Credit: ebay.
Our long-time acquaintance and chess player, Itzhak Bar-Ziv, was already featured in this blog concerning both the chess olympiad and stamps (searching for "Bar Ziv" or similar terms will find the posts). We note now that he had told us he expanded his interest in chess stamps and is making a serious collection of it. We "made a date" to see it, hopefully some will be posted on this blog soon...
Source: Davar, 10 April 1953, p. 26 (Davar Ha'shavuah supplement)
The same correspondent as in the previous post noted that in 1953, a postal chess match was arranged between the Haifa's Youth Department's Chess Club in Israel, and Baltimore College's chess club in the USA. The article notes that each team has ten players, and that the (average?) age of the Israeli players is only 16.
The "Youth Department" was a government department which, at the time, took care of the interests of young Israelis, especially those who had to go to work to help with the family's finances. It was quite important at the time, with many new immigrants facing great economic hardship.
Source: Robert Leonard, Von Neumann, Morgenstern and the Creation of Game Theory, p. 9
Often, chess is credited with rather interesting developments in other fields. This is sometimes done by people who are not particularly good at chess, but it is interesting to note that it is also done by serious researchers, as in this case, about the history of von Neumann, the well-known mathematician. The author dedicates an entire chapter to the effect of chess on the intellectual scene of von Neumann's youth - 1920s Hungary - and credits it with much intellectual stimulation of Jews in Hungary in general and von Neumann in particular.
It is claimed that Emmanuel Lasker's Kampf (Struggle) - his philosophical thesis - was highly influential, indirectly, in developing game theory. Lasker attempted to generalize the struggles in the game of chess to decision-making in life, and used terms later used by game theorists - "domination" and "equilibrium" for example - to argue that, like chess, in life too the seemingly near-infinite number of possible strategies does not preclude finding out, by logical thinking, the best or at least the few reasonable strategies (Leonard, p. 13).
This, claims Leonard, raising the possibility - later examined by Zermelo, who knew Lasker - of a completely objective analysis of chess, for example, mathematically defining a "winning position" by looking at the existence of a set of future moves that allow the player to mate no matter what the opponent does (Leonard, p. 17). Zermelo's paper was the first time (1912) that winning in chess was defined purely formally. From there, claims Leonard, it is not surprising that the idea of a general game theory along similar formal, purely mathematical principles for life, not just for chess, would occur to von Neumann.
I am somewhat skeptical, not of Zermelo's pioneering work, which very likely influenced von Neumann, but whether Lasker's Kampf was of such great influence on Zermelo. After all, one need not read Lasker's philosophical works to know Lasker, be interested in chess, and attempt to describe it mathematically. I am not convinced that it was Lasker's Kampf that gave to Zermelo, or von Neumann, the idea of the possible analogy between chess and life that led to game theory.
Thanks to our correspondent Herbert Halsegger, we have noted in this blog before that there were two Jewish "Wolfs" in Vienna in the early part of this century: Alfred Emil Wolf and his father, Siegfried Reginald Wolf.
A while ago, Mr. Halegger notified us that S. R. Wolf was one of the "three wolves" of Vienna at the time. The WSZ (probably) noted, according to a German chess message board given to us by Mr. Halsegger, that the other two were Heinrich Wolf and the third was Siegfried August Wolf. They added (link in German) that, as Mr. Halsegger translated:
HEINRICH WOLF …..der „reißende“ Wolf……the „killing“ Wolf
SIEGFRIED REGINALD WOLF…..der „reisende“ Wolf….the „travelling“ Wolf
SIEGFRIED AUGUST WOLF…….der „reizende“ Wolf……the „lovely“ Wolf
Can anyone find the exact source of this quote?
Of the three, Heinrich Wolf was probably the strongest; among other achievements there is this very nice game, defeating Bardeleben. Tragically, Heinrich Wolf was a victim of the Holocaust, deported from Vienna in 1941 (if the link does not work, go to the main web page search and enter his name).
Mr. Halsegger now notifies us of another Jewish player with the same name: Mrs. Paula Kalmar-Wolf (link in German) who was one of the forgotten chess masters of the time, and Heinrich Wolf, her teacher (along with Reti!) and later, her second husband.
The three Wolfs, with S. R. Wolf's son and H. Wolf's wife, make five "Wolves", all strong Jewish players in Vienna at the same period.
