Dr. Moritz Lewitt

 

Source: Weiner Shachzeitung, December 1907, p. 409

Our frequent correspondent Herbert Halsegger notifies us of his research finding about the Jewish player and composer Dr. Moritz Lewitt (link in German). His best rating was 2427 (Berlin, 1891). This rating would not be that high today, but, as Edward Winter notes in his (devastating) review of Warriors of the Mind, ratings favor the moderns, and in any case comparison between generations is at unreliable. At any rate he was strong enough to co-author a book with (fellow Jew) Mieses.

To all this Mr. Halsegger also adds the picture above, where Lewitt (no. 2) is standing next to the young Spielmann (no. 4). He was not a player in the tournament in question (the Jubilee tournament of the Berlin Chess Association) but, as the caption to the photo notes, as the chairman of the association. 

Yemenite Metalwork Set

 

Our frequent correspondent Terje Kristiansen had sent us photos of the following interesting chess set. It is, to the best of his collecting friend's knowledge, an example of Jewish Yemenite sculpturing in metal wire. They ask why the king and queen seem identical. 

It seems likely that the answer is one of two: either the set is for decoration so the exact replication of distinct pieces was less important, or the artist, presumably a Yemenite Jew from Israel and therefore likely an observant Jew, didn't want to sculpture the traditional cross on top of the king. 

Sylvester and Chess

 

James Joseph Sylvester. Credit: Wikipedia.

It is interesting to note that the famed mathematician Sylvester (1814-1897) was, first, Jewish, and - what is less known - a chess fan. We read in Eric Temple Bell's article, "Invariant Twins, Cayley and Sylvester" (The World of Mathematics, by James R. Newman (ed.), New York, Simon & Schuster: 1956, vol. 1, pp. 341-365), we read:

After his retirement from Woolwich Sylvester lived in London, versifying, reading the classics, playing chess, and enjoying himself generally, but not doing much mathematics.

Bell's comment does not imply Sylvester was a strong player, but at least it is known publicly that he played chess. Does anybody know more about this? It should be noted that a quick internet search found Sylvester's own address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1869) noting:

a very clever writer in a recent magazine article, expresses his doubts whether it is, in itself, a more serious pursuit, or more worthy of interesting an intellectual human being, than the study of chess problems or Chinese puzzles.

The rest of the lecture shows that Sylvester, unsurprisingly, consider mathematics much more important - as his audience also undoubtably did - but it is not clear whether he expects them to consider chess problems unimportant.  

Graves of Chess Masters: Arnold Schottländer

Credit: Wikipedia.

Our frequent correspondent, Herbert Halsegger, notes the following amusing article (in German) about the chess master Arnold Schottländer and his amusing game against "Gustav the Crusher," a coffee-house player, which ended in a nice queen sacrifice:

1...Qh1+ 2.Kxh1 2.Nxf2++ Kg1 3.Nh3#. 

Inter alia, the article has a photo of Schottländer's grave, with the statement, "his body was weak, but his spirit was strong."

Smyslov Jewish? Some Thoughts

 
Smyslov in 1977. Credit: Wikipedia.

In Genna Sosonko's Smyslov on the Couch, brought to my attention by Ilan Rubin and Terje Kristiansen, we read (pp. 30-31): 

I’ve always been received with the utmost respect, no matter where I’ve gone, be it Israel or the Arab world. I don’t get too worked up over those ethnic matters. One time, I got a call from the compilers of the Jewish Encyclopedia; they were putting together a list of famous Jews. They asked me the same question about my mother. I answered it the way I always do: ‘Seems like I have some Jewish blood, but I can’t say for sure.’ They said, ‘if you don’t know for sure, then we can’t include you on the list.’ Unlike Botvinnik, I have no reason to take pride in my heritage. But you know, Genna, none of this evser really interested me anyway.”

Let’s stop dwelling on the 7th world chess champion’s ethnic background. That isn’t the point. Neither is Boris Spassky sometimes calling him by and mispronouncing his patronymic, “Vasilievich, Vasilievich, what a smart Jewish mind you have!” when the two of them analyzed positions together. Nor is Smyslov asking Neishtadt: “Could you buy me two mezuzahs, Yakov? I don’t feel comfortable buying them myself,” when he went to Israel. Nor even is the fact that he looked like a biblical prophet, straight out of a Rembrandt painting, during the last few years of his life.

