Polish chess team, world champs 1924-39

My parents thought Russians were the most intelligent, and my in-laws thought Czechs were most cultured. So thanks to Culture.pl for these Polish data, totally new to me. 

In Interwar years, chess was very popular in Poland. It was endorsed by key political figures as a pastime that Polish citizens could adopt eg Marshal Józef Piłsudski prime minister (1926). Chairman of Poland’s Chess Association, Piłsudski also valued Jews because the Jewish communities promoted chess. But the first chess Olympiad was held in 1927 in London, won by Hungary. Poland was excluded, because the regulations still barred professionals.

Rubinstein vs Tartakower 1927

Teodor Regedzinski (1894–1954) played for Poland at 5 Interwar Olympiads, winning 5 medals. He had German roots and collaborated with the Nazis in the war, to provide security for his wife and son. So he was imprisoned by the Polish authorities after war ended.

Poland was a chess power in the Interwar era! All the Olympiads they participated in pre-WW2 ended with Poland being on the podium (except for 1933). There were many other competitors in Poland till 1939, but because the majority were Jewish, most were handed over to the Germans or shot; Poland’s chess prowess disappeared.

The July 1930 Hamburg Olympiad was the first where pros could play, against 17 other nations. Poland sent Akiba Rubinstein, Ksawery Tartakower, Dawid Przepiórka, Kazimierz Makarczyk, Paulin Frydman. The biggest rivals were Hungary & Germany. The Poles beat Hungary and drew with Germany, Poland winning 1.5 points over Hungary (win 1 point, draw .5, loss 0). Poland’s best player was Rubinstein (1880–1961), and the fine Hamburg victory remained Poland’s best-ever Olympic chess triumph!

Polish team, Chess Olympiad in Hamburg, 1930

(L) Frydman, Tartakower, Rotmil, Rubinstein, Makarczyk, Przepiórka, 

Culture.pl

In mid-1930s, Rubinstein’s depression worsened and he could no longer play competitively. Rubinstein was being taken care of by his wife, who’d opened a diner in Brussels. Despite being Jewish, the family survived the Holocaust; his wife died (1954) and Rubinstein died (1961) in Antwerp.

Ksawery Tartakower (1887-1956) was born in Rostov-on-Don in a Polish-Austrian Jewish family. Dad taught him chess but his parents tragically died in a 1911 pogrom, so he moved to Vienna to study Law. Ksaw was more drawn to chess, and after successes in 1909-13 tournaments, he chose chess over Law. In WWI he was in Austria’s army then moved to Paris. Post-war he played well in many tournaments and wrote chess theory for French and German press.

By 1920s he was a top 10 players globally. When Poland’s Chess Association started in 1926, Tartakower represented Poland. He was 2nd best of the 1930 team, winning 12 points in 16 games. In the 1930s Tartakower represented Poland at 6 chess Olympiads, winning gold medal in Hamburg, plus 2 silver and 2 bronze medals. And he won a silver in 1939 in Buenos Aires. He was still there when WW2 started, but he chose to go home. Too old to join with the Polish Army in France, he joined the French Foreign Legion. Tartakower survived and later, distrustful of Communist Poland, became a French national. He played for France at 1950 Dubrovnik chess Olympiad, and died in Paris in 1956.

Dawid Przepiórka (1880-1940) was born in Warsaw, son of a real estate owner. Young Dawid discovered chess in a Warszawski newspaper and fell in love. After dad’s death, Dawid inherited his parent’s tenement houses, becoming wealthy himself. In 1905 he moved to Göttingen then Munich to study maths. But he left uni, being more drawn into the chess world. In 1910 he married Melania Silberast in Munich, had 2 children & moved to Warsaw.

In 1924, Przepiórka came 2nd in a tournament in Gyor Hungary and 2 years later won a Munich tournament. 1926 also saw Poland’s 1st chess championship in Warsaw, with Dawid crowned winner. He was Poland’s 3rd strongest player at Hamburg’s Olympiad, taking 9 points in 13 games.

From 1928-33 Dawid became chess journal Świat Szachowy’s editor-publisher. As well as representing Poland in Hamburg, he competed at the 1931 Prague Olympiad. Alas Przepiórka lost to USA’s Israel Horowitz in a game that should have drawn, so Poland won the silver medal instead. Later he played a major role in sorting Warwaw’s 1935 chess Olympiad as head of the Technical Committee, winning the 1937 Golden Cross of Merit, a key Polish state award.

