Persons celebrating an Anniversary in May 2006

It was on May Day that our only Finnish member Kimmo Välkesalmi celebrated his birthday, he is now 45 years young. For 19 years already he has been running his chess shop in Helsinki, regrettably he couldn’t join the recent meeting of our Nordic members.

By mentioning my own (55th) birthday which occurred two days later I only wish to do my duty as a columnist. (R.B.)

Joost Felkers (who joined the KWA in August 2005) is represented for the first time in our column, on May 5th his date of birth was 64 years ago. Our member from the Dutch town of Rijswijk is above all known to us as a collector.

Wesley "Ted" Brandhorst looked back on 73 years on May 9th; for other personal details we refer to our last year’s entry and the links included there.

Only one day later two further members were the next:
Our first greetings go to Bamberg where Lothar Schmid could enjoy his 78th birthday – hopefully in the best of health. His successes in and contributions to chess are common knowledge and well documented, so they will not listed here again. Those who wish to find out more may use the sources given or linked last year (May 2005) as well as the following web links which also illuminate some highlights of Lothar Schmid’s 78th year.

Web links on Lothar Schmid (mostly in German):

Chess friend and collector Michael Clapham from Ipswich (East Anglia) turned 55 too. At least we found a photo in our archives, it was taken in Brunswick on the occasion of the November auction 2002:

Michael Clapham (left) and Rolf Littorin
Michael Clapham (left) and Rolf Littorin

Postscript (2006-06-13):

We are pleased to welcome Govert Westerveld who joined quite recently our association and in addition celebrated his 59th birthday in his adopted country Spain on May 23rd. He sees himself as a man of research and he specialized in the evolution of draughts and chess in Spain (15th–16th century). Some time ago we shortly presented his book La reina Isabel la Católica: su reflejo en la dama  poderosa de Valencia, cuna del ajedrez moderno y origen del juego de damas (Valencia, 2004) in our "New Literature" column, further book projects are in preparation or still being planned, we will report on them in due course. Additionally we would like to refer to his websites (DRAUGHTS and José Antonio Garzón Roger)!

Congratulations to all!

PS: You will find all previous birthday greetings in our archives!