Graphic Design

 

Persitz and Keniazer's Ha'derech Le'nizachon Be'sachmat [The Way to Chess Victory]. Credit: Yakov Zusmanovich.

Van Amerongen's 133 Malcodot Ba'ptichot [133 Opening Traps]. A. P.'s photo.

 

Van Amerongen's 222 Tachbulot [222 Combinations]. A. P.'s photo.

Above are covers of three chess books printed in Israel, respectively, in 1959 (Ha'derech Le'nizahor Be'sachmat), 1973 (133 Malcodot Ba'ptichot, 2nd edition) and 1963 (222 Tachbulot, 1st edition.) The publication dates and more information are found in the links above. 

It is obvious that the same graphic design cover was used in all three books, and indeed, a similar shade of green was used in the 1959 and 1974 books. Are there other similar cases of unrelated chess books - not even, in this case, all from the same author - using the exact same graphic design? 

Israel Zilber

Roman Dzindzichashvili as Israel's champion, 1978. Source: Shachmat vol. 17 nos. 6-7 (June-July 1978), front cover. 

We already mentioned in this blog the case of Soviet Bloc Jews who came to Israel and, from there, moved to the USA. We mentioned in particular Jacob Yuchtman. Another, more famous, player who did the same was Roman Dzindzichashvili. A third, tragic, case is that of Israel Zilber. 

In Fred Waitzkin's Searching for Bobby Fischer, Zilber (pp. 21-22 of the 1993 Penguin edition) was known as the "sheriff" (due to his odd clothes) and lived as a homeless man in Washington Square Park. Waitzkin notes Zilber had beaten Tal "who would soon become world champion" in a famous game - probably in the Latvian championship, 1958. (Tal became world champion in 1960.) Zilber also beat Tal in the 1952 Latvian championship and lost to him in the 1953 one. 

Presumably, these are the games that Zilber meant when he said that he had beaten Tal "two out of three times" (Waitzkin, ibid, p. 22.) Zilber and Tal played other games. Two are given by Hanon Russell in "The World's Chess Archives" (Chess Life, August 1998, pp. 48-52, 55-56). Russell presents a win by Zilber in 1949, and a loss in 1950, both in youth events. Tal was 13 in 1949, Zilber 16. 

An international master, Zilber was the strongest player in the park - until Dzindzichashvili arrived, when, no longer being to be the strongest player in the park, he moved to a smaller one (Waitzkin, ibid, pp. 173-174). In Israel, Zilber had played in the 1978 Israel championship, ending in 4th place - a tournament his later "nemesis," Dzindzichashvili, had won. 

Zilber, from Waitzkin's commentary, was mentally ill, suffering from hallucinations and showing odd behavior. Perhaps he even froze to death as a homeless man in New York in the 1980s - although this is an "unconfirmed report," like other stories about Zilber. Unsurprisingly, it is difficult to find reliable information concerning Zilber's life since the 1980s. 

Austrian Refugees in Switzerland

Source: see link below.

Mr. Herbert Halsegger notified us of a 1938 video of presumably Jewish Austrian refugees in Switzerland, where they are seen, among other things (at the 06:30 mark) playing chess.

Postcard from Oren to Barav

 
Credit: Prof. Ami Barav

Prof. Barav presented us with the following postcard, to his father (Israel Rabinovich-Barav) from Menachem Oren, with the signatures of the Soviet team in the Amsterdam Olympiad. 

The signatures, as identified by Mr. Kosimov, are:

1. Botvinnik

2. Smyslov

3. Bronstein

4. Kotov

5. Keres

One of the signatures in black, just below Smyslov's, is that of Igor Bondarevsky. The other member of the Soviet team not represented here is Geller. 

A Chess Set Made in Hiding

 

Source: Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

Mr. Herbert Halsegger notifies us of a new exhibit in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews: a chess set made in hiding by Pola Najder during the war. The details are in the link above. 

A Good Photo of the Soviet Team, Amsterdam 1954

 
Credit: see below

Prof. Ami Barav notifies us of the following good photograph of the soviet team, Amsterdam, 1954. From right to left: Bronovski (administrator, holding the cup), Botvinnik, Keres, Bronstein, Smyslov, Geller, Kotov. 

Chess Poem

 

Source: see below

The same book mentioned in the previous post, Eliahu Shahaf's Israel Chess Championship 1961/62, also has a chess poem by H. Ben Shlomo on p. 104. The readers of this blog have done nothing to deserve a translation of this poem, although, to judge by the scenes described, it is not a poem about this tournament, but about the Amsterdam Olympiad, 1954. 

The poem mentions in particular the game Botvinnik - Porat and the international scene, and the claim that the whole Olympiad was really an "internal Jewish battle," despite the various flags, due to the large number of Jews on the leading teams. The poem ends with the claim that the prize "stayed in the family": that is, with the USSR team, three of whose players (Botvinnik, Bronstein and Geller) were Jews. Perhaps the author believed that Smyslov was also Jewish.

Chess Advertisements, Continued

 

Source: see below

Advertisements in old chess books - using a chess theme, of course - are quite common. Here is one, from the inner back cover of Eliahu Shahaf's (editor), Alifut Israel Be'shachmat 1961/2 (Tel Aviv: Mofet, 1962). It is an advertisement for the Egged bus company: "The right move - a trip in Egged." 

The book has quite a few advertisements, in both Hebrew and English. A large majority of the advertisements, for some reason, were for banks or insurance companies.

Photos

Itzchak Aloni

Yosef Porat

Menachem Oren

Eliahu A. Mandelbaum

Israel Yosef Keniazer

Yosef Dobkin

Moshe Czerniak

Shlomo Smiltiner

Source: see below

Sometimes, it is good to remember that chess players are also people, and to find photos of how they looked - or at least, how they looked to the public. Above are photos of the Israeli players of the 1952, 1954, and 1956 Olympiads as given in Mandelbaum and Perstiz's Israel Be'olympiadot Ha'shachmat [Israel in the Chess Olympiads] (Tel Aviv: Mofet, May 1958). They all seem - to judge by the sets and clocks - from the olympiads in which they participated, but this is tentative. 

Photos are, respectively, from the following pages:

Aloni - 90; Porat - 93; Oren - 89; Mandelbaum - 92; Keniazer - 95; Dobkin - 91; Czerniak - 94; Smiltiner - 92. 

Why this order? The photos are from a section of endings they played, and are arranged by the Hebrew alphabetical order, with Oren first and Keniazer last.