Remembering GM Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)

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John Upham
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Remembering GM Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)

Post by John Upham » Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:23 am

Remembering GM Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)


A British National as at June 27th 1947 Mieses was one the first twenty-seven players to be awarded the Grandmaster title for OTB play by FIDE in 1950.

The next (Tony Miles) would be some twenty-six years later.

He continued active play into his eighties and was the longest survivor of Hastings 1895.


mieses_foto.jpg
GM Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)
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Tim Harding
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Re: Remembering GM Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)

Post by Tim Harding » Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:46 pm

Thanks for the interesting article about Mieses but the statement "He edited the eighth edition of the famous Handbuch" is incorrect and needs to be corrected.

The editor of the 8th edition (1916, 1040 pages) was Carl Schlechter, with the cooperation of some specialists in certain sections but Mieses is not among those whom Schlechter named on page viii of the prologue.

Mieses edited the 51-page 1921 supplement which is bound at the back of my copy.
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Re: Remembering GM Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)

Post by John Upham » Tue Feb 23, 2021 4:06 pm

Thanks for the kind comments Tim.

I'm surprised that Wolfgang Heidenfeld made the mistake you mention and presumably Harry Golombek did not bother to check WHs work.

I guess I am just as guilty by taking his word for it and not checking myself and so compounding the error.

On a general point I have noticed authors relying on BCM obituaries and such like without checking primary sources.

We have had that with Edith Baird and Samuel Boden to name but a few.

(Of course it is easy (but not fair) of me to criticise those authors since checking primary sources would have been considerably more time consuming in the 1970s and 1980s when those books were written.)
Last edited by John Upham on Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Remembering GM Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)

Post by Tim Harding » Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:00 pm

Where did Heidenfeld make this mistake? It is true that the incorrect attribution of the 8th edition is in Golombek's Encyclopaedia and (I just checked) also in the Soviet Encyclopaedia.

But surely the Oxford Companion (1984 edition, page 213) correctly says he did the supplement and you actually quote that in your article!

So unless Hooper and Whyld changed it for the second edition which i don't have at home, you are wrongly accusing them...

It is true there are some mistakes (and some debatable speculations) in the Oxford Companion which have proved hard to eradicate but that's another story. On the whole I think it's pretty reliable.
Tim Harding
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Re: Remembering GM Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)

Post by John Upham » Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:17 pm

Tim Harding wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:00 pm
Where did Heidenfeld make this mistake? It is true that the incorrect attribution of the 8th edition is in Golombek's Encyclopaedia and (I just checked) also in the Soviet Encyclopaedia.

But surely the Oxford Companion (1984 edition, page 213) correctly says he did the supplement and you actually quote that in your article!

So unless Hooper and Whyld changed it for the second edition which i don't have at home, you are wrongly accusing them...

It is true there are some mistakes (and some debatable speculations) in the Oxford Companion which have proved hard to eradicate but that's another story. On the whole I think it's pretty reliable.

The contribution about Mieses in HGs encyclopaedia was written by (W.H) as opposed to (W.R.H.) on page 199.

According to the page listing the Associate Editors and Contributors there is William R. Hartston and Wolfgang Heidenfeld.

About H&W I was mistaken since both editions correctly refer to the supplement. The second edition article has been shortened and for example, they no longer refer to Mieses as prim.
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