- Progress in the chess science is a very positive fact - an average chess aficionado may say - but who after all is (or was) Mr. Bartoszkiewicz?
- And how his name should be pronounced? - would add another, not versed with complexity of Slavonic languages.
The last question could be answered easy: BAR-TOSH-KEVICH (English transcription).
For sake to try to answer the first question I would like to quote a fragment of the IM Jan Teplitsky's long and entertaining article ?Akiba Rubinstein Revisited? (Chess Life 2002, v. 12, p. 772-774).
"When Akiba was 16 he came across a chess book written in English when perusing books for his theological studies and was hooked. His life was to take a very sharp turn. To the great dismay of his family gone were books about Torah and out alone a paper-cut board and chess pieces.
Later Akiba would exclaim that at that time he was studying six to eight hours a day for 300 days a year! Thanks to his incredible talent and tenaciousness the results came very fast. In 1901 Akiba won the beautiful game against a strong Polish player.
It is more clear now, who in chess was Mr Bartoszkiewicz. He lost (the next Famous Loser, like Lionel Kieseritzky) the very first recorded (en passant - when and by whom?) game of Great Akiba.
Somebody extremely inquiring would ask: how we know that G. Bartoszkiewicz was not only STRONG, but also POLISH (and not for example Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian etc. etc.) chessplayer?
Somebody could underline a contradiction about dating of the mentioned game; 1901 or 1902? Well, in the Eastern Europe the Impossible is sometimes possible; as we remember, the Bolsheviks Revolution 1917, called often October Revolution, begun in November. The city of Bialystok during more than 100 years, from 1808 till 1915 (the year of offensive of the German Army on the East Front during I WW), belonged to Russian Empire; all events there used to have double dating.
Some months ago, studying yearbooks of Russian chess magazines from the turn of XIX and XX centuries, I was lucky to find several forgotten games played by our hero, the Famous Loser Two. He took part in, as a minimum, 3 correspondence chess tournaments of "Shakhmatny Zhurnal" (the fifth, sixth and seventh); in the latter he shared 1-2 places with A. I. Romashkevich (Romaszkiewicz?) of Kharkov (both 18,5 points out of 22 games), they followed Saburov (well know chess organiser, 17,5 p.), Koslaninov (14 p.), Prince Urusov (13 p.) and Kolenko (12,5 p.), participated also Berens, Shabelsky, Khmelevsky, Kugaievsky, Severov and Pshetslavsky.
I replayed all games of G.G. Bartoszkiewicz and recorded them in my computer data base. Now it is easier to figure out the theoretical and practical level of a player, who sometimes is supposed to be the first partner or even a "chess teacher" of Akiba Rubinstein.
Later, looking at headers of Bartoszkiewicz's games, I started to think, in which corner of Mother ? Russia
STAROSEL'CE
(the city?) should be searched.
Rubinstein, after leaving his home Stawiski (city located on the way from Warsaw to Bialystok, then in the Lomza Province), and before his settlement in Polish "Promised Land" (e. g. in Lodz, what happened about 1903), gained some chess experience in Bialystok. Perhaps the area near Bialystok should be taken "under the microscope"? This supposition proved to be correct.
Starosielce - today it is a quarter of Bialystok, advanced most to the West. 50 years ago and more - an independent settlement, from 1919 - with its own civic rights. Soon in the internet I found an information that historian - amateur from Bialystok Mr Krzysztof Oblocki (*) edited two comprehensive books on Starosielce and its inhabitants in the historical perspective.
I was almost sure that new information on Engineer Bartoszkiewicz (as he was titled by Polish chess authors) are granted. "How many engineers could live in the settlement of Starosielce scale in 1900" - I speculated - "maybe three, maximum five".
In June 2005 I phoned Mr Oblocki. He explained that Starosielce, today not extremely famous even in this country, was an ultra-important junction in a railway network. It was there an "iron way" from Petersburg (a capitol of Russian Empire) through Vilnius, Grodno and Warsaw, and so on, through Cracow to Vienna, or through Poznan to Berlin, to the Western Europe.
Commercial goods were transported throughout Starosielce from hundreds of factories in Lodz, Warsaw and Bialystok to the stores and customers on the East.
In opposite direction, Russian soldiers with their weapons had been transported throughout, from the interior of the Empire to garrisons in turbulent, unsubmissive Polish cities, where people were always ready again and again to start a "myatyezh" (in Russian: rebellion) against His Majesty Tsar of Russia.
Mr Oblocki told me that prior to 1915 80% of Starosielce inhabitants were Russian, others were Jewish or Polish. In 1915 all railwaymen with families, but also all workshops and factories were evacuated to the interior of Russia, to Kaluga.
After Poland was again independent in November 1918, due to the almost-closed borders with Soviet Russia and bad political and economical relations with Lithuania, the economical importance of Bialystok (and Starosielce, too) was decreased seriously.
Unfortunately Mr Oblocki was not so lucky to find any ?Bartoszkiewicz of Starosielce? during his (quite comprehensive, as it was said) researches. It should be excluded that G. Bartoszkiewicz was a railway employee. Mr Oblocki pointed out that archives of Bialystok were partly destroyed, and not only by the last war.
(*) Mr Krzysztof Oblocki authored the monograph "Starosielce miasto kolejarzy 1872 - 1996" (Starosielce - the city of railwaymen 1872-1996), edited in 1997. His second book "Starosielskie wspomnienia" (The Recollections from Starosielce) completes and develops the subject (vide: http://www.woak.bialystok.pl).
Then, the history of Starosielce have not started in the era of railway building. National Library of Canada (and some other libraries, too, as I think) possesses in its catalogue the Louis Jacobs? book "Seeker of unity; the life and works of Aaron of Starosselje".
Rabbi Aaron ben Moses ha-Levi lived in Starosielce in years 1766-1828.
Despite this G. Bartoszkiewicz is now "less unknown"; some of his games could be implemented in the modern data bases. As we see, he was a serious partner in correspondent chess tournaments, hardly a "boy for beating".
Is it a chance to find more data on "Rubinstein?s first teacher" The task is difficult though not hopeless. In another Russian monthly "Shakhmatnoye Obozren'ye" (1903, v. 9, p. 329) I found following note:
Kiev
In the 8. issue of "Strategie" we can see information about games played in Kiev by strong player V. N. Yurevich of Moscow.
He won 3 games of 4 against Mr. Nikolayev, with G. Bartoszkiewicz he scored 6 games.
So the foot-prints of G. Bartoszkiewicz lead from Starosielce to Ukrainian metropolis. Some prospects for further research still exist!
Tomasz Lissowski