In WW2, Przepiórka stayed in Occupied Warsaw near a chess coffeeshop, filled with players playing after the Nazis closed official chess clubs. In Jan 1940, the Nazis raided and gaoled all of the clients, incl Przepiórka. Some were later freed but Jewish Przepiórka was shot and his wife and children also died. The Golden Cross of Merit protected no one.

Casimir Makarczyk (1901-72) was born in Warsaw and attended Michał Kreczmar Middle School alongside noted literary Poles eg Leopold Tyrmand. In 1915 his family moved to St Petersburg where Kaz learned to play chess. Then he returned to Warsaw in 1918 where he began studying Law. But financial problems ended his education in 1922. He worked in a bank and edited chess sections in newspapers, while studying philosophy. In 1926 he editor at Świat Szachowy then worked at Ministry of Public Works

In 1927 he won silver at the Warsaw championship and bronze in Łódź. This streak granted him a place on the Polish team at 1928’s chess Olympiad in The Hague. Then he represented Poland at 5 chess Olympiads in the Interwar period, winning 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. He was Poland’s 4th best player in the 1930 golden team in Hamburg, winning 7.5 points from his 13 games.

Christian Makarczyk joined the Polish resistance in WW2 and Warsaw Uprising. As a result he was taken into a German camp near Dresden & liberated in 1945. He returned to Poland, settling in Łódź where he was an aide at the Logic Dept of Lodz university. Non-Jews survived! In 1948, he became Poland’s new chess champion at a Kraków tournament, then won the Łódź title in 1949. In the 1950s, he was withdrawing from public chess life, dying much later.

Paulin Frydman(1905-82) was born into an educated Warsaw Jewish family. His uncle Szymon Winawer was a noted chess player, the uncle who introduced the lad to the game. Frydman took a liking for chess and when he was only 16, Czyn Journal published his chess puzzles. In 1922, he joined the Warsaw Society of Chess Supporters and at 19 won second place at their championship. He also medalled at Poland’s first championship in 1926, securing a place in Poland’s 1928 Olympiad team at the Hague.

Frydman then represented Poland at 8 Interwar Olympiads, taking 3 bronzes, 3 silvers and 1 gold - his chess career reflected the great strength of Polish chess pre-WW2, Frydman’s golden years. And he won Warsaw’s contests 5 times and came second in the 1935 Nationals.

At Buenos Aires’ 1939 Olympiad he won 13 points in 17 games, contributing largely to the team’s silver medal. Frydman stayed in Buenos Aires when war broke out, joining in Argentinian competitions until 1941. Then he ran a chess salon at Rex Coffee House Buenos Aires, creating a good income. Frydman’s life there was close to famous Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz. Frydman died in Buenos ires

Mieczyslaw Najdorf (1894-1954) was a Polish Jewish chess player in the later 1930s, a vital figure in Olympic teams. In 1939 he chose to stay in Argentina after the 1939 Olympiad. Post-war he won the status as a top player anywhere, before making headlines creating new world records in Blind Chess, playing 45 opponents simultaneously! Having survived the war, Najdorf later retained his excellence.

A simultaneous chess game with Dawid Przepiórka
Society of Chess Lovers in Kraków, 1927

Culture.pl

Like other great Jewish competitors in Poland pre-WW2, most lived in a huge, educated community (30% of Warsaw) that had supported Poland’s 1930 gold-winning team. Antoni Wojciechowski (1905–38), one of the best Poles of that era, represented Poland at Munich’s 1936 Olympiad in great games. His style was risky and very entertaining for viewers. Sadly he died pre-war from pneumonia.

It’s accurate to say that Poland was a chess power in the Interwar era. All the Olympiads they participated in pre-WW2 ended with Poland being on the podium (except for 1933 Folkestone). There were many other competitors in Poland till 1939, but because the majority were Jewish, most were handed over to the Germans or shot; Poland’s chess prowess disappeared.

Teffi - beloved Russian writer, sad exile.

My maternal side of the family was very proud of the Russian arts, with one cousin becoming a professional writer, one a composer and two became music teachers. My late mother studied literature at uni­ver­sity then joined a number of book clubs. Her goal was to read every Russian novel and play (in English) from Alexander Pushkin 1799-1837 on. Of the early writers, she loved Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1821-81, Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910, Anton Chekhov 1860–1904 and Maxim Gorky 1868-1936. Of the modern writers, no-one quite matched up to Boris Pasternak 1890–1960.

I quite believe that Russians are indeed "the world's most reading nation", even decades after their writers and readers perman­ent­ly moved abroad. So I was very lucky my mother didn’t keep her memories alive by calling me Lyudmila at birth, and my brothers Igor and Grigor. 

