Memories of Amsterdam

November 30 - December 6, 2001

Mr. Don, Georgia, Michelle and yours truly travelled to Amsterdam to take part in a chess history symposium sponsored by the Initiativ Gruppe Konigstein (the "IGK"). 

My chess buddy Shira Evans Sanford posted a photo at her Facebook page a few days ago that reminded me soooo much of that time in Amsterdam:

It was taken at a place called "Santana Row" (in sunny, warm California) on Wednesday, which would have made it March 7 (if I'm counting backward correctly - no guarantee on that!). 

Here was 11 year old Michelle outside the Max Euwe Centrum, Amsterdam in early December 2001, and checking out that large chessboard in the Square (the Centrum anchors one corner of it).

I wish I had better photographs of that place and time, but it was before digital cameras and point-and-shoot!  I had a "brownie" camera with "Magic-X" flash cubes and the few photographs I have from that trip are not the best!  Mr. Don had a much more respectable camera but it took him so damn long to take a photo that most of his subjects died before he ever got the shot off.

This next photo sort of shows the background of that square; it's a Mr. Don original:

Damn!  He was one hot dude back then...

A Miracle?

This event was verified as a genuine miracle by the Roman Catholic Church.

Amsterdam's own miracle of 1345
Published on : 24 March 2010 - 1:57pm

On 13 March 1345 an honest-to-God miracle occurred in Amsterdam. On that day, a dying man sent for a priest to administer the last sacraments. However, the man was so sick that he regurgitated the Host (the wafer that represents the body of Christ) and then died.

The Host returns
His vomit, including the Host, was thrown into the fire. The next day, the maid was surprised to find that the Host had remained untouched by the fire, and took it to the priest of Amsterdam's Old Church. Much to everyone's surprise, the Host reappeared at the dead man's house the next day. The maid again took it to the priest, but the host returned to the man's house twice. This wondrous sequence of events became known as the Miracle of Amsterdam.

The miracle was officially recognised by the Roman Catholic Church and considered proof of the actual presence of Jesus Christ in the Host. An annual procession was held to commemorate the Miracle of Amsterdam until all public expressions of the Catholic faith were banned in the 16th century.

The annual pilgrim's walk through Amsterdam, the Silent Procession (Stille Omgang), was held this year for the 129th time since its reintroduction in 1881.

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What I want to know is where is this Host today? Is it preserved somewhere similar to those mysterious "archives" where was saw the Ark of the Covenant stashed inside an anonymous wooden crate at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark?" Did someone take it in Holy Communion hundreds of years later? Was it destroyed during the Protestant revolts in the 1600s? Is it still on display inside a glass case, miraculously preserved and pristine white (except for some dried puke?)  Or did the Host finally get tired of magically rescuring itself from the fire and decide to walk away and hide in the forest - where it remains hidden to this day...

Amsterdam 2001 Part 2

Hola darlings! It's an absolutely gorgeous day today - there's a strong breeze (about 25 mph), the air is DRY and I feel totally energized. The grass out back has been cut, articles have been read, critters have been fed. While doing some housecleaning today in preparation to receive my guests (dondelion will be here on Friday and Isis and Michelle arrive a week from Tuesday) I came across some old photographs from my 1999 trip to the FIDE World Chess Championship in Las Vegas. I will scan and post some of them. That reminded me of our 2001 trip to Amsterdam, and that I did not finish my "travelogue." So - here goes: While the Initiative Group Koenigstein symposium at the Max Euwe Centrum ran only three days, from November 30 - December 2, 2001, we were in town a few days afterward to take in some of Amsterdam's sights. I'm an early riser. Sunday December 2nd dawned with a watery sunlight - the first I'd seen since our arrival in Amsterdam! I quickly got dressed, grabbed a hard-boiled egg and some bread and butter from the empty common room and headed out before 8 a.m. The city was deserted - the streets were wet; it was humid, the air was soggy, but the sunlight cast the buildings in a manner that took my breath away and I took a leisurely stroll in the area around the Hotel Schmitt, ending up at the Rijksmuseum. I took several photographs during my stroll, but my camera was cheap and old and the photographs were disappointing. This was in the days before digital cameras turning every shot into a winning shot! I got back to the hotel shortly after 9 to a full common room, everyone was eating breakfast (it was included in the cost of our accomodations). Several of us walked to the Max Euwe Centrum for the final half day of the IGK Symposium. It ended with a discussion I knew would never amount to anything - the writing and compiling of a "new" and improved history of chess (actually, more about the origins of chess and the games from which it may have been derived, which is what we at Goddesschess are most interested in). I left early. Unfortunately, by doing so I missed out on an impromptu lunch afterward with The Chief (Ricardo Calvo), Carmen (his wife and faithful Librarian and research assistant), Ken Whyld and others. They and Gerhard Josten, our German acquaintance who had been instrumental in introducing us to The Chief, were all leaving on afternoon trains to go back home. Later that afternoon dondelion, Isis, Michelle and I trekked over to the Rijksmuseum and spent hours oohing and aahing at the incredible collection of art. I know I've got some photographs from that day other than those I've already posted (in the left hand margin of the blog), I'll see if I can dig them out, scan and post them. Now the couch is calling - I need a nap...

