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. 

More Memorial Problems

 

Source: Davar Ha'shavua, 3 February 1950, p. 20

A frequent correspondent points out another example of what, in Israel, is often the case: memorial problems which were composed in order to commemorate those who fell in war. Here is one example: a problem by Yosef Goldschmidt (a mate in three) in memory of Abraham Feldklein, who fell in the war of independence. 

Starting on the Right Foot

A frequent correspondent had send us an especially informative number of a chess column - Davar's column of July 23rd, 1954, p. 9, edited by Eliyahu Shahaf. It was the first column under this editor, after a hiatus, and indeed started with "game 1" and "problem 2" (the games and problems were numbered together). It contains:

1). A detailed report about the just-finished first year of the Israeli chess league, complete with a list of participants.

2). A game from the turnament - Itzchak Aloni ("Lasker" Tel Aviv") - Bereny (ph. spelling, Haifa).

3). A report on the selection of the 1954 Olympiad team, as well as the fund-raising efforts of masters to make the trip possible.

4). Yosef Goldschmidt winning a third prize in Chess's (the English periodical) international composition competition.

(This posting will be updated with more details.)

Memorials

Source: Al Ha'Mishmar, 22/1/1948, p/ 3 

In the above column, then edited by Eliyahu Feigin, Al Ha'Mishmar's chess columns noted the death of Avraham Feldklein in battle near Gan Yavneh in the Israeli War of Independence (1948). We have already commented on this note, but here we add the two problems in his memory: by Yosef Goldschmidt (using Gaige's spelling Yosef rather than Feigin's German-based Josef) and B. Hendel. 

The solutions were published on Feb. 12th (p. 3) of the same paper. No. 201: to avoid the "cook" 1.Nh6 the authors adds a black pawn on h7. Key: 1.Rxh7. No: 202: 1.Qf6 Nf7 2.Qd6+ Nxd6 3.Rc8+ Nxc8 4.Rh7! with four varieties of mate. 

Chess, Beer, and "In Memoriam" Walls

Image credit: Gdali Roizman

This photo of the memorial wall in Rishon Le'Tziyon Chess Club (link in Hebrew, with -- incidentally -- much history under the "history" tab on the web site) is interesting for many reasons. First, it has some of the historical figures we have met before, such as the problem composer Yosef Goldschmidt (bottom row, second from right) and the player Israel Dyner (top row, right), as well as two young men, Shlomo Zlil and Erez Levanon (bottom row, extreme left and second from left, respectively) in uniform, who were killed in their army service.

Mr. Roizman, who sent us this photo, points our another curiosity: Yitzhak Schwartz (second row, second from left), a founding member, was the head of the workers' union in a large local brewery. and that the club's first location was the workers' cafeteria on the brewery's grounds.

Problemists in the Jailhouse

Yehuda Weisberg
Source: Eliyahu Fasher's Ha'Problemai Ha'Israeli: Yesodot Ha'Kompositziya Ha'Sachmetait [The Israeli Problemist: the Basics of Chess Composition], Tel Aviv: Israeli Problemist Association, 1964, p. 47.

In Eliyahu Fasher's book we find the following letter from Weisberg, one of the earliest Israeli (or Palestinian) problemists, to Yechezkel Hillel, another problemist. Weisberg was arrested in 1946 by the British, who then ruled what was then the British Mandate of Palestine, presumably for being involved in actions having to do with the Jewish para-military groups at the time, such as the Haganah. (Weisberg was later killed in action in the 1948 war of independence in the battle in Ahsdot-Ya'akov). After his release he wrote (Fasher's book above, p. 48, my translation):

[T]he material sent to me by Yosef Goldschmidt [another Israeli problemist -- A.P.] and your notebooks arrived only in the last week of my arrest. The rest of the material I didn't receive yet. Your notebooks had nice problems and it's a pity it stayed "there"... I usually didn't use the time for composing and only composed two problems, one of them on the first day of my arrest in the car to the jailhouse... on the way back after my release we went through Rishon Le'tziyon and naturally I stopped and visited "Goldschmidt & co." [a group of problemists, headed by Goldschmidt, who lived in that town at the time, including Grisha Rivlin, Ben-tzion Handel, Meir Shatil and others -- Fasher.]

I doubt many other people would start their trip to a military prison composing a problem and end it with a visit to a problemists' hang-out... But this is not all. In the same letter Weisberg writes (Fasher, Ibid., p. 48):

I got a reply from Dawson (presumably Thomas Dawson, the British problemist and editor) and he will publish my problems.

Was there ever in history a case where a man received a note from a British editor that the editor would be glad to publish his problems... while sitting in jail as an enemy of the British Empire?