This all seems straightforward: Smyslov might have had some Jewish ancestry, as he himself acknowledged, but didn't consider himself Jewish, and wasn't particularly interested in the issue either way. Case closed. 

However, why would Smyslov, in that case, ask Neishtadt to buy him two mezuzahs? A mezuzhah - literally, "doorpost" - is a piece of parchment of certain sections of the Torah, put in a small cylindrical case, which Jews put on the doors of their houses. It would very likely not be bought by anyone who is not Jewish or perhaps wants to give it to close Jewish relatives. A mezuzah would be perfectly useless for a non-Jew and would not be bought just because one has Jewish ancestry. It is also by no means a typical souvenir or gift one would buy on a visit to the holy land. Therefore, if someone is buying a mezuzah, let alone two, it is likely they either consider themselves Jewish - or have close Jewish friends or relatives - and want to fix a mezuzah in their door. 

Is this absolute proof Smyslov was, so to speak, more Jewish than he admitted to publicly? No: if nothing else, Smyslov might have been buying the mezuzahs at the request of Jewish friends back home who were not related to him. But it should also be noted, in favor of the claim that Smyslov was Jewish that, unlike Sosonko's other examples - all of which are examples of other people claiming Smyslov is Jewish, or asking if he is - here we have Smyslov himself acting in a "Jewish" way. 

More on Alekhine's Reasons for Cancelling his Planned Palestine Visit

 

Alexander Alekhine. Credit: Wikipedia.

It is known that Alekhine had planned to visit Palestine in his world tour of 1931/2, as noted for example here, to give only a post from this blog. Now, Terje Kristiansen notifies me that Sergey Voronkov had notified him that the complete details why Alekhine cancelled his visit to Palestine (and some other places) were given by Alekhine himself upon his return to Paris, as noted in the Poslednie Novosti of 4 July 1933: 

It was terribly hot in the Dutch Indies. I stayed there for three weeks and gave 12 exhibitions. Long journeys on stuffy, dirty trains. And it was this, not the playing, that tired me. Worse, I learned something I'd never experienced before. I completely lost sleep. Java and Sumatra had left me in such a state that the doctor who examined me demanded that I interrupt my tour and, above all, rest. “I did just that, and although I stopped in Colombo, Bombay, Egypt, it was as a tourist, without playing anywhere…”

This, and the fact that Alekhine cancelled not just his Palestine stop but others as well, is some evidence that Alekhine was not an ideological antisemite, at least not during that time. 

Indeed, Johannes Fischer suggests - based on the extensive work of Christian Rohrer - that one of Alekhine's major motivations to cooperate with the Nazis is to retain his position at the top of the chess world. In particular, Rohrer notes that Alekhine was also a member of the Freemasons, in fact a member of the same Paris lodge as Ossip Bernstein. It goes without saying that both the Jews (like Bernstein) and the Freemasons were deeply hated by the Nazis. 

When the evidence is so conflicting, one should do well to follow Edward Winter's advice, quoted in "Was Alekhine a Nazi?" that "a good historian knows when to be a waverer." Still, on balance I (tentatively) agree with Rohrer. 

Jews vs. Russians

Source: Jewish Western Bulletin, 4 January 1946

Our correspondent Terje Kristiansen notes the following Facebook post from the Jewish Chess Encyclopedia page, by Jorge Njegovic Drndak. Mr. Kristiansen notes that it is a defeat of a Russian team - that of Russian naval officers visiting Vancouver, that is! 

Chess Still Life, Palestine, 1930s

 

Source: here.

Our frequent correspondent, Herbert Halsegger, notifies us of the Jewish photographer, Herbert Sonnenfeld (1906-1972), who photographed many Jewish subjects in his career, ranging from Germany to Palestine to New York. Here is a still life of chess pieces, taken according to source in "Palestine, between 1933 to 1938," presumably the dates in which Sonnenfeld was in Palestine, after leaving Germany and before coming to New York. It is a rare case of chess as a subject of an artistic photograph during this time in Palestine. 

Smart but Ugly Jews

 

Richard Réti. Credit: wikipedia.

Edward Winter just noted, in CN #12212, that Réti’s obituary in the Evening Standard (all exact details in the link to Chess Notes) included describing him as "a very ugly man, but with very luminous eyes." Winter rightly describes decrying a player's looks as "bad form." 

