{"id":300,"date":"2014-06-09T10:52:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T10:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mytwostotinki.com\/?p=300"},"modified":"2015-05-30T05:59:41","modified_gmt":"2015-05-30T05:59:41","slug":"history-of-the-great-game-of-chess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mytwostotinki.com\/?p=300","title":{"rendered":"History of the Great Game of Chess"},"content":{"rendered":"

As an avid reader and also chess player, I think it is fairly obvious that I am also a reader (and collector) of chess literature. Although a lot of the chess books I am reading are way too technical to review them here, I will make an exception today. The book I am reviewing is dealing with a certain aspect of the history of chess that might be interesting for a wider audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nansen Arie, the author of \u0418\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0438\u044f \u043d\u0430 \u0432\u0435\u043b\u0438\u043a\u0430\u0442\u0430 \u0448\u0430\u0445\u043c\u0430\u0442\u043d\u0430 \u0438\u0433\u0440\u0430<\/em> (History of the Great Game of Chess), is a dilettante \u2013 and I mean this expression not in an offensive sense. Arie has so far no record as a chess historian, nor is he a strong player. The author is a cardiologist and a lover of the game of chess since his childhood. Another history of chess I hear a few readers sigh\u2026but this book is different and the subtitle explains us why: the contribution of the Jews to chess (\u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u043e\u0441\u044a\u0442 \u043d\u0430 \u0448\u0430\u0445\u043c\u0430\u0442\u0438\u0441\u0442\u0438 \u0435\u0432\u0440\u0435\u0438) is the author\u2019s topic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the beginning of modern tournament chess in 1851 and until today, a big percentage of the leading players \u2013 including the world champions Steinitz, Lasker, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Spassky, Fischer (who developed mysteriously into an extreme anti-semite), Khalifman, Kasparov but also leading masters like Zukertort, Tarrasch, Charousek, Rubinstein, Bernstein, Nimzovich, Tartakower, Reti, Flohr, Fine, Reshevsky, Szabo, Lilienthal, Najdorf, Boleslavski, Averbach, Geller, Taimanov, Stein, Korchnoi,\u00a0Speelman, Gelfand, Judit Polgar, Radjabov and many others were or are Jews or of Jewish origin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Arie starts his work with an introduction that gives a short overview and that also mentions anti-semitism in chess: the influential chess writer Franz Gutmayer published a number of popular pamphlets in the early 20th<\/sup> century that denounced the playing style of Jewish players as decadent and \u201csick\u201d \u2013 contrary to the \u201chealthy\u201d (Aryan) attacking style of Gutmayer\u2019s disciples. And the world champion Alexander Alekhine published during WWII a series of articles called \u201c\u201eJ\u00fcdisches und arisches Schac<\/em>h\u201d (Jewish and Aryan chess) in which he was attacking players like Lasker (whom he publicly admired on many\u00a0occasions before) in a way that is not worthy of a chess genius. (After the war Alekhine disputed\u00a0the authorship of these articles.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the first chapter, the author gives an overview regarding the main chess events before the establishment of a regular world championship, highlighting the successes of Jewish players and providing very brief biographical notes on them. The second part covers the World Championship matches, the third the Chess Olympiads. Part four covers chess in the USSR, part five the big international tournaments, part six the matches USSR vs. \u201cRest of the World\u201d, part seven (somehow inconsistently) the \u201ctraditional\u201d chess tournaments (like Hastings). A short chapter on Bulgaria would have been interesting and reasonable (the author is Bulgarian and writes primarily for a Bulgarian audience).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Arie has written a work with the love and industriousness of the amateur. Who wants to learn about the remarkable success of Jewish chess players has in this work all necessary information.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, I have to admit that this work left me disappointed for various reasons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The book contains no games at all. A book that wants to explore the successes of Jewish chess players should at least give some remarkable examples of their play and do some effort to explain, why there was such an explosion of Jewish players from 1850 until today, and what the social, historical or psychological reasons behind this development were. Dr. Arie is making no serious attempt to explain this rise of the Jewish element in chess.