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| Apr-14-12 | | HSOL: twinlark re:Steinitz's country of birth:
Would there be anything wrong with it saying born in Prague, in the Austrian Empire? |
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Apr-14-12
 | | twinlark: <Petrosianac> <The reason they gave the title to Nona and Mednis despite their being a game or two short is likely because of what happened to Frank Anderson in the 1950's. > I see that Polgar's bio has been amended to more neutral wording. In the meantime, isn't Anderson's situation clearly a special circumstances situation? What are the special circumstances for Nona (and Maia and Edmar)? |
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Apr-14-12
| | twinlark: <HSOL>
Nothing wrong with your suggestion, but the current entry provides an extra datum of information. The Austrian Empire wasn't a country any more than the British Empire was, so Bohemia was as close to a birth country as can be identified for Steinitz. |
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| Apr-15-12 | | HSOL: twinlark: From what I know, Bohemia was just a part of the Austrian Empire at the time Steinitz was born just like the "Austrian" parts of the Austrian Empire. Or would you say people born in Carinthia the same year 1836, was born in Illyria rather than in the Austrian Empire? Enough with the disagreement, Bohemia (although we disagree whether it would be considered a country at the time) is at least true unlike if it said Czech Republic or so. |
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Apr-15-12
 | | Stonehenge: Perhaps an idea is to link the place of birth of 'older' players to Wikipedia. I've done it here for example: Robert Braune |
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Apr-15-12
 | | Domdaniel: The country-of-birth issue is not an easy one. Saying "Prague, Austrian Empire" might, for instance, annoy people who regard the city as Czech (or Bohemian). Just as it might be technically correct (of a 19th century player) to say "Dublin, United Kingdom" -- correct, but neither wise nor informative. Take the case of Alexander McDonnell, whose bio says that he was born in Belfast, Ireland. Simple enough, surely? Well, when he was born in 1798 Ireland had its own parliament in Dublin, but was a British possession. Three years later, in 1801, the parliament was abolished and the Act of Union created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland -- the 'country' in which McDonnell lived for the rest of his life. In the 20th century, much of the island of Ireland became an independent state, with its capital in Dublin. Of course Belfast, where McDonnell was born, remains part of a somewhat smaller UK. A long-running local squabble centred on the issue of whether Irish and British identities were mutually exclusive, or whether it was possible to be both. The idea of a 'British' identity had earlier been used to unite the English and the Scots under one central authority. I think a curious geographical factor influences our perception of territories that change names and rulers (or get taken over). Because Ireland is an island - easily seen on a map, easy to conceptualize as an entity in its own right - people are comfortable referring to 'Ireland' whether they mean part of the UK or the independent state. It's trickier with vague chunks of territory in central Europe, which may lack clear boundaries (in the insular sense) or consistent linguistic or ethnic identities. Some have belonged to five or six different political entities in 300 years. As the Bard sez, "This is Illyria, Lady" ... a sort of Elizabethan version of "This is Chinatown", methinks. |
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| Apr-18-12 | | thomastonk: Bohemia is an area, and so it is okay to call Steinitz a Bohemian. But the House of Habsburg dominated Bohemia already several centuries, when Steinitz was born. And the Czechs - a part of the population - have had a Germanisation during these time, ie. German language and culture dominated and the Czechs were not considered as equals. Steinitz' family did not belong to the Czechs, and so he is a Bohemian or an Austrian. His contemporaries called him a German, too. Maybe because of his mother language or because Austria belonged to the German confederation since 1815. In the same way Anderssen and others were called German or Prussian, because Prussia also belonged to the German confederation. |
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Apr-22-12
 | | Caissanist: I have added several paragraphs to the bio of Sonja Graf-Stevenson. If anybody has any corrections or additions to offer, please let me know. The history of the women's world championship in the 1930s is rather confusing. Menchik defeated Graf in matches in 1934 and 1937, and finished ahead of her in tournaments in 1937 and 1939. Wikipedia has one page that says that the 1934 match was unofficial but that the 1937 match was for the championship; another says that both were for the championship. It does not mention the 1937 or 1939 tournaments at all, but other web pages indicate that they were for the championship. Graf also won a women's tournament (with Menchik absent) in 1936, but no source mentions that as being for the championship. The best source on the net seems to be Mark Weeks' page http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/273..., which is composed of information from the 1974 book 'International Championship Chess: A complete record of FIDE events' by B.M. Kazic, but Mark acknowledges that that book has at least some errors as well. |
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Apr-23-12
 | | crawfb5: Sunnucks' <The encyclopedia of chess> has probably the most complete coverage of the women's world championship. She lists these tournaments: London 1927
Hamburg 1930
Prague 1931
Folkstone 1933
Warsaw 1935
Stockholm 1937*
Buenos Aires 1939