Teffi arrived in France in 1920, 

planning to go home to Russia when she could. She never did.

Wiki

Imagine the surprise when a Russian writer’s book called Memories from Moscow to the Black Sea was reviewed by Judith Armstrong in the Weekend Australian (12th-13th Nov 2016). Written by Teffi, the book was published by Pushkin Press in 2016. Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya aka Teffi (1872-1952) was one of Tsar Nicholas II’s favourite writers, a woman born into a well educated professional St Petersburg family. Early in her career she wrote short stories and satirical articles for newspapers and magazines. In the heady excitement and radical passion after the 1905 Revolution, Teffi turned increasingly to political issues and published in the Satiricon magazine and the Russian Word newspaper. Life was going very well indeed.

Even then there was a price to pay. Teffi left her noble husband and three children on their country estate and returned to St Petersburg alone.

But when Lenin returned to Russia in 1917, he apparently had no feel­ing for beauty whatsoever. He overhauled New Life magazine, saying “Nowadays we don’t need theatre. Nor do we need music. We don’t need any articles about art or culture of any sort.” Like every Russian whose soul was fed by Russian culture, Teffi was devastated. She resigned with the rest of the literary section, not long before the paper was shut down by the authorities.

In 1918 Teffi moved to Moscow, Kiev and then Odessa, but she was never going to find a happy place to settle. The miseries brought by WW1 and the difficulties of the Russian Revolution suggested to her that the time had come to look for a new life. Her book was “her blackly funny and heart­breaking account of her final, frantic journey into exile across Russia - travelling by cart, freight train and rickety steamer - and the ordinary and unheroic people she met. From refugees setting up camp on a dockside to a singer desperately buying a few last scraps of fabric to make a dress, all were caught up in the whirlwind; all were immortalised by Teffi's penetrating gaze. Her sadness at leaving home and her horror of never seeing the family again will resonate with every person across the planet who has EVER gone into exile.

How does one describe the state of being a no-one nowhere, with no place on the map, or in society, to claim as one’s own? Teffi did not pretend to know what she did not know at the time. The brief stories of her journey through Russia contained almost no generalis­at­ions. On only a couple of occasions did the writer insert a fact that she learned some months after the events she was describing. She succeeded in conveying the sense of claustrophobia and disorientation that typified the refugee condition. [I lived overseas for 5 years and although I spoke the language fluently and was not a refugee, there was always the fear of stuffing up, of accidentally offending, of not finding my way around].

Readers believed that a trademark of Teffi’s writing had always been her ability to describe the absurd as though it were the ordinary. In the second half of this book, follow a harrowing train journey through Russia and Ukraine (with stays in German-occupied Kiev and French-occupied Odessa, which she fled as the Reds approach). Teffi ended up aboard a ship to Istanbul, commandeered by an ad hoc group of refug­ees. She ­had to scrub the decks on the ship to prove that she too was a proper worker.

 

Memories was first published as a serial, Dec 1928-Jan 1930.
It was republished in Russia by Pushkin Press in 2016

The book ended mid-journey, in the uncertainty that was the hallmark of the refugee state. The author was saying her goodbye to Russia, but she could not know where she was going next, when or how. I agreed with the comparison that was drawn with the works of Stefan Zweig, the Austrian author who wrote about the end of a grand epoch of European civilisation just before WW2. But everyone’s sadness is personal; everyone’s tragedy is individual. Perhaps it is just as well I did not even recognise Nadezhda Lokh­vits­kaya aka Teffi’s name before Judith Armstrong’s review. Teffi’s experiences would have broken my heart.

It worked out well in the end. After years of wanderings, Teffi settled in Paris in 1920, where she lived and wrote succ­ess­fully. Like so many other Russian intell­ectuals, Teffi began publishing her works in the Russian newspapers in Paris and had an eager and large Russian-reading public. Her book Memories from Moscow to the Black Sea was first published as a serial between Dec 1928 and Jan 1930.

The final years in Paris were financially strapped but friends looked after her until her death in 1952. Appropriately Teffi was buried in the Russian Orthodox cemetery called Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, just south of Paris.

Not until the late 1980s was Teffi’s work seriously reconsidered in Russia. In 1990, an important publisher in Moscow brought out a two-volume edition of her humorous stories and in 1997, the Gorky Institute of World Literature held a Teffi conference to honour her oeuvre.

In recent years Pushkin Press has done English readers a service by releasing Rasputin and Other Ironies (2010), a selection of Teffi’s old journalism and non-fiction: politics, society, art, literature and family life. And Subtly Worded (2014), a collection of her short stor­ies. The publications are in elegant packaging and have scholarly notes attached.