I add that Winter's own article about Olga Capablanca Clark has her noting her husband's relationship with a Jewish friend in the following words: "Mr Fliegelman, we called him Fligu, was perhaps Capa’s most intimate friend, and probably Capa’s favorite one, for he was indeed completely devoted to Capa. Fligu was a typical Russian Jew, rather ungoodlooking but possessing tremendous charm, and it was impossible not to like him."

I suggest that in the case of both Réti and of Fliegelman, the authors were influenced, perhaps unconsciously, by the old stereotype about Jews being ugly and cunning, a stereotype that goes back to the Middle Ages. In both these cases, the stereotype appears in a mild form: the intelligence or charm of the Jewish person is seen, not as a sign of dishonestly, but rather as a compensation for their outward looks! 

This goes to show how deeply stereotypes can be embedded in society. Even when the intention is simply to describe or even compliment the Jewish person, and, if anything, to caution against judging a person by their outward looks, the stereotype of the "smart but ugly" Jews is to be found. 

Apparently, not that Important

Source: Davar, 14 October 1949, p. 8

When the Palestine Chess Federation officially became the Israel Chess Federation, this was noted in several papers - usually without much publicity, as noted here. A frequent correspondent also noted that another paper, Davar, published a similar notice - literally a one-sentence note, at the end of report about a chess tournament: "on Saturday the founding meeting of the Israel Chess Federation." It is surrounded by similar notices about, for example, a "friendly soccer match," the opening hours of medical clinics, etc. 

New Book:

Source: here.

Mr. Herbert Halsegger had notified us of a new book - about Jewish Chess Players from Germany by Ulrich Geilmann. Of special interest is that these players, as seen from the table of context, also include Porat! 

Jews in Sweden, 1945

Source: here.

Mr. Philip Jurgens had sent us the link to two photographs of Jewish refugees playing chess after the war. The second photo - obviously photographed in the same room with some of the same people - is here. Both are found in the digital collection of the Kalmar läns museum. 

Mr. Jurgens' translation of the text in the links tells us about the harrowing situation of the refugees who arrived in Kalmar:

The ship Prins Carl came to Kalmar three times in the summer of 1945 with prisoners from a British interim camp in Lübeck. The former prisoners, most of them Polish Jews and resistance fighters, were housed at Söderportskolan. Those who were deemed to have typhus or TB were accommodated at the Epidemic Hospital on Lindö. Since it was the most seriously ill who came to Kalmar - one woman weighed only 28 kg on arrival, two months after the end of the war - about fifty died. Two were dead on arrival in Kalmar, the rest died during their stay here. These are buried in two common graves. The Jews were laid to rest in the Jewish cemetery in Kalmar, while the Christians, mostly Polish resistance fighters, are buried in the Northern Cemetery. Most of those who survived the hospitalization left Sweden in 1946. Some went to the USA, some returned home. A few remained in Sweden. The dead are commemorated by memorial monuments; one in the Northern Cemetery, one in the Mosaic Cemetery. Some of the survivors have become involved in the fight against Nazism, spreading testimony about the atrocity.

Cosmonauts, Prisoners, and Chess

Source: Chess Life, vol. 19 no. 11, p. 281.

Another item from Mr. Herbert Halsegger, this time - cosmonauts and prisoners both play chess - not against each other, unfortunately - and the prisoners even win their match. 

Henry Wittenberg, from Chess to Swimming to Wrestling

Source: Southern Jewish Weekly, 25 August 1950, p. 6.

The above cutting - from here - was provided to us by Herbert Halsegger. It notes an interesting example of a Jewish sportsman, Henry Wittenberg, who started as a chess player... moved to swimming... and from there to wrestling. While Wittenberg's chess achievements don't seem to go beyond being an amateur player in high school (the text implies that he was not strong enough to make the team at city college, still less in a stronger field), it is interesting that he moved on to, of all sports, wrestling. In particular, he participated in the Maccabiah. 

Fischer not Playing in Tel Aviv, 1964

 

Source Chess Life, vol. 19 no. 9, p. 214

Our frequent correspondent, Herbert Halsegger, had recently sent us a significant number of interesting information relating to chess in Israel. One is above: a detailed discussion of Fischer's famous refusal to play in the Olympiad in 1964.  

Who Says there are no New Chess Clubs?

 

Above are two quick snapshots I made of a chess club which just opened as part of a new youth education center in Herzliya. It is on the second floor of the building, as the Hebrew sign notes, and the entrance also has a large, open-air chess board near the entrance. 

