CCI meeting - French & Italian Sections -20. - 21. Octobre - La Tour de Peilz, Vevey, Switzerland

A short report by Thomas H. Thomsen

Chess meet in the Toy Museum

What was originally intended to be a meeting for the above mentioned groups turned out to be a large international gathering with additional attendants from the US, Russia, Holland and England. We started on Friday with an excursion to the Monastery of St. Maurice that goes back to Roman days with its magnificent Treasure Chamber and six medieval chessmen mounted on the lid of a silver reliquary.

Following a joint lunch, we saw the great Monet Exhibition in the Foundation Gianadda.

St. Maurice

The "leitmotive" for the visit was to see the famous reliquary, crowned with a medieval arab quartz chess piece - not allowed to photograph, You will have to go and see them yourself! 

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Lakeside View of Vevey and the Alps

Museum Shows

In the evening the Museum hosted a dinner reception with the possibility of viewing the exhibits and the two special exhibitions arranged for the meeting, one about Cast Iron Chessmen and one on Miniature sets like the ones made for doll houses. Two special catalogues were printed - which can be obtained from the Museum (1, See Notes below)).

Gilded Cast Iron Set

U Unique set, made in Russia for the brother of Czar Nicholas II, contained in a custom-made casket !

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Cast Iron Romans

Made in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Munkacsy (today Mukachevo in Ucrainia), ca. 1872.

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Nuremberg Silhouettes founded in iron

Zimmermann set Arminius vz. Varus (the battle of the Teutoburg forest) , mid 19th C

18th C founded iron

Fabulous set, in the manner of the 1775 pewter sets by Hilpert - may well be one of the earliest iron foundry chess sets ever made.....

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Collector's Quintet

The amphitryons , from the left: Rodolfo Pozzi (CCI Italy) , Patrice Plain(CCI-France), Thomas Thomsen (CCI Germany), CCI President Michael Wiltshire, Ulrich Schädler (Museum Boss)

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The Miniatures show - fills half a showcase, obviously!

Fine points

On Saturday morning, the traditional session with papers and presentations took place.

Cast Iron and chess was the subject of Thomas Thomsen,  followed by Rodolfo Pozzi's presentation of an 18th century Indian Gouache.  Ulrich Marschek (RIP) showed a chess set carved in wood depicting the characters of the Oberammergau Passion Play and Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh talked about games in Europe before chess.

Patrice Plain presented a comprehensive classification of French chess sets. Achim Kiel talked about an interesting design feature of an 18th century silver set. Ulrich Schädler, the director of the Museum explained the Maharaja Chess Set in the permanent collection his Museum.

Chateau La Tour de Peilz

What a brilliant idea for the Swiss to place their superb National Toy Museum in this sombre stronghold!

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Test by the best

GM Juri Averbach testing the new playground....(with Museum director Ulrich Schädler)

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Getting the bearings in the Toy Museum

More fun to come

After a Cheese Fondue Lunch we had a guided tour of the famous Chateau Chillon, where Lord Byron wrote some of his works - among them supposedly the third canto of  "Childe Harold" .

The Gala Dinner followed in the Casino Barrière in Montreux with Prof. Ernst Strouhal speaking about Nabokov and Chess.
Sunday morning a very well attended Chess Market was organized in the Museum.
The Meeting concluded after a delicious Farewell Lunch in the conference hotel.

All Photos by Thomas Thomsen

Notes:

1)order the catalogues from:

Thomas Thomsen

for € 12. (metal sets)
and € 10.- (miniatures)

alternatively from

Musée Suisse du Jeu
  Au Chateau
CH-1814 La Tour-de-Peilz
021 977 23 00
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website:  www.museedujeu.com