International Chess - IGK 2003 Synopsis

The VIIth I.G.K. Symposium
Synopsis of Presentations • Berlin, Germany - October 17-19. 2003
by Jan Newton

Held in Berlin at the Kunstbibliothek, the 2003 program of the Seventh Biennial Symposium of the IGK was dedicated to the memories of chess historians Ricardo Calvo (2002) and Kenneth Whyld (2003).

PDF #3 (Pages 8-9): Ricardo Calvo - historiador del ajedrez by Carmen Romeo Perez (in English)

PDF #4 (Pages 10-11): Tribute to Ricardo Calvo by Egbert Meissenburg (in German)
PDF #4 (Pages 12-13): Tribute to Kenneth Whyld by Egbert Meissenburg (in German)

PDF #6 (Page 16): To the History of Chess Endings (Abstract) by Yuri Averbach (in English)

PDF #7 (Pages 17-19): Schachgeschichte auf Briefmarken (Abstract) by Gerhard Josten (in German)

PDF #8 (Pages 20-21): Philidor und die ersten russischen Meister (Abstract) by Dr. Isaak M. Linder (in German) Methodology of chess-origins study (Abstract) by Myron Samsin (in English)

PDF #9 (Page 22): On a Comparative Analysis of Indian Caturanga Texts (Abstract) by Dr. Maria Schetelich (in English)

PDF #10 (Page 23): Patzers and Progress: Chess as Thought-Tool (Abstract) by David Shenk (in English)

PDF #11 (Page 24): The Influence from Draughts on Chess from the Middle Ages up to the 19th Century (Abstruct of two papers) by Dr. Arie van der Stoep (in English)

PDF #12 (Pages 25-27): Uber die Unterschiede zwischen japanischem und chinesischem Schach (Paper) by Koichi Masukawa (in German)

PDF #13 (Pages 28-34): The Chinese Chess Pieces in Song Era and Their Characteristics (Paper) by Yasuji Shimizu and Shin’ ichi Miyahara (in English)

First row: Left to right (per 10/26/03 email from Carmen): Maria Schetelich, David Shenk, Myron Samsin, Dimitri Gorodin; Carmen in brown pant suit in front, to her left is Thomas Thomsen and Dr. Isaac Lindner of Moscow, Russia (behind Lindner is Dr. Jurgen Stigter, Amsterdam, an ardent collector of chess books and supporter of research into chess history); to Carmen's right is Egbert Meissenberg, Dr. Hans Hollander, and Michael Negele. Behind them (left to right): Koichi Masukawa of Japan, Gerhard Josten of Cologne, Germany and Yasuji Shimizu, Japan. The far back row, left to right: Barbara Hollander of Germany (wife of Dr. Hans Hollander), GM Yuri Averbach, Moscow, Russia, Dr. Arie van der Stoep, Netherlands, Ernest Strouhal, and Hans Hollander's editor (no name given. Others are unidentified).

Carmen also gave Goddesschess permission to air her paper on Lucena, which we understood was to be published at this Symposium. In addition, Carmen presented a summary on the status of the encyclopedia of chess that Ricardo Calvo, our Chief, was working on at the time of his death.

Here is a synopsis:

Ricardo Calvo - historiador del ajedrez Carmen Romeo Perez
(Edited for Goddeschess by DMc)

When Ricardo Calvo was close to completing one of the dreams of his life, which was to write an Encyclopedia of Chess in Castilian (Spanish) language, spanning from the beginnings until the XVIIIth century, life delivered him one of the most cruel blows that any human being can endure: he was diagnosed with incurable cancer. The diagnosis was confirmed, and thereafter his lifetime was very brief. He was aware that he would not live until the following Christmas, that it might not be possible to complete his projects, but that perhaps he could leave them sufficiently advanced so that they could be finalized after his death. For this reason he first finished the outlines for all the volumes and concluded the technical parts. Three of the volumes were delivered to the editor before Ricardo's death, although the fourth volume was not quite complete in September 2002 and I was able to finish it and submit it to the editor in February of this (2003) year. The following are the abstracts of the four books now completed:

"Una historia del ajedrez arabico medieval (800-1250)": "A History of Medieval Arabic Chess (800-1250)". This volume examines the antecedents of European chess, the introduction of shatranj in Europe, the Andalusian acceptance of chess, from shatranj to the escacs, chess in the European mosaic, the languages of chess in heraldry, religion and chess, literature and life in medieval chess.

"Ajedrez y Gnosis en el Codice de Alfonso X el Sabio (1283)": "Chess and Gnosis in the Codex of Alfonso X, the Wise (1283)". The index of this volume is: Book of Games; Book of the Acedrex; Explanatory Treatment of Chess; Technical Analysis and Comments of the Problems; Dice and Stalemate and Board Games; Grand Acedrex and Other Variants; Neopythagoric Games; The Alquerques and Astral Games.

"La invension del Ajedrez actual (reino de Aragon, siglo XV)": "The Invention of Current [Modern] Chess (Kingdom of Aragon, XVth Century)". This volume is exclusively dedicated to the three key books "Scachs d'amor", "Vicent's lost incunabula" and the preserved incunabula of Lucena on love and chess. These books are extensively reviewed in ten chapters, their authors, relevant personalities and also the social environment [are] thoroughly discussed.

On the 26th day of September of 2002, the passionate and convincing voice of Ricardo Calvo was silenced forever. Until his last moment he was working on volume number 4, entitled "El arrollador ajedrez del Renacimiento y el Barocco (siglos XVI-XVIII)": "The Irresistible Chess of the Renaissance and the Baroque (XVI-XVIII Centuries)". It is prefaced with the following dedication:

"Para todos mis amigos. Ellos saben quienes son"
"For all my friends. They know who they are"

Among the protagonists are Damiano, Vida, Ruy Lopez and Selenus. Included also are the major changes of the XVIIIth century, chess in art and literature and an appendix containing books and authors. With painstaking care, I personally finished the last chapters. Thus, it is my intention to conclude the two remaining volumes at a future date. It is expected that next year (2004) some of the finished volumes will be published.

In parallel with the different volumes that would constitute the encyclopedia, Ricardo was also working on a Spanish bibliography of chess, commissioned by the Valencian Library. Based upon the incorporated Legacy of Garcia Forcada, the recently established section on chess for the Valencian Library was to be completed at the end of 2001. However, cataloguing was in progress during the year 2002. At the moment, work on this bibliography is pending and it was Ricardo's wish that the task should be completed by the various members of the Commission of History of Chess within the Spanish Chess Federation, of which he was the director.