KWA Meeting at Bolzano 18 to 20 May, 2011
Part 1 – The First Day
Text by Luca D’Ambrosio; pictures by Michael Negele unless otherwise noted.
The KWA meeting started on Wednesday afternoon with the visit of Daniel Harrwitz’ grave at the Jewish cemetery of Bolzano. Owing to the recently found grave and the associated investigations the biographical data of this eminent 19th century master who played – inter alia – matches against Anderssen, Staunton, Horwitz, Löwenthal, Williams, Morphy and Kolisch, have to be corrected.
Links:
C.N. 6286. Daniel Harrwitz
Luca D'Ambrosio on Daniel Harrwitz' track
Südtiroler Sport Magazin - Ein gelüftetes Schachrätsel (PDF)
Cultura & Spettacoli - Lo scacco matto allo scacchista (PDF)
-
From left: Friedrich-Karl Hebeker, Regina Corneth, Alessandro Sanvito, Toni Preziuso and Bert Corneth at the entrance of the Bolzano cemetery. -
From left: Bert Corneth, Petra Lootz, Bob van de Velde, Siegfried Schönle at the entrance of the Bolzano cemetery. -
From left: Antonio Rosino, Luca D’Ambrosio, Guy van Habberney at the entrance of the Bolzano cemetery. -
Calle Erlandsson reading the inscription on Harrwitz’ tombstone. -
Close-up of the gravestone of Daniel Harrwitz.
After the visit of the cemetery the group walked to the Benedictine Monastery of Muri-Gries at Bolzano, in front of the abbey Michael Negele noticed the below undertaker.
The guided tour of the library which is not open to the public was conducted by Father Plazidus to whom the chess world owes the hint of the entry on Daniel Harrwitz in the register of deaths of the cathedral parish Bolzano.
The participants were especially interested in a 1581 edition by Marci Hieronymi Vidae Cremonensis, Albae Episcopi Opera, with the chess poem Scacchia Ludus.
After this tour the group walked to the Franciscan Monastery in the old town of Bolzano. There Father Willibald provided a still older Vida edition as well as a chess book published in December 1945 in Italy by a German POW of the Allies.
-
The cloister in the Franciscan monastery of Bolzano. -
From left: Jurgen Stigter, Luca D’Ambrosio, Friedrich-Karl Hebeker, Alessandro Sanvito, Ermide Sanvito in the Franciscan monastery (photo archives Siegfried Schönle, Kassel). -
Excerpt from Oskar Minnier: Chess behind barbwire (1) -
Excerpt from Oskar Minnier: Chess behind barbwire (2) -
Excerpt from Vida 1537 (photo by Luca D’Ambrosio). -
Owner’s stamp on the last page of Vida 1537.
According to a mail by Alessandro Sanvito the framed sentence in the owner’s stamp comes from Sallust and means "Concord will make small things flourish".*) So the erudite owner doesn’t refer (and limits himself) to chess but gives a thought of general validity; he means, what is done in unity will also turn out well.
*) The full Sallust quotation is "concordia parvae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur" - "concord will make small things flourish, discord will destroy great things." See for instance Unity makes strength. [RB]
You will find a selection of further pictures from the first day in this gallery.
Part 2 – The Second Day
On Thursday, May 19th, 2011 the lectures began at the Kolpinghaus – after a minute’s silence in commemoration of Professor Carlo Alberto Pagni.
- Luca D'Ambrosio: Looking for traces in the chess history of South Tyrol from 1300 to 1945
- Friedrich-Karl Hebeker: Ludwig Engels in Brazil
- Alessandro Sanvito: The Anglo-Norman chess manuscripts
- Guy Van Habberney: Ingredients for a definitive Bobby Fischer biography

You can optionally download Luca D'Ambrosio's lecture (in German) as a Powerpoint presentation (15.5 MB) or as a pdf file (3.2 MB) (both in the member section only!).

The presentation slides of Friedrich-Karl Hebeker are linked below:
Information on Ludwig Engels:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Engels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Engels
and sources given there.

You can read Alessandro Sanvito's paper here: The Anglo-Norman Chess Manuscripts (as PDF; again in the member section!).
With his talk Guy Van Habberney gave a critical assessment of Frank Brady's Fischer biography.

