100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CROATIAN CHESS FEDERATION

Chess is certainly the oldest intellectual game. There are many legends among which the best known is the one with a checkerboard and wheat grains. Among archaeological remains of old civilisations wooden plates similar to that of chess were found, but it was still not the chess in today’s sense of the word. The oldest findings of chess game originate from India (from the middle of the 6th century).Chess has developed and changed throughout centuries and its modern history reaches into the 15th century when Juan Ramirez Lucena in 1497 in Spain (Salamanca) published the first book on chess. This game acquired global popularity as an art and skill, since with equal success the rich as well as the poor, old and young, professionals and amateurs could practice it. There are three basic ways of playing and competing in chess: the first is classical chess played between two players (over-board chess), the second is correspondence chess and the third is problem chess. Croatia has got a rich chess tradition. There are legends about Croatian coat of arms, which is often in error called checkerboard; however, chess is not played on it, chess is played on the real chessboard with the total of 64 fields (8x8). The story about the King Držislav (which mentions also the King Suronja) tells us how the king was captured by Venetians and about the chess games he played with the Doge of Venice, Pietro II Orseolo who lost three games and liberated Držislav giving him the power over Dalmatian towns. Držislav inserted a part of chessboard into his coat of arms. English historian Thomas Hyde in his book De ludis orientalibus (On Oriental Games) from 1694 mentions correspondence chess games played between Venetian and Croatian merchant in 1650. In the 19th century chess became increasingly popular owing to students who attended universities in Vienna, Brussels and Paris. First chess column appeared in 1875 in the weekly Hrvatska lipa and in the same century began organised occupying with chess. Thus, it is mentioned that the first chess club was founded in 1879 in Dubrovnik and according to preserved documentation in 1886 also Zagreb Chess Club was founded by the academician, and Dean of the University of Zagreb, one of the most prominent Croatian chess players, Prof. Dr. Gjuro Pilar and his co-workers: Dragutin pl. Šram and Dr. Slavko Wolf. The Club was registered according to legal regulations of that time and had its own regulations officially approved on 22 March 1886. In January of the same year first chess tournament was organised in Zagreb under the name „Trial Tournament“. It was organised by Gjuro Pilar according to the experience that he acquired during his stay and study in Brussels where he was in touch with some of the most famous chess players of the time. There were nine participants at the Tournament and the winner was Dragutin Šram. At the beginning of the 20th century, more precisely in 1909 Izidor Gross a well known problem chess player issued in Karlovac the first Croatian book on chess with the subtitle Šahovska abeceda (Chess Alphabet). The names for chess figures used in the book are still in use. After founding of other chess clubs in Zagreb, Karlovac, Varaždin, Sisak, Osijek and Vukovar, their representatives organised a founding assembly of the Croatian Chess Federation (HŠS) on 12 May 1912 / i.e. 12 years before founding of the International Chess Federation (FIDE, Fédération Internationale des Échecs). Due to political events and political and social changes and in spite of the efforts of chess enthusiasts, the Federation did not manage to function continuously. After the First World War the state of Yugoslavia was created. In new circumstances it was not possible any more to re-activate the earlier Croatian Chess Federation and thus in 1920 thanks to the efforts of Croatian and the support of Slovenian activists the Yugoslav Chess Federation was founded in Zagreb. In 1937 the Croats held a new founding assembly of their chess federation but the founding was not approved. The authorities were of the opinion that it was possible to organise associations only at the level of counties. So, only after establishing of the Croatian County it became possible to found the Croatian Chess Federation in 1939 within the framework of Croatian Sports Unity that comprised also other sports associations. In the period of the Second World War, it was only in 1943 that Croatian Chess Federation was revived. After the end of the War in the second Yugoslavia the associations were formed at state, republic or region levels. In 1948 the Chess Federation of Croatia was founded and lasted under that name until the breakup of Yugoslavia, to be restored in 1991 under its original name of Croatian Chess Federation (HŠS). On 3rd August of the same year the Federation breaks all connections with the Yugoslav Chess Federation and on 21 June 1992 at the 63rd congress in Manila is accepted as full member into the International Chess Federation (FIDE, Fédération Internationale des Échecs). There are just a few Croatian sports associations that can boast a longer period of existence. In Croatia numerous respectable competitions were held e.g. three chess Olympics – IX Olympics in 1950 in Dubrovnik, II Olympics for women in 1963 in Split and IV. Olympics for blind chess payers in 1972 in Medulin, followed by European teams competition in Pula in 1997 and World Championship in problem chess for single players from 2004 to 2006. Croatian chess players won in total 40 grandmasters titles - 34 man’s and 3 woman’s, one grandmaster title in correspondence chess and two grandmaster titles in problem chess. Nenad Petrović was a chess world champion in solving chess problems in 1947 and a year later, in 1848 he organised another world championship in problem chess. He was the president of the FIDE’s Committee for problem chess from 1958 to 1965 and also organised the first world congress of problem chess players in 1958 in Piran (Slovenia). These congresses have been held until today continuously every year in different, mainly European states. In Croatia they were organised also in 1977 in Malinska on the island of Krk and in 1977 and 2000 in Pula. Especially rich was the chess publishing activity. Within the Croatian Chess Federation (HŠS) there existed also Šahovska naklada (Chess Publishing) since 1946. Even earlier, since 1925 there has been issued - with shorter breaks – until today Šahovski glasnik (Chess Herald). Under the editorship of Nenad Petrović, a magazine entitled Problem (1951 – 1981) was issued; it served also as the first official herald of the International Committee for Problem Chess and later the FIDE’s Committee for Problem Chess was issued. In edition of Šahovska naklada (Chess Publishing) also 14 FIDE’s albums were published. The editors were Nenad Petrović and later J. Varga. The albums are among the world’s most important issues (collections) of best chess problems since it is on the basis of these collections that FIDE grants international master’s titles in problem chess. So, at that time Zagreb was at the world’s top in this chess discipline. There is no doubt that the chess motifs on postage stamps are among the most popular and most represented thematic fields in philately. Croatian Post has issued a stamp dedicated to Dr. Gjuro Pilar as a scientist that was indirectly also related to chess. However, the stamp issued on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Croatian Chess Federation is the first Croatian stamp exclusively dedicated to chess. Zvonimir Hernitz