Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.01.2007, Side 9

Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15. janúar 2007 • 9
INL 2007 Convention
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
April 27 to 29, 2007
����������� ���� �����
WHERE: All Convention meetings & meals will be held at the historic
Hotel Fort Garry
ACCOMMODATION: A special rate has been negotiated with the Hotel
Fort Garry located in downtown Winnipeg.
Hotel Fort Garry, 222 Broadway, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
www.fortgarryhotel.com Toll free # 1-800-665-8088 local 942-8251
Please mention INL code 1000Y8 when booking your hotel accommodations
YOU MUST BE PRE-REGISTERED – NO EXCEPTIONS
REGISTRATION DEADLINE:
Early Bird: February 28, 2007 $135.00 (CDN)
Postmarked after March 1, 2007 $150.00 (CDN)
Registration includes Breakfast and lunch on Friday & Saturday
and Saturday Banquet
Saturday Banquet only $50.00 (CDN)
Final Deadline is April 6 for both Convention and Banquet
MAIL YOUR REGISTRATION TO:
Evelyn Thorvaldson, Registration Director
Apt 19 - 30 Victor Lewis Dr, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3P 1H5
Check websites for further information
www.scandinaviancentre.mb.ca • www.inlofna.org
INL CONVENTION 2007 REGISTRATION FORM
Please return with cheque or money order payable to
The Icelandic Canadian Fron
1. Name:___________________________________________________
Address:_________________________________________________
2. Name:___________________________________________________
Address:_________________________________________________
Telephone #:_____________________________________________
Email___________________________________________________
Members of _______________________________INL Club/Chapter
Number of Convention Persons ______x $_______ = $__________
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Total Amount enclosed $__________
Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca
A younger generation embraces an ancient game.
to eight-year-old range, which
he feels is the right age to start
playing. “They are the most
wonderful people you can fi nd,”
he says. “They are so open-
minded, and clever — and you
can’t bluff them! If they like it,
it’s because it’s something that’s
important [to them], really.”
They will continue with
this age group, and the plan
is to continue with teenagers.
He also notes, “The main aim,
though, is not to create masters,
but to get as many young people
involved as possible.” He’d like
to see chess taught as a subject
in school, along with math, ge-
ography and other subjects.
This may seem odd to North
Americans, for whom chess is
just another board game; but
Iceland has had a long associa-
tion with the game.
Chess came to Iceland, prob-
ably from England, in the 12th
century, says Hrafn, and before
that the vikings had played a
similarly strategic board game
which is referred to in the Ice-
landic sagas. Travellers that
came to Iceland in the Middle
Ages commented on Iceland-
ers’ love for chess, saying that
they must spend the long win-
ter nights playing against each
other.
Chess fell in popularity in
Iceland until the 19th century.
That began to change thanks to
Willard Fiske, who was the fi rst
University Librarian at Cornell
University and a professor of
North European languages. He
collected many manuscripts, in-
cluding ones from Iceland. He
donated his volumes to the uni-
versity, endowing it with a col-
lection of Icelandic manuscripts
rivalled only by the National and
University Library of Iceland.
Fiske was also a keen chess
player, and he began promoting
the game with the fi rst Icelandic
chess magazine, published in
Florence, Italy, and by donat-
ing chess sets to Iceland. He
followed that up with a book on
chess in Iceland and Icelandic
literature, which was published
in 1905, one year after his death.
“He is sort of a father of Icelan-
dic chess in the 20th century,”
says Hrafn.
“Then we had another great
fortune, Friðrik Ólafsson be-
came one of the best chess play-
ers in the world and a national
hero in the 50s and 60s, at a time
when the Republic of Iceland
was young and needed heroes.
He was on the front pages of
every newspaper when he was
playing; his games were broad-
cast live on the radio — there
wasn’t television back then.”
Iceland’s pride in chess-
playing prowess is justifi ed.
With a population of 300,000,
it has the highest number of
chess grandmasters per capita in
the world, among them Jóhann
Hjartarson, Margeir Pétursson
and Jón Arnason.
Nartional interest spiked
even higher in 1972, when US
chess champion Bobby Fischer
faced Russia’s Boris Spassky
in a world championship match
in Reykjavík. The so-called
“Match of the Century” focused
international attention on Ice-
land. The excitement made the
country “chess-crazy,” accord-
ing to Hrafn, who adds that it
was the biggest event ever staged
in Iceland up to that time.
The match, which Fischer
ultimately won, left a deep im-
pression on Icelanders. When
Bobby Fischer was sought by
the US government on charges
of violating sanctions against
the former Yugoslavia by play-
ing a $3 million (US) chess
match there in 1992, the govern-
ment of Iceland in 2005 offered
Fischer Icelandic citizenship to
help avoid extradition from Ja-
pan to the US.
Iceland’s 20th-century pas-
sion for chess grew thanks to all
of these events building on what
came before, Hrafn says. With-
out Fiske’s promotion of chess
in the country, he says, “I doubt
Friðrik Ólafsson would have
become one of the best in the
world... And without Friðrik’s
victories and making a name for
himself, Iceland wouldn’t have
been considered for the match
in 1972.”
But while high-profi le events
raise awareness, he cautions, the
groundwork is much more im-
portant. “We will soon have a
whole generation in Iceland that
is not only familiar with chess,
but knows the game, and ap-
preciates it,” he says. “We will,
I hope, have many great chess
events in Iceland in the future.”
The work with children
doesn’t stop at Iceland’s bor-
ders, either. Hrafn and his col-
leagues have introduced the
game to Greenland, helping or-
ganize and found a chess federa-
tion in that country in 2003, and
its popularity has been steadily
increasing. “Greenland will be
a great chess playing country
in the future,” says Hrafn. They
have also set up a chess school
in Sarajevo, and have taught
children in Namibia to play the
game as well.
He sees it as a good way for
all children to have fun, learn,
and even get to know people in
other countries. Language is no
barrier to playing the game, and
he emphasizes its strength in
bringing people together. “The
slogan of the World Chess Fed-
eration, FIDE — and ours as
well — is ‘We are one family’,”
he says. “We really believe in
that, and try to work according-
ly. Chess is the real international
language.”
For more information on
chess in Iceland, visit www.
chess.is/; for more information
on the Hrókurinn Chess Club,
visit www.hrokurinn.is/.
642-5504 Ernest Stefanson
Garry Fedorchuk
Claire Gillis
Pat Sedun
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Left: two boys in Namibia enjoy a friendly match. Right: a class of Greenlanders with chessboards donated from Iceland.