ZMDI chess festival
The ZMDI Chess Festival (named after the ZMDI company ) is a chess tournament in Dresden .
history
“The Dresden Chess Festival goes back to one of the first significant chapters of Dresden chess history. On July 17, 1892, the 7th Congress of the German Chess Federation (DSB) was opened in the hall of the Philharmonie of the Dresden Gewandhaus. The organizer was the Dresden Chess Federation, founded in 1876, which at the turn of the century even advanced to become the largest chess club in Germany. At that time, DSB General Secretary Twenty was firmly convinced that Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch would win the first Dresden championship tournament. At the opening he showed him the first prize, a 1,000-mark note. Motivated in this way, the man from Nuremberg won one and a half points ahead of the masters Markovetz from Budapest and Porges from Prague. ”On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of these events, the 1st Dresden Chess Festival was held in 1992.
Tournaments
ZMD Open
The Dresden Open (ZMD Open since 2002) is the most important tournament in the context of the Dresden Chess Festival. It is internationally top-class and the largest of its kind in East Germany.
Dresden Porcelain Cup
A member of Chess Collectors International from Dresden's twin city, Hamburg, suggested making chess sets made of porcelain in the Saxon Porcelain Manufactory in Dresden.
In September 1996, the Open German Women's Individual Championship, the Dresden Chess Festival eV. aligned on the Elbe, exhibited for the first time an Arab chess set made of Dresden porcelain. “The 'Dresden Porcelain Cup' connected the present with the past and revealed very special connections that exist between the city of Dresden, art, religion and chess. On January 15, 1708, Johann Friedrich Böttger, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and Gottfried Pabst von Ohain invented European porcelain in the Elbe city. Just three years later, chess pieces are already on Böttger's production list. The chess set made of Dresden porcelain was manufactured in the Saxon Porcelain Manufactory in Dresden using classic technology from the 18th century. The simple figures seem very modern, but their history goes back to Arabia as far as the eighth century. The modeller Olaf Stoy himself recreated the originals in museums that were cut in ivory or bone at the time. The reason for the stereometric and geometric shapes of the figures is the Islamic religion. It prohibits the depiction of humans and other living beings. Since the rules of the Koran were strictly followed in the Arab world at that time, the figures were developed from the three basic forms of a cone, cylinder and narrow rectangular body. The figures from the manufactory make it clear which techniques were used to differentiate between the individual figures. They were cut flat at different heights, rounded off at the entire top or in segments, notched, provided with button-like attachments or protruding arches. The Saxon state colors white and green were created by adding color oxides to part of the porcelain mass. "