Teffi: A Life of Letters and of Laughter

by Edythe Haber, 2018

Her most popular works: A Modest Talent; Diamond Dust; All about Love; Love and a Family Journey; When the Crayfish Whistled; Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others and Me; and Memories. For short stories, see Shoshi's Book Blog.

Hobart Town Hall fine architecture 1866.

When Hobart Town Hall had its 150th birthday, spouse and I sailed on the Spirit of Tasmania, from Melbourne to Devonport, to join in the celeb­rations. Joe lay on the bunk, seasick, for the ent­ire journey – I went to a concert, a film and a restaurant on the ship, and had a great trip. After he rejoined the human race, we drove to Hobart, to inspect the Town Hall and other significant 19th century architecture. Thank you for Municipal Magnificence by Peter Free­man, a great book docum­enting the history of Town Hall and its place in the City’s life.

Front portico and columns, Town Hall

Henry Hunter (1832-1892) was born in Nottingham, younger son of architect Walter Hunter. Educated at a parish school in Wolver­ham­pton, he studied at the Nottingham School of Design. Henry and his siblings migrated to South Australia in 1848 with the parents and, after their parents died, to Hobart. Next Henry went to the Bendigo goldfields and then back to Tasmania to work in the timber trade. He moved to Hobart to work in a shop but in 1856, encouraged by the Catholic Bishop Robert Willson, he began to practise as an architect. Hunter was one of the few Roman Catholic professional men in Hobart.

The architect’s admiration for Augustus Pugin, leader of the English Goth­ic revival movement, influenced his work in the many chur­ches he designed around Tasmania. The architect for the new St David’s Cathedral was George Bodley, a British leader of Gothic Revival in church architecture. So in Hobart itself, Hunter became the supervising architect for St David's Cathedral.

Hunter's commission came in Sept 1860 when Bishop Willson laid the foundation stone of St Mary's Cathedral Hobart, adapted from British architect-Melbourne resident William Wardell's design . Bishop Murphy opened the cathedral in 1866, but the con­struction was faulty - the pillars of the central tower moved, and stone fell from the ar­ch­es. Hunter examined the work and recommended that the cathedral be rebuilt. A public meeting in Feb 1876 decided that the central tower, aisles & walls be demolished and rebuilt according to the original plan. Hunt­er, now Hobart's Town’s most successful arch­itect, supervised the demolition and later laid the stone for the cathedral’s new incarnation.

              

   Long gallery, Town Hall  

             

By 1862, Hunter was very busy. He designed and built Derwent & Tamar Assurance Offices, Masonic Hall, Australian Mutual Provident Society's Building, and Hobart Museum. He planned wards and offices for the General Hospital, designed schools for the Board of Education, warehouses, Marine Office and Elwick race-course grandstand.

And now, his master piece!  The Municipality of Hobart held the early Council meetings in temporary premises and the streets defining the site of the Town Hall were completed following demolition of the old Government House in 1858. Henry Hunter prepared plans and was awarded an hon­our in a compet­it­ion conducted by the Hobart Municipal Council for their new home. His Gothic design was acclaimed as “a fine composition of unusual breadth and unity of line” yet his first plan was not accepted. I am assuming that Gothic architecture was either too Catholic for the good public servants, or was too old-fashioned for a new, modern city. 

So Hunter was given 6 months to submit a new Italianate model, this time based on the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Construction on Hobart Town Hall created part of the now-historic Macquarie St stretch of sandstone. The found­at­ion stone was laid in April 1864, a day that was de­c­l­ar­ed a public holiday and celebrated with a parade. It was completed two years later in Sept 1866, complete with its large windows and symmetrical portico with columns. Once again the day was celebrated with another public holiday and a gala ball.

From the start, the Town Hall was designed to house the City’s coun­cil chambers, police offices,  municipal court and State Lib­rary of Tasmania. And the organ has been in use since 1870. In 1871 a stone wall was erected around the boundary, with trees obtained from the Botanical Gardens for landscaping.These facilities remained in use for c50 years after the town hall first opened.

WW1 Honour Roll, Town Hall

Macquarie Manor was originally built as a home for surg­eon Dr Richard Bright. In 1870 Dr Bright commissioned Henry Hunter to design and oversee the construction of a residence perfect for a gentleman. It was!