After the lunch break our group took a short look at the cloister of the Dominican church and afterwards went by bus to Meran.
-
The cloister of the Dominican church at Bolzano. -
On the way to Meran. -
The Municipal Theatre of Meran - more at www.kurhaus.it/... -
A centaur on the roof of the Municipal Theatre. -
Seen in the shop window of an antiquary at the spa hotel. -
The spa hotel of Meran. -
The imposing kursaal -
Ceiling frescos of the kursaal -
A closer view of the frescos. -
The KWA participants have a look upwards. -
Lecture by Dr. Ing. Siegfried Unterberger at the small kursaal (photo archives Siegfried Schönle, Kassel).
The highlight of the day was the presentation of Dr. Ing. Siegfried Unterberger, organizer of the Candidates final 1980 (Hübner – Kortschnoi) and of the Chess World Championship 1981 (Karpov – Kortschnoi).
Dr. Unterberger captivated the audience with his fascinating report on the two chess events, showed a wide variety of pictures and provided a great many of anecdotes, among others about his game against the Italian president at that time, Sandro Pertini.
-
Dr. Siegfried Unterberger surrounded by the audience (photo archives Siegfried Schönle, Kassel). -
The Italian president at that time, Sandro Pertini took over the patronage for the Chess World Championship 1981 (picture archives Luca D’Ambrosio, Bolzano). -
Dr. Ing. Unterberger talks about the Candidates final 1980 ... (photo archives Siegfried Schönle, Kassel) -
as well as about the Chess World Championship 1981 (photo archives Siegfried Schönle, Kassel). -
A letter by Max Euwe to Dr. Siegfried Unterberger.
You will find more about Dr. Unterberger at sammlung-unterberger.com/... and the sites linked there.
The international chess congresses of Meran 1924 took place at the small kursaal. In the first tournament Grünfeld won ahead of Spielmann and Rubinstein, in the second Colle ahead of Canal, Przepiórka and Spielmann.
-
Group photo Meran 1924, standing from left: Ballaban (reporter), Colle, Selesnieff, Opočenský, Patay von Báj, Takács, L. Steiner, Koltanowski, Gunsberg (reporter), Michel (organizing committee). Sitting from left: Dr. Seitz (tournament director), Dr. Tarrasch, Grünfeld, Rosselli del Turco, Spielmann, Miliani, Przepiórka, Dr. Grimm (organizing committee). Of the participating masters only Rubinstein is missing. (Source: L’Italia Scacchistica No 1 1924) -
Group photo of the participants in the small kursaal, from left: Antonio Rosino, Petra Lootz, Siegfried Schönle, Toni Prezioso, Regina Corneth, Bert Corneth, Winnifred van de Velde, Guy Van Habberney, Bob van de Velde, Michael Negele, Friedrich-Karl Hebeker, Alessandro Sanvito, Ermide Sanvito, Luca D’Ambrosio, Jurgen Stigter. (photo archives Luca D’Ambrosio, Bozen) -
At the small kursaal (Pavillon des Fleurs) the international chess tournaments of 1924 and 1926 took place. -
A detail of the small kursaal.
After our return we enjoyed the rest of the evening at the Bolzano restaurant Zum Bogen where our participants could also inspect some local papers (with mentions of our event):
Part 3 – The Third Day and the Open Tournament
On Friday morning, 20th of May the presentations were given at the Mehrzwecksaal of the Premstallerhof where the chess club ARCI Bozen (www.arciscacchi.it) is based and where the 6th international Open tournament was planned for the afternoon. For this day also Tamás Erdélyi and Michael Ehn had arrived from Budapest and Vienna respectively. The following lectures were held in the morning:
- Antonio Rosino: The golden age of chess in Venice: 1929-1953
- Michael Negele: My finds on Antonius van der Linde
- Toni Preziuso: "Odysseus" meets Alekhine. The encounter between a (still) unknown journalist and Alekhine at Lisbon 1946. Presentation and open questions about a find from the Schweizerische Allgemeine Volkszeitung 03/06/1950.


Michael Negele has provided his quite extensive presentation slides:
- original powerpoint (pptx) file (ca. 40 MB)
- as pdf file (ca. 4.4 MB)
- both in the member section.

On Toni Preziuso's contribution we can offer a pdf file as well (>> member section).

After the lectures our group visited the library of the chess club ARCI-Bozen which is based in the building - in all likelihood it is the biggest collection of chess books of a club from the Brenner to Verona. The book list is online at www.arciscacchi.it/....
In 2009 a commemorative publication appeared about the still very young chess club.

Links:
www.arciscacchi.it/Sito01/Bollettini/Bollettino21presentazioneparte1.pdf
www.arciscacchi.it/Sito01/Bollettini/Bollettino21estratti.pdf
www.arciscacchi.it/Sito01/Bollettini/Bollettino21recensioni.pdf

With a short speech Guy Van Habberney thanked the organizer of the Bolzano KWA meeting, handed him a book present (Bogoljubow, Moskau 1925) and opened the book market.
The KWA meeting ended with the book market, and in the same room the 6th international Bolzano Open started at 4 pm where 63 chess players from seven different countries entered, among them Michael Negele, Calle Erlandsson, Toni Preziuso, Guy Van Habberney and Luca D’Ambrosio. In the first round all KWA members emerged victorious, and in the second round they all played side by side, at the tables 5 to 9.
Toni Preziuso sent us two annotated games from the Open, here his elaboration as pdf file.

On Saturday evening the tournament participants met at the restaurant Stiegl.
The 5-round tournament ended on Sunday afternoon with the young Bolzano player Patrick Scharrer as winner. Toni Preziuso placed 11th scoring 3½/5 - so winning the internal "KWA championship". There followed Michael Negele (15th), Calle Erlandsson (18th), Luca D’Ambrosio (22nd) - all 3/5 - and Guy Van Habberney (33rd) with 2½.
Several links to the Bolzano Open:
www.chessclub.it/turniere/bz2011/standing.html
arciscacchi.blogspot.com/2011/05/open-internazionale-di-bolzano-2011...
arciscacchi.blogspot.com/2011/05/open-internazionale-di-bolzano-2011...
Finally some impressions of Bolzano:
-
Map of the county Tyrol -
The Kornplatz -
The new Bolzano town-hall from 1907 -
Façades in Town-hall Place -
Façades in Town-hall Place -
A characteristic oriel -
The craft of the (wine-)coopers was strongly represented in the Bindergasse. -
The Silbergasse, about 1000 years ago the moat was running here. -
The 300 m long medieval arcades. -
Façades next to the Waltherplatz (in the second building from left the chess club ARCI Bozen was based at first). -
The center of the Bolzano old town: the Waltherplatz with the cathedral. -
The monument to the minnesinger Walther von der Vogelweide. -
The Bolzano cathedral combines Romanic and Gothic elements.
A photo gallery with some further sights of Bolzano as well as a photo selection of a classic car parade (on 21-22 May at Bozen) is offered in this Gallery.