In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

THE LONDON CHESS TOURNAMENT MY JOB WAS going very well. I was a mover and a shaker and quickly ascended up the ladder of the factory. SKF was providing me with a fully paid two-week vacation, which was nearing. I had made plans to go to London because the World Deaf Chess Tournament was to be held there. If it weren’t for the tournament, I wouldn’t have planned to go to London. I was looking forward to seeing my friends from Hungary who would be playing in the competition. I went by train from Göteborg to Malmö, Sweden. On the train, I met a girl from Finland. As our eyes met, I sensed a feeling of powerful physical chemistry between us. Somehow or other, we met up in the hallway between the train cars where we began hugging and kissing each other. She stroked my face affectionately. I never felt my heart beat so hard with excitement. Unfortunately, her mother was watching us like a hawk. The train boarded the railroad ferry for Copenhagen, Denmark. In Copenhagen, I got off the ferry and said good-bye to the Finnish girl. Her train continued on to Germany. It was too bad. I wondered whether we could have had a relationship. Jenő was there in Copenhagen to greet me for a brief one-hour interlude. From Copenhagen, I boarded a train that traveled to Rotterdam, Holland. In Rotterdam, the train boarded a huge ferry for the last leg of the journey before arriving in London. On the ferry, I happened to meet a German deaf man, who was also headed to London for the chess tournament. We discovered that we would be staying in the same hotel. Throughout our journey , he boasted about Germany’s qualities of health, science, and commodities. I let him rattle on because I was happy to have his companionship. The sea was extremely rough, and the man said that the conditions were typical for the North Sea. It was a blessing that the ferry was large and built to handle the rough conditions. I 139 1 9 C H A P T E R (1958) slept well. In the morning, we arrived at a port in England, then continued by train for London. When I arrived in London, my friends from the Swedish chess team were there along with my friends from the Hungarian chess team. I was flooded with emotion to see my former Hungarian chess teammates. I wished I could play as part of their team, but I could attend the tournament only as a fan. I was unable to play on behalf of Hungary because I had forfeited my citizenship. I couldn’t play for Sweden because I wasn’t a citizen of Sweden, only an alien. I was, in fact, stateless. Regardless, I still enjoyed the tournament because I was with my friends. After a few days at the tournament, I went to visit Charlotte. I couldn’t figure out how to get to her place, so I decided to spend a little extra money and have a taxi driver figure it out for me. When I arrived, Charlotte had tears in her eyes. She was so pleased to see me, and I reciprocated her feelings. We spent hours discussing the past, the time spent apart, and what the future held. After our visit, I decided to try and take the subway back to my hotel. Charlotte gave me the proper directions. She also gave me directions to visit her aunt and uncle. The next day I went to see Aunt and Uncle Balkányi. They were happy to see me, too. They were now retired. I stayed for a couple of hours and joined them for tea. They wanted to know about my career and family. The following day, I went to the London Jewish deaf club because the deaf community was supposed to be having a meeting. When I entered the club, I immediately set my eyes on one particularly wellendowed young lady. She was trying to help a little boy and was bending forward. When she looked up, she noticed that I was staring at her chest. She gave me the shame-shame-on-you sign with her fingers . She was also deaf, and her name was Jessica Rapaport. She was British-born. We used body language to communicate because I didn’t know any English, and she didn’t know Hungarian or Swedish. Although our...

Share