Does anybody ever have pieces of the correct size, or ever plays, on these "boards," or are they just there for decoration?  

The Dangers of Machine Translation

A colleague of mine is researching the life of the Zvi (ne Henryk) Kahane, 1906-1983. He was a strong player (a candidate master) in Israel in the 1950s to 1970s as well as a composer of problems. For consistency's sake, I use in the blog Gaige's preferred spelling "Kahana", although this does not mean "Kahane" is wrong (it is just a variant spelling). 

Not speaking Hebrew, he sent me the Hebrew sources as well as - for my edification - the machine-translated version of what they said for comments. I emphasize that my colleague does not rely on the machine translation to be accurate but only to give a general idea of what the Hebrew text is about - and for good reason. Here, is for example, the "translation" given to an article in La'merchav, 27 October 1957, p. 1, with my corrections in red: 

The same machine translation also helpfully decided to auto-translate Al Ha'mishmar ("On the Guard") as both "On the Impaler" and "On the Improver." I suppose that's one way to encourage people to improve in chess. 

Chess and the Jewish Refugee Camp in Landsberg

We have already noted in this blog Siegfried Schoenle's book about the chess activities in the Landsberg refugee camp, on February 25th. In particular we noted there is a German language review of the book by Konrad Reiss. Terje Kristiansen now notifies us than an (AI-generated) English translation of the article here (from which the book's cover's photo is taken). 

Science Fiction and Chess - Once More

Source: here.

We often noted in this blog the relationship between chess and science fiction. We note here another blog post of many such books, from the "science fiction" side - that is, a science fiction web site that has a post about science fiction books and chess (one is reminded of Nabokov's Pnin, where there is a fight between a historian of philosophy and a philosopher of history...). 

Above, I add another book that is not in the list given by the science fiction web site: Gerard Klein's Starmasters' Gambit. Klein, I add, is a well-known French writer many of whose work, says the Science Fiction Encyclopedia, features "an imagery and even a structure influenced by chess." 

It should be noted that sometimes - although by no means always - the alleged "chess" in the science fiction book is a mere plot device, where (for example) a "genius" who learned the game a week ago somehow manages to checkmate (in five moves or so) an unbeatable computer in a game on which hangs the fate of humanity. One such example is Barry Malzberg's Tactics of Conquest, witheringly reviewed by Edward Winter in Chess Notes 5355. 

Photos of Ephraim Kishon Playing Chess

Source: Kishon's memorial web page

Despite his love of the game, there don't seem to be many photos of Ephraim Kishon playing chess, except occasionally in simultaneous displays or the like (as opposed to tournament games). In particular, two black and white photos of him doing so are found on his memorial web site (link above). The same site also has a note about his chess computer, the talking chesster. There was also a chess set in his office, as seen in, for example, the following detail from the photo of his office on the Hebrew wikipedia web page about him: 

Above the chess set, by the way, is a framed death notice lamenting the death of Stalin, which the pro-USSR Israeli party, Mapam, published at the time. Another example is on his official web page (in the Hebrew version):

Ephraim Kishon and Chess II

 

Credit: Tel Aviv Municipal Government

Ephraim Kishon was a chess player, and his life was in fact saved by chess, as we saw before in this blog. It is therefore only fitting that a memorial for 100 years for his birth was arranged last year in - the Chess House in Tel Aviv, in Tagore St., Tel Aviv, by the Tel Aviv municipal government. 

Boris Spassky, 1937-2025

 

Gligoric (l.) vs. Spassky, 1965. Source: see below.

Boris Spassky was the 10th chess world champion. He was also, simply put, a gentleman. He was always generous and gallant. In particular, his willingness to continue the match with Fischer in 1972 after Fischer lost the first game and forfeited the second was one reason the match was not aborted. Edward Winter had updated his web page about Spassky with a link to an "exceptionally fine" obituary by Leonard Barden, from which this photo is taken. Needless to say, Winter's web page is intended merely as a sampler of the great amount of material in Chess Notes about the 10th world champion. 

Almost all the obituaries note that Spassky was, even more than a chess player, a gentleman: generous to other players, including his opponents. To give only examples from Winter's page noted above, Spassky was very generous towards Fischer, pointed out Keres as a "particularly kind and gentlemanly colleague," and his evaluation of Petrosian was higher than that of some other masters, notably Botvinnik, to say nothing of the chess public which often belittled Petrosian (see also Winter's page about Petrosian for more details.) 

