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. 

"A Lousy Book"

Looking for other material, we have by chance found a scathing review of a book by... von Weisl, which we have met here before, published with Asad Bey [ph. spelling] in Germany. The review, by Wolfgang Jungerau [ph. spelling]. The review appeared in Davar on p. 8 of the literary supplement on August 27th, 1938. 

The book is Allah is Great - a popular book about Islamic history. The reviewer notes the book has little that is new, and in fact suspects the book was mostly cribbed from previous popular histories. 'The opening is pathetic, it continues as in a bad movie, and ends with a cheap romantic conclusion.'  The reviewer notes that the book was also published in French, this time only with Bey's name. 'Did Weisel regret the joint effort and wished his name removed?' 

Ouch. 

Chess on the "Zeppelin", Palestine, 1929

Reuven Rubin, The Zeppelin in Tel Aviv, Purim 1929. Source: Ilan Schori, 'When the Zeppelin Arrived in Tel Aviv' [in Hebrew]

Our frequent corespondent Moshe Roytman notifies us that, when the Zeppelin flew to Palestine in 1929 (it did it again in 1931), one of the passengers, von Weisl, there as the special correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse, organized an "international chess club" on the flight -- and the "first chess tournament in the air", as the source (above, in Hebrew) notes, quoting from his article to the newspaper (published on the first page, March 26th, 1929) . Of particular interest is that one of the members was an Egyptian, Al-Fath [ph. spelling]. Two games are mentioned: Bate having defeated Kaye [ph. spelling in both cases], and playing with Al-Fath. Von Weisel adds that Mrs. Tony Zander [ph. spelling] demanded to be a "kibitzer" in the four-board "club", but was denied because she doesn't know to play chess.

Von Weisl and Chess

Binyamin Ze'ev von Weisl [credit: wikipedia]

Von Weisl was known as the "Jewish Lawrence of Arabia". His fascinating life included also a reference to chess. In an article in Doar Hayom on July 18th, 1927 -- long link in Hebrew is well worth reading -- he notes that he played chess with Abdullah of Jordan in 1924, and had also played chess in the "Sassinid  court in Mt. Assir [in Yemen]", through the invitation of no other than Jamal Pesha, then serving as a vizir [chief counsel, prime minister] in Yemen after leaving Amman. Pesha was taught chess by Abdullah and established, says Weisl, a small chess circle in the Yemenite court, where he taught a few ministers as well the crown prince.

After Weisl deliberately lost to the crown prince, the latter started telling Pesha how, despite being his student, he clearly is now a better player then him, and started kibitzing his game with Weisl. When alone, Pesha told Weisl sadly: "Poor Arabia, poor princes -- they never hear a word of criticism, being considered rules by the holy will of Allah, and thus their self-esteem and lack of judgment is like madness, making them unfit to rule."