Collectors' Meeting in Weimar

This years’ collectors’ meeting of the German CCI section, where also the members of the Ken Whyld Foundation & Association had been invited to, had been painstakingly planned and prepared by Dr. Thomas Thomsen and Prof. Wolfgang Angerstein.

Venue was the noted Hotel ELEPHANT in Weimar – the top hotel of the town where most of the attendees had also found their accommodation. Indeed the hotel was fully booked, as a stately number of about 75 participants had registered for this meeting!

The HOTEL ELEPHANT on the market place.
The HOTEL ELEPHANT on the market place

- some more photos of the ELEPHANT and the market place in this gallery.

Prof. Angerstein arrived together with me already on Thursday evening (06/11/2014) in Weimar (he was again so kind to give me a ride from Erkrath). It was essential to make some important technical provisions before the official start on Friday evening, such as the installation of Mr. Mükke’s glass cabinets and the test of the projector.

  • At the reception: The Russian chess legend GM Yuri Averbakh had come to Weimar with his daughter only to attend this event; on the right Thomas Thomsen.
  • Prof. Wolfgang Angerstein with Bernhard Schmid and two ladies.
  • The Klittich couple with Wolfgang Pähtz
  • Dr. Mario Ziegler and Dr. Michael Negele
  • Ralf Niederhäuser, GM Helmut Pfleger, Dr. Natascha Niemeyer-Wasserer and Georg Schweiger
  • Yours truly with Dr. Karl Klittich and Jens-Frieder Mükke

The following Friday evening the attendees initially met in the foyer of the ELEPHANT for a welcome drink (see photos above) before all went to the nearby restaurant "Zum weißen Schwan" to enjoy a joint evening meal. After the soup a first highlight of our meeting was already due, namely the official award of the "Deutsche Schachpreis 2014" to the cultural chess magazine KARL (see also KARL 2/2014). Sports director GM Uwe Bönsch had come as the representative of the German Chess Federation, he gave a speech in honor of Harry Schaack – editor and publisher of KARL – and presented him with the prize and the document, naturally with great éclat of the audience. Harry Schaack replied to the laudation with an acceptance speech in German and English.

Harry Schaack and Uwe Bönsch
Harry Schaack and Uwe Bönsch

Totally surprising for all and not least for the honored himself was the subsequent appearance of Paul Werner Wagner, chairman of the "ELG", who welcomed Dr. Thomas Thomsen as a new honorary member of the Emanuel Lasker Society:

The chess friends sitting next to me this evening were ...

  • the Dutch top collector Dr. Jurgen Stigter as well as ...
  • fairy chess expert Bernd Ellinghoven (on the right), just recovered from a severe infectious disease, and Dr. Mario Ziegler who intends to bestow a new chess historical magazine on the chess world next year.

Here is a first leaflet on his "Caissa".

You will find a selection of more photos from this evening in this gallery.

<p">On Saturday the morning was reserved for a series of lectures to be held in the Richard Wagner Hall of the ELEPHANT:

  • View of the widely filled conference room
  • Your webmaster is ready to take snapshots.
  • One of Jens-Frieder Mükke’s three glass cabinets
  • … this one is equipped with chess sets for blind or visually impaired players,
  • and this one shows "chess elephants" provided by the attendees.
  • The stand with chess ties and bow ties, arranged by Rudolf Kaiser who apart from a ties shop also manages an antiques shop in Weimar – both on the Schillerstraße on opposite side.
  • Wolfgang Pähtz also offered some chess ties from his private collection.

After a short delay (due to a despite all preparations intractable projector) Wolfgang Angerstein and Thomas Thomsen welcomed the audience, Dr. Thomsen also delivered a short report on the international CCI meeting in New York. Below we give photographs and short notes on the talks, two of the speakers (Prof. Wolfgang Angerstein and Dr. Michael Negele) have kindly provided their presentation slides.

Wolfgang Angerstein started the course of lectures with a contribution on "Chessmen for Wargaming (in books of the 17th - 20th century)" – his Powerpoint presentation is linked in our member section (as PDF). The rare work "Das preußische National-Schach" by Freiherr v. Hoverbeck (Breslau 1806) was not to get from the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar (which refused to lend its copy), but Prof. Angerstein succeeded in borrowing a copy from the University Library of Jena.

Michael Negele reported on the fascinating topic "Chess of the Blind vs Blindfold Chess – A Historical Approach". We link his ppt slides (>> member section) as well as a short video sequence showing how a blind player is "feeling" the position (enabled by heightened white squares).
The video (mp4 format) shows Peter Ellinger (Hannover) at the 5th BSBCC in Timmendorfer Strand:

You may also download the video as MTS file (about 20 MB).

  • Chess set for blind players (with heightened white squares)
  • Yuri Averbakh could affirm the question if he had ever played blind – meanwhile this is not forbidden anymore in Russia.

Roger Klittich informed the audience about the auction of the chess set collection of Mathieu and Ine Kloprogge. Upon request of customers, particular items of the collection could be viewed in the afternoon, understandably a public presentation was limited here due to insurance issues.

