Publisher's Synopsis
How many books are there now with only poems about draughts? They must be out there, but I have not been able to find many. I came across the name Manoury (1750), published by Kring voor Damproblematiek in 1991 and that of Jacquemin-Molez (1878) in France. Draughts and poems. The two have ostensibly nothing to do with each other. This multilingual book takes a closer look, because there is not only beauty in draughts, but also in draughts poems. The poems are funny, captivating, and entertaining. In this way we learn a lot about draughts players in earlier times. Manoury is proof of this, talking about Polish draughts which was not different from the draughts we play today on the 100-square board. But the poems of Yves le Goff also give us interesting information about players like Steau, Raphael, and Weiss. Between 1909 and 1916 the Netherlands had a good and energetic draughts poet in Salomon Kan. Unfortunately, this player died at an early age. Another active draughts player who organized poetry in Holland for many years before the Second World War was Wouter Hofman. The draughts world owes him a great deal. It was no easy task to get hold of certain foreign poems, but thanks to the help of Hanco Elenbaas I gained possession of many poems written by the French draughtsman Yves le Goff. He also gave me many tips about the two draughts poets - the father and sun Blankenaar, and with his data I was able to check whether I already had certain poems by both poets, but I am afraid that many of the draughts poems by the Blankenaars are not in this book. On the other hand, I could count on the help of the Polish Marta Grabiec who came up with the Polish draughts poem by Adam Mickiewicz, written in the early 19th century. Her knowledge of the Russian language enabled me to get hold of the Russian translation of this Polish draughts poem. This translation was made around 1882 by the Russian poet Dmitri Dzmitry Minajew and is exceptionally beautiful. Draughts is still a long way behind chess. It is therefore my wish that this book compensates for that to some extent.
