections, and a sensational 2. prize, half a point after Jefim Geller, in the Gothenburg international tournament 1967/68 indeed secured Martens his first IM-norm.
But that also turned out to be the last. Between half-hearted university studies and life as an enthusiastic blitz-shark at his favourite café, Martens developed a left-wing political interest in the wake of the student revolts of 1968. Detesting what he saw as US and Soviet imperialism alike, he came to believe in the reorganizing of society as described in Mao Zedongs writings, and became a zealous propagator of Maoism. Striving always to support the side of the weak, he took part in demonstrations, navigated between the differing fractions of political parties, managed to be expelled for both right- and left-deviationism, and published a newsletter financed by the Chinese embassy. Chess receded into the background – after all, Martens said, it was ”only fun!”
New web editor: Jean Olivier Leconte
As already described in the article CH&LS with a new board, we have a new web editor. He introduces himself with a few lines:
Jean Olivier Leconte, 53 years old, I live just outside Paris in the small town of Saint-Mandé and I work in a bank as a database administrator.
I have been playing chess for over 40 years ... I am a FIDE Master, Senior International Correspondence Master, and President of a chess club.
For a little over 10 years, I have been writing articles (in French and Russian) for my website on the history of the Café de la Régence and more generally on the history of chess in Paris: https://lecafedelaregence.blogspot.com/
I also wrote a book in two volumes in French about the history of the Café de la Régence, and co-author of the book of the 100th anniversary of the French Chess Federation (see Special offer for members: La France et son apport dans le jeu d'échecs).
Frank Hoffmeister asked me to be a member of the board of the CH&LS. And so I became the web editor of our association.
If you want to publish an article on our site, you can write to me at lecafedelaregence@free.fr
Thank you, and see you in Marostica in September 2022!
Jean Olivier Leconte