  • Now Wolfgang Angerstein distributed little presents to the attendees, among them a small origami elephant (in more than 70 copies) made by a hotel employee for our meeting – a great service!
  • Four little presents: An Elephant badge, an origami elephant, a (sheet metal) chess king (World Chess Hall of Fame 2012), and a small pocket lamp (with the inscription CHESS COLLECTORS INTERNATIONAL Weimar 2014).

Rudolf Kaiser talked about the composition, manufacture and care of ties – his nicely arranged and varied choice of chess ties was a real eye-catcher. On the occasion of our meeting Mr. Kaiser also offered a limited edition of only 10 chess pocket squares (for 29 € each), I guess all have been sold.

  • A chess pocket square

Ralf Niederhäuser, president of the Chess Federation North Rhine-Westphalia, showed entertainer qualities in his lecture "Chess – Sports, Culture or Entertainment?". During his talk Michael Negele could – to the amusement of the audience – still place an original "add-on": While Ralf Niederhäuser held forth about the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the anthropological find "Lucy" (in Ethiopia 1974), Michael quickly projected a photo of his "Lucy" onto the screen! (see photo below)

After the coffee break it was again Thomas Thomsen’s turn, he talked about the development and versions of Bauhaus chessmen – fitting to the visit of the Bauhaus museum the next day:

Prof. Hans Holländer convinced the audience with a lucid lecture on chess elephants (which, as is well-known, are frequently associated by artists and designers with rooks). Certainly the subject was a little bit vague and a kind of tribute to the hotel, but the speaker coped with it expertly.

  • Elephants' poster (Leporello fold) on the piano

Katja Gattung was the young lady who had delighted us with her self-made origami elephants. She was acknowledged with a rapturous applause, and Wolfgang Angerstein handed her a present.

  • Origami elephant made by Katja Gattung

Jens-Frieder Mükke marked the end of the lectures by his talk "Emotions – was the carver a psychologist?". The starting point of his considerations was the fairy chess set depicted below where particularly the pawns reflect a whole variety of emotions by their facial expressions.

After the joint lunch in the Cafe-Restaurant Frauentor (Schillerstraße), which by the way has an excellent choice of superb cakes, a visit to the Duchess Anna Amalia Library was on the agenda, followed by some sightseeing.

  • The Duchess Anna Amalia Library www.klassik-stiftung.de/en/institutions/duchess-anna-amalia-library/
  • The rococo hall of the library. Our charming guide, Mrs. Kornelia Lukoschek, has also written a nice book: "Weimar – Eine literarische Stadtführung" (2012), it was available at the reception desk of the ELEPHANT for 10 €.
  • A Ginkgo biloba nearby the library; already Goethe was impressed by the Ginkgo tree, the oldest in Weimar (and the only one from the time around 1800) is to find near the home of the Frau von Stein.
  • Goethe’s summerhouse is located in the park on the Ilm, Goethe lived there the first six years in Weimar (from 1776), before he moved to a larger dwelling in the town center.
  • Goethe’s home "am Frauenplan", he lived here from 1782 to his death in 1832.
  • Friedrich Schiller‘s home (today Schillerstraße 12) where he lived only the last 3 years of his life, from 1802 to 1805.
  • The Bauhaus Museum, its visit was planned for the next morning.
  • A town’s landmark: The Goethe Schiller monument on the Theaterplatz in front of the German National Theatre. The sculptor has formed both poets in the same size, although Schiller (about 1.82 m) was significantly taller than Goethe (about 1.70 m).

The following gallery provides further photos of the subsequent market/barter in the library of the ELEPHANT (photo above; apart from books also chess sets and other chess articles & memorabilia were offered), as well as photos of the different stopovers of this afternoon.

The eventful day closed with a joint dinner in the restaurant "Zum Zwiebel" (on the Teichgasse).

On Sunday morning we visited first Goethe’s home and the Goethe National Museum – both are located in the same building "am Frauenplan".

At the entrance to Goethe's home
At the entrance to Goethe's home

All visitors could use an audio guide which was quite helpful; less pleasing were quite a lot of omnipresent and unkind "watchdogs" who observed the visitors and intervened immediately in case they violated any regulations, such as taking flashlight photos.

For lack of further photos we give some links to informative pages:

From Goethe’s home we went to the Bauhaus Museum …

  • Entrance hall of the museum: "Tower of Fire" by Johannes Itten (1920), copied 1995/96
  • Exhibition area of the museum
  • Here we discovered Else Lasker-Schüler!
  • Joesef Hartwig, Bauhaus chess 32 chessmen with box, 1923/24

Our sight-seeing tour ended with a visit to the "Castle Museum", we only mention the Cranach gallery as well as the magnificent and imposing halls on the second floor. Two links:

  • Inner courtyard of the castle
  • The castle-tower with the bastille

Many of us stayed to take a meal in the "Elephantenkeller", where already the place of the next CCI meeting was proposed: Trier 2015 (with the option of an "invasion" of Luxembourg) was obviously favored by the board!

Ralf Binnewirtz

Photographs: Ralf Binnewirtz, Michael Negele and Andreas Saremba.

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