*The 1937 tournament wasn't a round robin, but not quite a Swiss system either. The event had 26 players and 14 rounds. Perhaps some sources leave it out because it seems confusing. Sunnucks gives crosstables for all the others. She does not list a tournament for Semmering 1936, which presumably was not a title tournament. With Graf winning in Menchik's absence, that was probably taken as justification for the 16-game title match in 1937. The 1934 match in the Netherlands was only four games. Clearly that was an exhibition match. None of the printed sources I consulted called it a title match. |
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Apr-23-12
| | Caissanist: Many thanks <crawfb5>. I have updated the bio to indicate that 1934 was an exhibition match. |
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| Apr-23-12 | | thomastonk: <crawfb5,Caissanist> Ken Whyld gives the same list of pre-WW II events in "Chess - The Records" 1986, p 22-23. About the pairing rules in Stockholm 1937 he writes: "After the first round drawn by lot, the best scorers meet each other in list order, with a different opponent each round." |
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Apr-27-12
| | Caissanist: <thomastonk> Thanks for the confirmation. |
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May-02-12
 | | GerMalaz: Daniel Contin was born in La Plata, Argentina |
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May-05-12
| | twinlark: <Domdaniel> Another author you might like to know about: Reynaldo Vera. |
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May-09-12
 | | WannaBe: Alexander Onischuk I've got a 'complaint'... why is the birthday both listed along with birth country, and then repeated in the main section of the bio.?? |
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May-09-12
| | twinlark: <WannaBe>
Happens all the time for some reason. I've been removing this repetition when I encounter it but there are probably lots more. |
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May-10-12
| | Stonehenge: Biographer Guide:
<The ideal bio begins by stating the player's full name, the exact location of birth, and at least the year of birth. For example: Boris Vasilievich Spassky was born January 30, 1937 in Leningrad, USSR>. I have been naughty too. I have also been removing this repetition :) |
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May-10-12
 | | Benzol: <Use American spellings for words like color and center.> I know that this is an American site but if an event took place for example in the Wellington Trade Centre then the spelling of the word Centre should be just that and not Center, surely? As George Bernard Shaw put it the English and the Americans are two peoples separated by a common language. |
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| May-10-12 | | Blunderdome: Well, proper names should keep their spellings, of course. |
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May-10-12
| | WannaBe: We'll rename <Blunderdome> to <BlunderCentre> =)) |
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| May-10-12 | | Blunderdome: As long as I get to have a bio on here, under my username instead of my real name, I'm happy. |
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May-15-12
 | | chessgames.com: Hey people, here's the kind of project that you folks live for. THE BACKGROUND: For years we've only seen one photo of Nezhmetdinov. It's the one that they use in every magazine article, the one on the cover of his book of best games, the old photo that shows him in full military regalia. We have it archived on our server here: http://www.chessgames.com/portraits... It's not surprising that a person who was not particularly famous only had one photo, archived by the military. Genealogists come across cases like that all the time. THE UDPATE: One day, one of our fans emails us a new photo with Nezhmetdinov we've never seen before. Awesome! It's not as clear of a photo, but it's a new one. Link: http://www.chessgames.com/portraits... THE LEGALESE: Just from inspection, it's likely a Soviet Union news photo, so it's almost certainly in public domain. Besides, historical finds like this are exactly the thing that the USA "Fair Use" laws were written to address. THE QUESTIONS: Excitedly, we slapped it up on his page right away: Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov. The only thing left to do is give the photo a proper caption. If possible we'd like to give it a complete attribution of who, what, where, and when! An ideal caption, I think, would be along the lines of this: <Nezhmetdinov (left) shakes hands with ______________ in front of _____ _____________ at the ______________ (19__).> The first blank is sort of a joke: I think we can all agree the fellow on the right is a youthful Mikhail Tal. But who is that gentlemen behind them? A tournament director or Soviet official perhaps? Can anybody identify the event, and thereby the year and location? Thanks in advance! |
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| May-15-12 | | Alien Math: Nezhmetdinov and Tal Picture http://www.onlinechesslessons.net/2... |
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| May-16-12 | | Alien Math: <chessgames.com: .. THE QUESTIONS: Excitedly, we slapped it up on his page right away: Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov. The only thing left to do is give the photo a proper caption. If possible we'd like to give it a complete attribution of who, what, where, and when! An ideal caption, I think, would be along the lines of this: <Nezhmetdinov (left) shakes hands with ______________ in front of _____ _____________ at the ______________ (19__).>> About picture shown | http://www.onlinechesslessons.net/2... Nezhmetdinov congratulates Mikhail Tal for winning the
24th USSR Championship in Moscow 1957 (Click to enlarge) http://www.chess.com/forum/view/che... Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov AND Mikhail Tal! This picture is from 1957; Nezhmetdinov is congratulating Tal on winning the USSR Championship. Only pictures found of, <jessicafischerqueen> might have some informations about picture. |
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May-16-12
 | | Tabanus: Two more on the web:
http://www3.webng.com/chessteachern...
http://files.chesscomfiles.com/imag... |
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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 27 OF 131 ·
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