The 1932 Championship of Palestine -- High Hopes, Zionism, and other things

Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. Photo credit: Avy On Benefit  blog.

As we have seen before, there was no official chess tournament in the 1932 Maccabiah. However, there was supposed to be a championship of Palestine.

The indefatigable Moshe Roytman notes that on 24.2.1932, Doar Hayom published a note [link in Hebrew] similar to (but not the same as) the one later published in Davar on 31.3.1932 which we have already mentioned -- that promises the Levant Fair will include:

1). First of all (in the first paragraph), a tournament including 'ten of the best players in the country'.

2). Also, there will be a 'Palestine vs. foreign countries' match, (without naming who will be on the 'foreign countries' team); a blitz tournament; and finally (on the last day of the fair) simultaneous displays, promising in particular Marmorosh will play vs. 30.

Of all these high hopes, as we discussed before, it is not clear that anything, not even the "real" tournament, actually took place.

On the other hand, while these hopes were disappointed, at least those who came to see the first round of the championship on 9.4.1932 heard Tel Aviv's mayor, Meir Dizengoff, make an interesting speech, linking -- as was the custom of the time -- chess to Zionism. (reported in Davar 10.4.1932, again brought to my attention by Mr. Roytman). Dizengoff noted two similarities:

1). Chess is a symbol of free competition, and a place where every nation has the right to show its creativity and ability, which the Jewish nation is also demanding.

2). In chess, the simple pawn who goes up and climbs, with the goal of becoming a queen when he reaches 'the first rank' (sic). Thus, 'going up and climbing are the main thing' -- that is, emigrating to Palestine is the most important thing.

('Going up' [עליה] and 'climbing' [העפלה] are two Hebrew words for emigration of Jews in particular to Palestine or Israel, the latter usually signifying illegal emigration -- as opposed to emigration of people in general, which is 'hagira' [הגירה]).

This is, presumably, the first time -- and probably the last time -- anybody linked chess terms in particular to emigration.

Bombs

Italian bombing of Haifa, WWII. Credit: Wikipedia.  

How many chess players of significant strength were killed in wars? The death of numerous Jewish players in the holocaust is well known, but what about in actual acts of war? Vera Menchik, as is well known, was killed (with her sister, also a strong chess player, and her mother) in a V-1 bombing raid in 1944 (according to Wikipedia; some sources claim it was a V-2 attack). But are there other cases?

One example is given to me by Almog Burstein. The Jewish player Simon Weil, who played in the 1935 Maccabia, was killed in an Italian bombing raid on Haifa in WWII. Also, after the 1973 war, for example, the Israeli chess magazine had obituaries for chess players who were killed, although (appropriately) without explicitly noting how strong, or weak, they were. This blog had noted some cases of problemists or players who were killed in wars or in terrorist attacks, but are there other cases?

How to Build a World Champion

A reproduction of an old photo of Boris Gelfand by Uriel Cohen. Gelfand Sr.'s caption to a similar photo of the young Boris: "perhaps we shold have played differently?"

I hope I am not jinxing Boris Gelfand here by using the words "world champion", but this is the title (in Hebrew) given to an in-depth investigative report about his life recently published in Calcalist ["The Economist" in Hebrew], an Israeli business journal.

Even if you do not read Hebrew it is worth while visiting the site, for the list of photographs -- including Boris as a child, his living room, the notes of his daily life his father kept, and many others. (For a change, the interview really is in depth, about Gelfand's history, life, friends, trainers, philosophy, etc., and not the oft-repeated collection of cliches about "the genius chess player").  It turns his father trained him from childhood; that he knows the Polgars very well, in particular Sophie (Zsophia) Polgar, who is his neighbor for many years -- although they never played chess as neighbors, only table tennis. Ms. Polgar notes that Boris' father was using, in effect, her own father's methods for "raising geniuses", if more intuitively.

Chess in Palestine -- as seen From Britain, 1944

A chess friend from Munich alerted us to the existence of an article about the Lasker statue we have previously talked about in this blog in the British Chess Magazine, June 1944. Checking the Internet about the matter, it turns out that we have forgotten the indefatigable Edward Winter had already posted the article online, in Chess Notes 5052, as a reply to ... our own letter to him about the subject, which he published in Chess Notes 5035.

Nevertheless, it is worth noting this again, not because of the bust, but because of the quick and interesting  snapshot it gives of chess in Palestine at the time (click on the photograph for a larger view).

P. S.

Naturally, Weber and Rabinowitz [in the "Lasker statue" post] are the same persons as Veber and Rabinovich in the BCM. Foerder, as mentioned here many times, later changed his name to the Hebrew Porat. In general I prefer the "German" way of spelling ('w' instead of 'v' and 'tz' or 'tsch' instead of 'ch', for example -- that is, Nimzowitsch instead of "Nimzovich") in this blog, since usually it is eastern or central Europe where the players came from.

Chess Terms Misused, the Continuing Saga.

Credit: Ghost of a Flea blog. Your obedient servant often feels like the player with  the red pieces.

More evidence that not everybody plays chess is found in the definitions of this weekend's (24.2.2012) crossword puzzle in 7 Yamim ("7 Days"), Yediot Aharonot's ("Latest News") weekend section. Yediot Aharonot is Israel's largest daily newspaper.

The definition of "1 across" is "In chess: giving up pieces for positional advantage in the opening". Yes, they mean "gambit"-- which, incidentally, is the term used in Hebrew as well, the word having become an international one, like "Zugzwang" and similar chess-related words.

One is reminded of Edward Winter's article, Who was R. J. Buckley?, where he quotes Buckley's quip about one of his games with Bird: "The next game was a Muzio, in which we sacrificed several pieces, emerging with an excellent position, but no men."

Perhaps that's what the crossword writer meant. But I wouldn't bet on it.