Amsterdam, 2001

We'd planned the trip for months. Having received invitations via our connection with Ricardo Calvo (may Goddess rest his soul), Isis, Michelle, dondelion and yours truly were going to travel from Montreal to Amsterdam with a layover at London's Heathrow from November 29 through December 5? (I forget the exact dates) to attend a symposium at the Max Euwe Centrum sponsored by the Initiativ Gruppe Koenigstein. (Photos: views of my Hotel Schmitt room).

All our travel plans were in order - airfares paid for, hotel accomodations secured.

And then, 9/11 happened.

Ricardo and I got into a nasty email fight about 9/11 and I was going to cancel my reservations - who needs the European a-holes was my feeling at the time. Hey, my nickname isn't Patton for nothing!

But under this crusty exterior I'm a softy, and I was eventually prevailed upon from several different directions to attend the gathering; and, being "fiscally prudent", I didn't want to have to pay $100 to cancel the airlines reservations for use at a future date. At the time, I couldn't imagine travelling anywhere overseas ever again and I didn't want to waste good money.

In due course, Isis, Michelle and I rendevouzed with Don in Montreal; we had a one night/day layover there before departing on an overnight flight to London. We travelled on to Amsterdam where we stayed for, I believe, 6 magical days. dondelion gave a presentation on his never-finished always being edited "Fool's Guide to Pawn Promotion." Isis and I also put together written presentations and, together with dondelion's "Fool's Guide," they were spiral bound and we (stupid!) hauled several copies overseas in our luggage! (Photo: view toward the Reicksmuseum from my Hotel Schmitt room).

When we got to the symposium we realized we didn't have near enough copies of our "presentations." dondelion and I had a real adventure running out during the 1.5 hour lunch break, tracking down an "insta-print" place and having to pay for the job in cash (that meant running out and locating a cash machine) - as they refused to take my "foreign" credit card - the jerks! Ever get lost in a semi-circular city? We did - but somehow managed to find out way back to the hotel (no thanks to my never-failing go the wrong way sense of direction) and from there, the few blocks further to the Max Euwe Centrum.

Every single copy of our spiral bound presentations were snapped up - we even gave up our ceremonial keepsake copies (but I stole one back later on when someone's back was turned for an instant and he'd left his copy sitting on a table...)

I'm sure I've written about all of this before - but I'm too lazy to try and track down the back-link - I really must put in some kind of internal search... Here is my absolutely informative, fantastic and innovative paper on Goddess Iconography in Ancient Board Games - should have gotten the Nobel Prize for it, I think.

This was all brought back to mind when I was earlier perusing some photographs from the trip I've got stored on my hard drive. We had a wonderful time in Amsterdam, although I didn't eat a bite at the Saturday night celebratory dinner gathering at an Asian restaurant. Everyone else seemed to be having a rip-roaring time, but for me it was a total bust. When I ordered "peanut chicken" I didn't expect to receive something that looked like slime-coated mush served on long toothpicks. We also received bowls of hard, glued-together, cold, white rice. No butter or margarine available to flavor it. Not a salt or pepper shaker in sight. Strange-colored globs of stuff were presented as "salad." I'm still not sure what those globs were, exactly - probably best not to know.

The Germans seated on my left side steadfastly ignored all my polite attempts to engage them in conversation, the Russians across the table who did speak German but no English were attentive but communication was, by necessity, somewhat stilted since I speak neither Russian nor German. We did a lot of "sign" language.

I gave all my food away to a couple of very hungry graduate students who shared the end of the table with us to my right. They were extremely cute and quite entertaining, so I didn't mind. I left early after paying my bill, using all my available cash and borrowing some from dondelion (this restaurant did not accept credit cards - what?) and with a few more borrowed gilders from dondelion, I stopped at a McDonald's on the way back to the Hotel Schmitt and took a Big Mac and fries back to my room. Heaven!

In due course, I had my 15 micro-seconds of fame when I was mentioned in the Russian chess magazine "64" in an article written by one of the charming Russians who'd sat across the table to my left (Issac Linder, Jr.):

And the group of the American enthusiasts already entirely exceeded in its excursus into the antiquity all fantastic visions:she proposed conference the collection of statements, in which on complete ser'eze is asserted the godly origin of chess. Jain Newton from the state of Wisconsin even did organize during December 1998 discussion on internetu of?Is of chyuess tyue din of to tyue Of goddess?? and it found numerous adherents of view, as if all ancient games were vnusheny to people more than.

Leave it to a man to spell my name wrong! It's Jan - not Jain - even though I suppose I'm somewhat religiously sympathetic to the Jains...

The Babelfish translation is, of course, totally horrific. The original question that got Goddesschess going was "Is Chess The Game Of The Goddess?" - and it was posed by Isis, not by me, at the old Art Bell message boards. But in typical Patton fashion I more or less hijacked, cajolled and cohersed everyone posting there at the time to follow my lead, and about six months after that initial discussion thread started, the very first Goddesschess website appeared. The rest, as they say, is herstory.