The enthusiasm for chess in Willem’s hometown seems to have been withering in the 1860s, and Sissa chess association most likely ceased to exist in 1865. Since then, Willem’s recorded games were limited to those with Dutch top players. When finally the Dutch Chess Federation was founded in 1873, Willem, always the head editor and primary force of Sissa magazine, was asked to make Sissa the Federation’s official periodical. Willem accepted, but resigned his position with the magazine one issue and one year later, for reasons not known. Four years later, Willem seems to have said goodbye to the world of chess altogether, as he sold his magnificent collection of chess books and periodicals to the Federation (and which are nowadays archived at the Max Euwe Centre in Amsterdam). His departure from the chess scene soon left a hole in the Dutch chess society as the Federation failed to find a suitable replacement for Willem’s magazine for a full seventeen years to follow.

Regardless his over-the-board prowess, it is clear that Willem was instrumental to the development of chess in the Netherlands. He has been criticized for his writings, but truth is that if it were not for his persistence and ceaseless efforts where others failed, chess simply would not have taken root in the 19th century Netherlands. In fact, it was largely thanks to W.J.L. Verbeek that Dutch chess was actually put on the map!

Table 1: Awards of honour received by W.J.L. Verbeek for his services in the Dutch chess scene: 1851: Honorable membership at chess association Strijdt met Beleid in Nijmegen 1851: Honorable membership at chess society Vriendschap en Oefening in Alkmaar 1851: Member by merit at chess association Philidor in Amsterdam 1860: Honorable membership at Amsterdam Chess Association 1862: Honorable membership at chess association La Bourdonnais in Amsterdam 1866: Honorable membership at chess association Vermaak door Oefening in Rotterdam 1870: Honorable membership at chess association Ströbeck in ‘s Hertogenbosch 1873: Honorable membership at ‘s Gravenhage Chess Association

Willem Jan Louis Verbeek (1820 - 1888) was general practicioner and obstretician in Wijk bij Duurstede, the Netherlands. In his spare time he was especially involved with chess – he was very concerned with the development of chess in the Netherlands, which was lagging to chess elsewhere in the world.

Verbeek can be considered a chess master avant la letter, who was amongst the first Dutch chess players able to play simultaneous blindfold chess. Yet, he is most known as the head editor of the first Dutch chess magazine Sissa (1848-1874), which eventually became the first official magazine of the Dutch Chess Federation that was founded in 1873.

In an effort to bring order in the swamp of chess rules that existed in the Netherlands, Verbeek published in 1848 the Nieuw Reglement op het gewoon schaakspelen (‘New regulation of chess’), which was adopted and used throughout the country for years to come, till the Dutch Chess Federation came with an update in 1874.

In 1858 the first national chess tournament in Dutch history was organised in Nijmegen on initiative of Verbeek.

In 1861, he published De Hollandsche schaakspeler – een zakboek voor schaakspelers (‘The Dutch chess player – a pocket book for chess players’), which can be considered as the very first book on modern chess in the original Dutch language.

Please dont forget the picture which can be found on https://www.schach-chess.com/Schach...

Hey <zanzibar> is back eh? With a new sock puppet. Did you notice it was him? I would put the odds it is him at 100 percent.

*Lester Piggot

Here's a post where he uses <OTOH ->: Budapest (1896) (kibitz #40)

Yes, among several other stylistic flourishings. You wanted him back- now we have him back. <chesshistoryinterest> singled <z> out in particular as the most sorely missed absentee from historical work.

Identify, say, five others. And all this from just ten posts? Wow, you're good.

<You wanted him back- now we have him back.>

lol good point. I'm not sure I get a vote but I hope he stays.