It is a bit odd to speak in this way of a world champion, but it seems that in the popular perception among the rank-and-file players, Tal and Fischer - due to their aggressive and perhaps more accessible style - are seen as superior to the "loser" (to Fischer) Spassky and "weak" Petrosian. As if Spassky's 1972 match was the whole of his career, or Petrosian is to be faulted, as Winter notes, for not playing in Tal's style. But in the case of one of the truly great players, like Spassky, I am certain history will remember him more kindly than the often-jingoistic press and potboilers falsely portrayed him.

Interestingly, it was claimed that Spassky is Jewish - but as the Jewish News Syndicate reports, Spassky himself denied this and was "mystified" how this rumor was circulated. It should be noted that, as the same source notes, Spassky rather foolishly signed an infamous 2005 antisemitic petition, but he distanced himself from it almost immediately.

Spassky was in Israel for the 1964 Olympiad. He was occasionally mentioned in this blog (check "Spassky" in the subject list for details). The chess world lost not just a legendary player, but a gentleman. 

"The First Jewish Chess Olympiad"

Source: here.

The above was the iformal title given to the tournament of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, given in the above book by Singfried Schoenle, which is reviewed here (in German). While this title may be slightly inaccurate, the motivation for so naming the tournament in 1946 is undestandable. The organizer of the tournament, Nathan Markowsky, was a strong player and the stepfather of the famous surrealist artist Samuel Bak, who due to him survived the Holocaust as a child. This partially explains Bak's fascination with chess in his drawings. We thank Herbert Halsegger for notifying us of this interesting book. 

Yosef Goldschmidt

 

Source: Al Ha'mishmar, 15 October 1971, p. 10

Igor Beridchevsky reminds us in a Facebook post that Yosef Goldschmidt was born on February 13th, 1897, and diced on 31 January, 1973. He was, notes Berdichevsky, one of the "founders of Israeli problemist activity" and that Eliahu Fasher published a book in his honor with over 300 of his problems. In fact, Fasher went further: he dedicated his book The Israeli Problemist to Goldschmidt, as well. 

Fasher adds in The Israeli Problemist (p. 66) that Goldschmidt was the editor of Al Ha'mishmar's chess column since 1953 (above, an example from 1971). Fasher adds some more personal details: Goldschmidt lost an eye in the German army in the First World War, was a Zionist pioneer (came to Palestine in 1920), and for years worked in the Nesher beer facory as a security guard. Fasher also notes Goldschmidt was indeed one of the most active Israeli problemists, with worldwide recognition, winning over 40 prizes for over 250 problems. 

Chess-Themed Unit Symbols

Photo: A. P.

Another rarer example of chess in the IDF is when unit symbols have a chess theme. Here, a certain unit has a "black knight" themed patch. It is, in this photo, worn by a major in the said unit on his uniform. 

Chess pieces, while not common, are not unheard of as part of a unit's insignia. Engineering units sometimes have a chess rook (or at least, an old turret that looks similar to the Staunton chess rook) as an emblem. Another example of a knight in the insignia is that of the US Army Psychological Operations.

Von Weisel and the "Graf Zeppelin"

 

Source: Neue Freie Presse, 26 March 1929

We have occasionally mentioned von Weisl in this blog. Mr. Herbert Halsegger notified us of the particular issue of the Neue Freie Presse in which he reported on the trip on many pages, with the above being the headline of the entire paper that day. 

In particular, Mr. Halsegger notes that Abul Fath (or Abu al-Fath, in the English spelling), an Egyptian journalist who was also on the flight, played in the tournament organized on the Zeppelin which was organized by Badt and won it, as the Weiner Schach-Zeitung reported (vol. 7 no. 7 [April 1929], p. 107). 

This seems to conflict with von Weisel's report in the Neue Freie Presse that the tournament ended with the victory of Dr. von Guerard, in particular after defeating "the members of the press" - i.e., von Weisl and al-Fath. 

Acoustics and Sportsmanship

Source: Shachmat, No. 3 vol. 3 (October 1964), p. 31.

The above is part of the reports by Eliahu Shahaf on the Tel Aviv Championship of 1964, given here without further comment.

Crowning or Reincarnation?

