Remembering Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)

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John Upham
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Remembering Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)

Post by John Upham » Thu Sep 09, 2021 12:22 pm

Remembering Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)



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Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Remembering Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Sep 09, 2021 1:31 pm

Was looking into this bit here:

"After living in Berlin for many years, where he was manager of the bridge and chess rooms in a well-known café-restaurant"

I think this could be either (or both) of the Café Wien and the Café Trumpf (it seems List was resident master at more than one such institution), as described in this article here:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/a-rich-ch ... -1920-1933

A rich chess life: Berlin Chess Cafés 1920–1933 by Alan McGowan, dating I think from 2017. The article is well worth a read.

Who knew that Matthew Sadler had written on the 1954 British Lightning Tournament? (Thanks, John, for highlighting that.) A great anecdote there from Leonard Barden!

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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Remembering Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)

Post by Gerard Killoran » Thu Sep 09, 2021 2:54 pm


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Re: Remembering Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)

Post by Gerard Killoran » Thu Sep 09, 2021 4:58 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Thu Sep 09, 2021 1:31 pm
Was looking into this bit here:

"After living in Berlin for many years, where he was manager of the bridge and chess rooms in a well-known café-restaurant"

I think this could be either (or both) of the Café Wien and the Café Trumpf (it seems List was resident master at more than one such institution), as described in this article here:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/a-rich-ch ... -1920-1933

A rich chess life: Berlin Chess Cafés 1920–1933 by Alan McGowan, dating I think from 2017. The article is well worth a read.

Who knew that Matthew Sadler had written on the 1954 British Lightning Tournament? (Thanks, John, for highlighting that.) A great anecdote there from Leonard Barden!
https://josefjakobs.info/2018/09/the-ge ... ewish.html
It always amazes me, the tangential relationships I discover that touch on the Josef Jakobs story.

On 13 June 1941, during an interrogation with Camp 020 officer, Lt. George F. Sampson, Josef mentioned that:

Dr. Paul List, a Russian Jew who immigrated to Germany, can confirm that I am anti-Nazi. List is a professional chess player and owned a club in the Café Berlin in the Kurfürstendamm in 1931 and then later a club in the Café Trumpf. (The National Archives, KV 2/25, no. 94b)

A few months ago, I did a bit more digging on the mysterious Dr. Paul List, just to see if the guy existed and if there was any truth to Josef’s story. Here’s what I found…
Also Paul List's original name was Pavel Odess, but that's another story.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Remembering Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Sep 09, 2021 5:50 pm

Thanks Gerard!

Interesting to see the uncertainty over a possible Café Berlin. List went from chess room manager at Café Wien to director of the chess room in Café Trumpf. I wonder how formal or informal such arrangements were, and how much depended on patronage of some sort?

I also wonder what he was a doctor of (presumably at Odessa University), and whether there is any connection with his later profession as an art dealer?

EDIT: Searching for a Pavel Odes who may have been awarded a doctorate at Odessa University might be tricky (and the relevant sources are likely not online or in English). Or did he study in Germany?

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Remembering Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Sep 09, 2021 6:13 pm

Anyway, if anyone wants more, there are some interesting sources listed in the chessgames.com page on Paul List (including a memoriam by his wife Stephanie Hannah Lilly):

https://www.chessgames.com/player/paul_m_list.html

e.g. ""Dr Paul List; In Memoriam", by Mrs Stephanie List, on pages 156-157 of CHESS, 24 December 1954. A large article about the simultaneous display by List and Dr Em. Lasker was published in the weekly newspaper "Denken und Raten", Nr. 19, 12 May 1929."

There is also a publication by Eugenijus Paleckis on Jews in Lithuanian chess history.

And a couple of mentions here:

http://chess45.ru/historychess/41.html

Oh dear. Need someone to translate from Russian... (wonder how Google Translate will cope?) [It coped quite well, but only passing references to Pavel Odes/Paul List.]

EDIT: Does anyone have any idea what the "M" in "P. M. List" might stand for?

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