Match Praha - Berlin 1914, original group photo - Listing # 27380

DESCRIPTION

Beautiful original group photo from the match “Sachovní klub Dobrusky - Berliner Schachgesellschaft”, which took place in Prague on May 31 - June 1, 1914. Size 15,4 x 10 cm.

The photo in much better quality can be downloaded HERE.

Standing from the left: Wiegand, Duras, Klotzsch, Sery, Opocensky, Plonings, Hajn, Moravec, Skalicka, Prokes, Richter, Taussig, Kvicala, Zukovsky.

Sitting from the left: Jakobowitz, Wienskowicz, Janowski, Schulz, Pavelka, Schlage, Pahl, Ahues, F. Treybal, Rotenstein

Berliner Shachgesellschaft is the oldest and still existing chess club in Germany. Its members were many famous players such as Anderssen, Lasker, Zukertort, Schallop, Lasa, Bilguer, Dufresne, Horwitz, Lange and many others. The chess club has existed since 1827 and its current name is Berliner Schachgesellschaft 1827 Eckbauer.

Sachovni klub Dobrusky was one of the first and most popular Czech chess clubs from the beginning of the 20th century. Founded in 1902 and named after Jan Dobrusky, a famous Czech chess problemist.

This was the third match between these clubs. The first match was played by telegraph in 1912 with the participation of Emanuel Lasker as the arbiter of the match and ended in a 4 : 4 draw. The second match was played in Berlin in 1913 and ended with the victory of the German team 16,5 : 15,5. The third match, from which the photo comes, was played in Prague in 1914 and ended with the victory of the Czech team 15,5 : 10,5. An almost identical photo was published in the Czech magazine Casopis ceskych sachistu 1914 (page 105) but in much worse quality. There is a fairly extensive report from the match in that magazine (pages 90-92) and several annotated games (pages 86-90).

The most known players on the photo:

Oldrich Duras (1882-1957) - the first Czech grandmaster and one of the world's leading players between 1906-1914.

Karel Opocensky (1892-1975) - legendary Czech international master. He was four-time national champion (1927, 1928, 1938, and 1944) and played four times at the Chess Olympiads. He won individual gold (11,5/13) and team silver medals in Folkestone 1933 and team bronze in Prague 1931. Opocensky was also a chess publicist and is the author or co-author of several chess books.

Carl Ahues (1883-1968) - Germany international master, German champion in 1929. He played at two Chess Olympiads (Hamburg 1930, Prague 1931) and at the unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich 1936.

Karel Skalicka (1896-1979) - Czech chess master, played three times at the Chess Olympiads - Prague 1931 (silver medal), Folkestone 1933 (bronze medal), Buenos Aires 1939 and was a member of the Czech team that won the first unofficial Chess Olympiad in Paris in 1924. On behalf of Czechoslovakia, he signed the founding charter of FIDE there. After the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires 1939, he remained in Argentina.

Frantisek Treybal (1882-1947) - Czech chess master, national champion in 1907, played in the famous international tournament in Prague 1908. Elder brother of Karel Treybal.

Emil Richter (1894-1971) - Czech chess master and trainer, national champion in 1948, played at the unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich 1936.

Ladislav Prokes (1884 - 1962) - Czech chess master, problemist and publicist. He won 5 medals from national championships (1x silver, 4 x bronze), played three times at the Chess Olympiads (1927, 1928, 1930) and composed about 1200 studies.

Willy Schlage (1888-1940) - German chess master and trainer. He took third place at German Championship in Hamburg 1921 and won the Berlin Championship twice (1921 and 1926).

Otokar Pavelka (1878-1946) - the first official Czech chess master. He won the title after his victory at the main tournament of the Deutscher Schachbund in Cologne 1898.

Simon Rotenstein (ca 1890 - ?) - German chess master, first place in Berlin Championship 1930 jointly with Ludwig Rellstab and Kurt Richter.

Condition - Good to Very Good: the photo is glued on hard blue paper with size 16,8 x 10,5 originally intended for photo portraits. On the right side is visible part of the text “portrait”. In the lower part in the middle, the photo is slightly scratched, but nothing serious. The hard paper is a little bent.

Listing Format:	Auction
Current price :	€135,00
Starting bid:	€100,00
# of bids:	4
Closes:	Auction is closed
Location:	Czech Republic
Started:	2021-05-13 21:28:58
Ended:	2021-05-20 20:23:30
Seller:	Boletus27 (574) View this user's other listings
High Bidder(s):	Foreign_member (1544)
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