| Sep-24-10 | | Eastfrisian: There is an article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard... |
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| Dec-29-10 | | Sem: There is the story of the great Akiba Rubinstein who when in Rotterdam got on the street car, saying to the conductor: 'I have to go to Oskam'. He was convinced that the man would know where this wellknown chess master would live. |
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Jan-18-13
 | | GrahamClayton: Oskam played under the pseudonym "Ezel" in the 1918 Arnheim Hauptturnier A tournament. Does anyone know why he did this? |
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| Jan-18-13 | | achieve: Maybe just for fun?
Do you know what "ezel" means in dutch? |
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Mar-28-14
 | | perfidious: <achieve> Is 'ezel' the Dutch equivalent of the German 'Esel' (donkey)? |
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| Mar-29-14 | | achieve: <perfidious> That is correct, yes -- the saying in Dutch goes like: Hij is echt zo dom als een ezel = he really is as dumb as ... But another saying, Een ezel stoot zich nooit tweemaal aan dezelfde steen, translates to: not making the same mistake twice... So for obvious reasons it in fact is quite well chosen, ezel, as a pseudonym, and kinda witty, clever. ;) |
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| Mar-29-14 | | Gejewe: Ezel has a second meaning, that is easel (of a painter). But donkey seems to be more appropriate in this context. Out of selfpity you often hear "Wat ben ik toch een ezel", of which I think you can guess the literal meaning ("what a donkey I am ", wondering about ones own stupidity) |
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| Mar-29-14 | | achieve: I think the English phrase is:
"[I'm] as dumb as a mule."
This one's funny:
oliedom (very dumb, used to be often used in dutch) = oily dumb / dumb as oil |
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| May-15-14 | | PJs Studio: In the US people accuse themselves of stupidity in a plethora of ways "I'm such a dumbass" being far more common than "...dumb as a mule". Well, in the Northeast anyway ;) |
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| Apr-12-15 | | sneaky pete: A caricature of Oskam dating from 1942:
http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_gid00119...The artist may be (I can't read the text at the bottom) Anton Constandse, a Dutch anarchist and journalist. I found this great picture in reminiscences of Constandse, published in the magazine <De Gids> in 1979. In 1933 Oskam, who was a lawyer, had defended Constandse against a charge of blasphemy. Some 10 years later the two men met again in the prisoners camp St. Michielsgestel, where Dutch citizens of some importance were kept hostage by the occupying forces. In St. Michielsgestel, in 1944, Oskam made a Dutch translation of Botvinnik's Choice of my best games (1926-1936) from the Russian original Izbrannije partii (1926-1936). He also translated (from the Russian) A.O. Herbstman, The chess study in our days, and R.M. Kofman, The logical school in the chess problem. |
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Apr-12-15
 | | Stonehenge: <I can't read the text at the bottom> Ruwenberg (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grote_...), the date is 31-01-43, I believe, R Claproth, see http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=d... |
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Apr-12-15
| | Stonehenge: Claproth was from the Dutch East Indies and arrived in The Hague in 1939: http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=d... |
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| Apr-12-15 | | sneaky pete: <Stonehenge> Thank you, you're right. The reproduction in <De Gids> is erroneously captioned Beekvliet, 1942.
See (and read, very interesting stuff)
http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_gid00119...Many among the first batch of hostages were government officials on leave from the colonies, to safeguard - or revenge - the German citizens locked up there. Later hostages included the former minister of justice J. Donner, the father of the anti-blasphemy law that was rigged up to get Constandse in trouble, and also the father of you know who, the greatest blasphemist of all, and Evert Straat, a fitting chess partner for Oskam. |
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Apr-13-15
| | Stonehenge: Very interesting indeed.
Photo of Claproth:
http://www.beeldbankwo2.nl/detail.j... I think he played a role in the formation of the State of East Indonesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_...). |
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| Apr-12-16 | | TheFocus: Oskam's Razor? |
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Aug-04-18
 | | SteinitzLives: Almost 80% of this player's games were less than 40 moves long, he must have loved him some tactics. |
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Aug-18-24
 | | jnpope: "Also known as Ezel, see Erelid / Ezel."
What does this mean? Did he often use Ezel as a pseudonym, did he change his name to Ezel, or does Ezel have some other significance? |
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Aug-19-24
| | Stonehenge: Ezel was a pseudonym. There are quite a few Dutch newspaper articles with Ezel / Oskam. For example:
<The game Marchand—Ezel had a Russian defense, which began to look strongly towards a draw when Oskam exposed himself too much. Marchand took advantage of this mistake and forced Ezel to resign on move 45.> Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, 09-Aug-1918:
https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=... |
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Aug-19-24
| | Stonehenge: *move 48
M Marchand vs G Oskam, 1918. |
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Kibitzing