Source: Shachmat, vol. 2 nos. 11-12 (June-July 1964), p. 29.

We have often noted in this blog the issue the matter of chess terms in Hebrew (see. e.g., "chess terms" or Shaul Hon's obituary.) One issue was how to translated "promotion". The committee by H. N. Biyalik in 1932 for Hebrew chess terms preferred gilgul, "reincarnation," while Shaul Hon later suggested hachtara, "crowning." (See "Minuach Ivri Be’shachmat" [Hebrew Terminology in Chess], Shachmat, vol. 2 no. 8 (March 1964), pp. 3-4, 3.) 

The above is a a reply to Hon, arguing for gilgul instead of hachtara, in the end of the problems section (pp. 23-29) of the June-July issue: 

A terminological point: the reader surely noted that we used here the term "reincarnation" and not "crowning" as Shaul Hon suggests... we problem composers believe that one can crown a pawn into a queen, but not to a rook, bishop or knight, since promotion to the officer's rank [i.e., from pawn to piece - A. P.] does not require a royal act like crowning. The term "crowning" comes, apparently, from the prejudice of "pure" players for whom every pawn on the seventh rank is a potential queen and any other reincarnation is unmentionable! In the world of composition, such "forbidden" reincarnations are a matter of course. 

The term "reincarnation" - as opposed to some other term like a literal translation of "promotion" (kidum) - probably occurred to Biyalik since he looked at the pawn as if it "died" and was "reborn" as a new piece. Perhaps the terms also harks back to the fact that the promoted piece is usually also one which was previously "killed" (i.e., captured).  

Chess in War

Photo: A. P.

Now that the (latest) war in the Middle East seems to be over, I post one example of what soldiers in all of Israel's wars had done - as well as in the pre-state mandatory Palestine. Here are two soldiers during a pause in the fighting - playing chess. 

Swedish Chess

 

Photo Credit: Wikipedia in Hebrew.

In many countries, playing blitz in pairs - where a piece captured by one person is passed to the partner, and can be put in their own board instead of a move - is popular at the club level. It is known as "bughouse" in the USA. In Israel, for some reason, it is known as Shachmat Schvedi - "Swedish Chess." Doron Cogan asks if anyone knows what reason, if any, is there to connect Sweden to this chess variant. 

It should be noted that the English-language Wikipedia web page for "bughouse chess" has a reference to what seems to be the only chess book about it - Bughouse Chess by George von Zimmerman - with the quote from the book (p. 186) saying:  

Other less common names for bughouse include Team chess, Hungarian chess, Swedish chess, New England Double bughouse, Pass-On chess, Tandem Put-Back, Double Speed, Double chess, Double Five, Simultaneous chess, Double bug or Double bughouse.

Some of the names are descriptive. "Bughouse" itself presumably refers to the fact that the games tend to be rather frantic in nature. "Swedish chess" is included, but - not owning the book - I do not know why. 

 

Chess from the Beginner's Point of View

 

Source: see below.

What happens when a man is a good writer and scholar, but a self-admitted beginner in chess? Most chess players would say that his insights about the game and life would not be worth much. But this is not necessarily true. As Ludwig Wittgenstein pointed out, the weak players plays chess just as much as the strong one. Mychal Denzel Smith, a low-rated beginner, writes in an interesting essay about what chess means to him (the illustration is taken, as an example, from the many illustrations in the essay, by Peter Oumanski). 

Smith shares with us that scholars' mate is not good chess, that pawns are important, that using the queen to threaten the opponent without developing one's pieces is no good, and so on. He makes, however, no pretenses that he is teaching experienced players something new; rather, he is describing his own process of learning the basics. The essay is best in its examples of interesting facts - for example, that the "scholar's mate" really meant (when the term was first coined) "student's mate" in the sense of young students, and in other languages is it know as "school mate" or "shoemaker's mate" (as in Hebrew). I.e., "scholar" here was a term of derision, not praise. 

Perhaps due to the very fact that he is a beginning and looks afresh at chess, he avoids the old cliches. Chess is not, for him, a status symbol, something to be taken up as a matter of showing one is intelligent. It is - what is often forgotten - fun, a game, and a skill to be mastered. While the author seems (like many scholars nowadays, alas) to be rather obsessed with class/race/social differences, he correctly points out among other interesting things how chess, like other supposedly "highbrow" activities - opera for example - is not only for intellectuals but can be known on a high level by all.