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A second big disappointment is the lack of a literature list. The author doesn\u2019t mention any sources although it is obvious that he is heavily indebted to the literature on the history of chess. There is no mentioning of Moritz Steinschneider’s classical study “Schach bei den Juden<\/em>” (1873), no mentioning of Emanuel Lasker’s writings on philosophy or the Jewish question, no mentioning of the Makkabi chess clubs in many countries. Edward Winter’s article “Chess and Jews<\/em>” on chesshistory.org is also not mentioned, dito Felix Berkovich’s and Nathan Divinsky’s\u00a0“Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps<\/em>“, or Meir and Harold Ribalow’s “The Great Jewish Chess Champions<\/em>“.\u00a0There is even no mentioning of the sources of the photos in the book. I don\u2019t know if this is the author\u2019s or the publisher\u2019s fault, but it is a lack of diligence and respect for the intellectual efforts of others when these sources are generally repressed and omitted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This work is written in Bulgarian, but it makes an effort to re-translate many names or expressions into the latin script. Unfortunately the person who did this (very probably not the author) seems\u00a0to have been not at all familiar with the history of chess. This results in very frequent and rather annoying mistakes like \u201cThe Rating of Chess Player\u201d instead of \u201cThe Rating of Chessplayers<\/em>\u201d (title of Prof. Elo\u2019s famous book), \u201cCaf\u00e9 de la Regens\u201d instead of \u201cCaf\u00e9 de la Regence\u201d , \u201cIgnatz fon Kolish\u201d instead of \u201cIgnaz von Kolisch\u201d, \u201cVilhelm Cohn\u201d instead of \u201cWilhelm Cohn\u201d, “Iohann Loewenthal” instead of “Johann L\u00f6wenthal”,\u00a0“Rudolf Spielman” instead of “Rudolf Spielmann”, and so on and on. There is hardly any page in the book without such unnecessary mistakes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although I am very sympathetic towards the work of any dilettante (being one myself), I wish this book on an interesting topic would have been written and edited in a better and more diligent way.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Print\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u041d\u0430\u043d\u0441\u0435\u043d \u0410\u0440\u0438\u0435 (Nansen Arie): \u0418\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0438\u044f \u043d\u0430 \u0432\u0435\u043b\u0438\u043a\u0430\u0442\u0430 \u0448\u0430\u0445\u043c\u0430\u0442\u043d\u0430 \u0438\u0433\u0440\u0430 (History of the Great Game of Chess), \u0421\u0438\u0435\u043b\u0430 (Siela), Sofia 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Moritz Steinschneider: Schach bei den Juden, Julius Springer, Berlin 1873<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Franz Gutmayer: Der Weg zur Meisterschaft, Veit, Leipzig 1913<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Emanuel Lasker: Kampf, Verlag f\u00fcr Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin\u00a02001 (reprint; originally published in 1906)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Emanuel Lasker: Jude – wohin?, in: Aufbau, New York 01. January 1939<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Emanuel Lasker: The Community of the Future, M.J. Bernin, New York\u00a01940<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexander Aljechin: J\u00fcdisches und arisches Schach, in: Pariser Zeitung, 18.-23. March 1941<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Arpad Elo: The Rating of Chessplayers, Arco, New York\u00a01978<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Harold U. Ribalow \/\u00a0Meir Z. Ribalow: The Great Jewish Chess Champions, Hippocrene Books, New York\u00a01987<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Felix Berkovich \/ Nathan Divinsky: Jewish Chess masters on Stamps, McFarland & Co., Jefferson\u00a02000<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Edmund Bruns: Das Schachspiel als Ph\u00e4nomen der Kulturgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, LIT, M\u00fcnster 2003<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Thomas H\u00fcbner\u00a0and mytwostotinki.com, 2014. Unauthorized use and\/or duplication of this material without expressed and written permission from this blog\u2019s author and\/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Thomas H\u00fcbner\u00a0and mytwostotinki.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.<\/strong><\/pre>\n
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