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).