Is it possible to check the actual text of ref 16, with regards to <"Only after Soviet consul Filipp Chikirisov offered to locate a different lodging did Botvinnik get permission to stay at the Hotel Twee Staden with his wife, daughter, and seconds Viacheslav Ragozin and Salomon Flohr.<16>">?

Because with a certainty of at least 98% it should be Hotel De Twee Steden. For two main reasons:

1. 'Staden' would be a rather odd name. Stad is the singular for city, but the plural is steden. Given that twee means two, the plural should be used.

2. At the time, Hotel De Twee Steden was one of the major, central, luxorious hotels in The Hague.

Yes it's misspelled in the original text, as was "Kuiritininen" from the same book. But I changed that to "Duritirrium" so I'm going to change it to <Hotel De Twee Steden> based on your research.

Which is always fascinating, by the way.

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<Ohio>

No, it means that the Consul agreed to do the legwork and go out and find a hotel for Mighty Mike that would be more to Mighty Mike's liking. It had nothing to do with where the Consul himself was staying or not staying.

Yes. I just looked at p.113 a second ago. We can't be too careful about these things.

Outstanding thank you!

The Kurititn spelling was from Golombek then. I had assumed that the Duritin was the wrong spelling in Botvinnik's book.

The <Twee Staden> is not quoted as direct speech, so we can correct spelling if we need to.

It is well within academic convention to correct spelling mistakes in paraphrases from sources that contain spelling mistakes.

If it weren't within academic convention, then you could run into this problem:

Part of a text quotes Golombek with the "Kuriten" spelling, and a different part of your text sources Botvinnik with the "Duriten" spelling.

Correct academic procedure in this case would be to harmonize the spelling- to avoid confusion- by finding out which one was spelled correctly.

I accept that there will always be unanswered questions, but really now, how did a Counsul looking for a hotel make any difference in the decision to let Mike stay at a different hotel? It's almost nonsensical. As for the current draft, the word "Only" implies a causation that I simply don't see.

<Only after Soviet consul Filipp Chikirisov offered to locate a different lodging did Botvinnik get permission to stay at the Hotel De Twee Steden with his wife, daughter, and seconds Viacheslav Ragozin and Salomon Flohr.>

"different lodgings" is much better thank you!

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The Dutch organizers decided where they had to stay, and the ambassador Valkov and the delegation leader Postnikov told Botvinnik that he should go to Scheveningen. Botvinnik disagreed and they tried to convince him. Then, Chikirisov entered the room and Valkov <had an attitude of respect for him>. Valkov explained the situation to him and Chikirisov, who spoke Dutch, went to the hotel and fixed everything up.

You are right and it has to be changed.

I put this in now-

What I don't like: "Only" implies a causation that I'm not sure is warranted. The sentence structure is a bit weak and could be more active.

Therefore, I suggest:

<At first the organizers refused. But Soviet consul Filipp Chikirisov offered to locate different lodgings, and finally Botvinnik received permission to stay at the Hotel Twee Staden with his wife, daughter, and seconds Viacheslav Ragozin and Salomon Flohr.>

I think "But" softens up the causation, and "finally" is a bit of an emotion word suggesting relief the issue was resolved at last.

A little tweak that also seems okay:

<At first the organizers refused. But Soviet consul Filipp Chikirisov offered to locate different lodgings, and Botvinnik eventually received permission to stay at the Hotel Twee Staden with his wife, daughter, and seconds Viacheslav Ragozin and Salomon Flohr.>

I think it would do no harm, if you included in the footnote a sentence explaining shortly that "Twee Staden" was most likely a typo for "Twee Steden". Even though the same source was used before.

<18 Botvinnik, "Achieving the Aim" pp.113-114. The name "Twee Staden" is possibly a typo for "Twee Steden", as the correct translation of the hotel name is given as "Two Cities", while the Dutch plural for "cities" is "Steden". Furthermore, there was a well-known Hotel Twee Steden in The Hague at that time.>

Good idea. I put this one in now:

This is one of the main points of including the anecdote in the first place.

Mike had "svasi" and "friends in high places" (also enemies in high places) and he was not afraid to speak his mind and try to get his own way in situations where other Soviet masters might well have been more circumspect.