Persons celebrating an Anniversary in December 2003

Our first cash auditor, the Dutch collector Bert Corneth starts off with the December jubilees: he celebrated his 47th birthday on December 8. Certainly many will be familiar at least with his name as the addressee of the "Letter to Bert" by Bob Meadley (see our page "Links").

Chess friend Rudolf Glenk has completed his 66th year on December 12. Here in this area the collector and problem friend is primarily known for a unique rarity: his privately owned tiled stove is "equipped" with chess problems (Click here; you may find details in his essay Kachelofenprobleme, Forchheim 2002).

Two well-known personalities of the chess world are following: the Italian chess historian and author Alessandro Sanvito celebrated his 65th birthday on December 14. For a bibliography of his works on chess (mainly history) see his own book Bibliografia italiana degli scacchi (Milano, 1999).

The next was only 4 days later the Dutch study expert Harold van der Heijden, he's now 43 years of age. His Endgame Study Database 2000 (on CD-ROM) remains the reference work for this category of chess composition. You will find more about and from Harold on his website and in the article/interview by Eric van Reem: Harold van der Heijden: Liebhaber und Sammler von Endspielstudien (in German).

Christine Möhle had her birthday on Christmas Day, the number of years to be celebrated ends in a zero. She tries hard in her limited time as an employee of the Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesbibliothek to take care of the greatest public chess library in Germany. We wish her good luck succeeding Horst Lüders in this important task.

Our member Jürgen Wolf celebrated his 43rd birthday equally on Christmas Day. As he recently announced he will soon move from sunny California to East Tyrol.

Kurt Landsberger from New Jersey, USA turned 83 on the 28th of December. In the chess scene he is well known for his excellent publications on Wilhelm Steinitz, the first official chess world champion: William Steinitz, Chess Champion. A Biography of the Bohemian Caesar (1993 & 1995) and The Steinitz Papers. Letters and Documents of the First World Chess Champion (2002), both published by McFarland. You may read here a short biographical note: KurtLandsberger.htm.

Congratulations to all!