Wade in Paris Febrruary 1949 (Rossolimo/Molnar)

[Paul McKeown]

There was a recent exchange of posts between Simon Spivack and Jessica Fischer regarding Rossolimo, who was invited to play a two game match against Bob Wade in Paris in Feb. 1949, under the auspices of the FSGT (workers chess), but was barred by the FFE (national federation). Strangely, the exchange of posts took place in a thread concerning Vera Menchik. So, I have started this separate one.

[Perhaps the mods could do some thread cleaning?]

I have some questions regarding the report given in Bulletin Ouvrier des Echecs (B.O.E.), Vol. 8, No. 31 Feb 1949, pp. 25-27:
a) does anyone know what Parallèle 50 was?
b)

Wade que le B.O.E. présenté à ses lecteurs le mois dernier

Does anyone have Vol. 8 No. 30? Presumably January 1949. I would dearly love to see that piece.

I may have some further questions, I'm still fully digesting the report, which was detailed, interesting and gave some useful insights.

[Paul McKeown]

To partly answer my own first question, the page http://www.slovnikceskeliteratury.cz/sh ... docId=1807 seems to suggest that Parallèle 50 was a leftist cultural journal which seemed to have been published from 1947 to 1952 in Paris and was sponsored by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Information. I don't, however, trust my ability to reliably read that passage, as I know no word of Czech. Could someone help, or better still, does someone know the history of that publication?

[Michael Farthing]

Google translate:
Parallel 50

Leftist cultural and political weekly published between 1947-1952 French in Paris under the auspices of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Information. The publisher of the magazine was first Czechoslovak colony in Paris for financial support of the Czechoslovak Embassy in spring 1946 took over the issuance of the Czechoslovak Information Office (CIC) in Paris, established by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Information and falling under its jurisdiction. Method subsidies and control sheet, however, subject to confidentiality, the French public and the French authorities were magazine publisher Jean-Marc Bouquin and Henri Thimonier. The subtitle of the magazine was "le journal le mieux informe sur les démocraties populaires" ("best-informed newspaper about people's democracies"). Journal title refers to the 50th parallel, through Prague and Paris. - Weekly large newspaper format followed the illegal magazine New Czechoslovakia (subtitle: journal of the Czechoslovak resistance in France), which was published in France in 1940-1944 in the Czech-Slovak edition in September 1944, the French under the title La nouvelle Tche coslovaquie. Since January 1946 he officially based magazine, from No. 2 under the name Paris-Prague, from No. 17 (October 1946) in a large newspaper format. In 1947 there was only a change of name to Parallèle 50, but was reinforced by the cultural component in that time, mostly politically oriented magazine. - In the Paris newsroom worked in the forties, among others, the Czech side Artur London (editor in chief), Vaclav Jilek and František November , the French side by Philippe Soupault (briefly in 1946), Henri Thimonier, Henri Fougerousse, Samy Hannoca. Worked closely with the magazine Czech ambassador in Paris Adolf Hoffmeister and cultural agents in the Czechoslovak embassy Ivo Fleischmann and painter Josef Sima. Then there is also the Prague magazine, whose task was to deliver the Parisian editorial material and foremost to control the political content of the magazine. Editor in chief and responsible editor of the foreign policy of articles was Frederick Runge, a cultural section corresponds Libuse Halasová (wife of Francis Halas ), the editors also worked Ludmila Benesova-Drtinová, Catherine J. and Nekvasilová Kroupová-Knoblochová; regular correspondent in Prague (sehrávajícím role of "coupling" between Prague and Paris) was Antonín Jaroslav Liehm . In the years 1950-1952 the magazine took over dogmatic cultural politics "line" promoted in Czechoslovakia, the content of the cultural section has not been as diverse and has primarily been dictated by ideological interests.

(Vk)

[Paul McKeown]

Also there is a reference in the article to the F.O.S.E. Is that French for Schweizerischen Arbeiter-Schachbund (SASB), and if so

a) what was the unabbreviated name, and
b) was it a recognised and accepted title for that organisation in Switzerland?