On a visit to Queensland, Hunter formed a partnership with his son and a former pupil, and settled at Brisbane in 1888. Although spec­ial­is­ing in domestic architecture, his firm did design some larger Queensland institutions. Henry was still in Brisbane when he died, in 1892. 

By 1925 the state of the Town Hall’s prominent portico had degener­ated to the point it was declared unsafe and major restoration work was re­quired. Only then were the building's famous chandeliers instal­led in the ballroom,  each having 84 gas jets that were imported from the UK.

Macquarie Manor, Hobart
Architect: Henry Hunter built 1875

On the Convict Trail

Henry Hunter had left behind one of the nation's oldest council build­ings, in Australia's second oldest city. Today Hobart’s Town Hall is an ideal venue for exhibitions, balls, concerts, large meetings, citizenship ceremonies and cocktail func­t­ions. The main hall now seats 600 and the gallery seats 675 more. On The Convict Trail is excellent.

                                             

jam factory built 1869

now Henry Jones Art Hotel, Victoria Dock Hobart

Walk Into Luxury

Melbourne Uni 1889 mansion, heritage protected, tower, gardens

The land boom in Marvellous Melbourne came in 1883-1891 era which saw the price of land start to thrive. Naturally London banks were eager to extend loans to entrepreneurs who capitalised on this with grand, elaborate offices, hotels and department shops in the thriving city, and beautiful suburban growth nearby.

Cumnock Parkville was designed by Charles Webb who was the famed architect behind many Melbourne landmark buildings: Windsor, Royal Arcade, Mandeville Hall, Melbourne Grammar School and South Melbourne Town Hall. Cumnock is a fine example of an Italianate mansion much loved in the late 1800s over Melbourne. It was completed in 1889 for stock-and-station agent George Howat, then acquired in 1919 by Ridley College, a Christian theological college affiliated with Melbourne University.

Cumnock Mansion and tower, Melbourne University Parkville

Realestate

The four-bedroom, double-storey home on corner block opposite Royal Park is a boom period Italianate mansion. The main suite features a marble ensuite, while three further oversized bedrooms share a designer bathroom with a bath and separate toilet. Many thanks to realestate.com.au.

The home had been used by the university as a residence but was now not needed. It’s been renovated since the university bought new fixtures, fittings and amenities throughout, but now it’s sitting vacant. The listing comes c6 months after the university committed to repay $72m in wages to staff it underpaid between 2014-24. With grand proportions and flexible spaces, now it might be repurposed as consulting rooms or executive space, subject to council approval.

Set over two levels, Cumnock includes 11 principal rooms, 9 original fireplaces, two staircases, wine cellar and turreted viewing tower. Cumnock’s elegant living rooms showcase Victorian grandeur with bay windows, and park outlooks. A two-zoned bathroom, powder room and full laundry are on ground floor. Upstairs a spacious rumpus room opens to a wraparound balcony and the turret’s lookout, with  sweeping views over the park. 

foyer with soaring ceilings and Corinthian columns (above)

stained glass window (below)

Realestate

Cumnock’s marble-draped, state-of-the-art kitchen and dual staircases blend Victorian elegance with contemporary luxury. Preserved period details include an entry hall/foyer with soaring ceilings and flanked by Corinthian columns that greet residents and guests upon entry. Expansive formal and informal living zones feature high ceilings, bay windows and ornate period features. Melbourne University’s Parkville mansion Cumnock, grand gardens and heritage design.

landscaped gardens, private courtyard, pond, alfresco terrace

1376sq m, Realestate

Inside there are stained-glass windows, archways and decorative cornicing. Key living spaces include a formal dining room with garden views, a grand sitting room, library or home office, custom cabinetry and an expansive meals area opening via French doors to a sun-drenched alfresco terrace. Set on 1376sq m, the landscaped gardens include a private courtyard with a fishpond centre-piece, surrounded by leafy landscaping.

Dr Leon Morris became Vice Principal of Ridley College in 1945. In his 15 years as Principal he built up the college, created the new chapel, and saw Ridley become the first Uni college to have male and female residential students. He was made a member of the University Council in 1977, and loved retreating to his tower in his residence of Cumnock to study or contemplate.

Ridley College reopened Cumnock Mansion to provide accommodation for international students from the University of Melbourne in 2005. Then Prof Duncan Maskell was a biochemist and academic who specialised in molecular microbiology and bacterial infectious diseases. He became vice-chancellor Melbourne University in 2018 and was given Cumnock House as his home. This year he resigned, and the house went on the market. 

I want this house! But my family only needs 2 bedrooms, one storey and a cheap price gggrr. Can the university reach the suggested $8m-$8.7m price guide?