Andorra	Brazil	Bulgaria		Cuba	Dahomey	Djibouti
Dominica	Ecuador	Egypt		Faroe Islands	France	Great Britain
Hungary	Iceland	Iran		Israel	Mali	Monaco
Netherlands	Niger	Rumania		Russia	San Marino	Surinam
Sweden	Tunisia	Tuvalu		UAE	Wallis et Futuna	Yemen
Yugoslavia	.	.		.	.	by Colin Rose

News October 2006

Illegal and Fraudulent Chess 'Issues' Warning! All Afghan 'stamps' listed in Scott after year 1990 are illicit issues. The 1999/2000 Afghan chess issue is a fraud. All 'stamps' from South Ossetia are illegal and are not valid postage stamps. If a stamp dealer sold you such items as stamps, then we suggest you return them and ask for a full refund. There are also dozens of fraudulent chess issues from Mali, Myanmar, Rwanda, Sahara Republic (and variants of same), Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan etc. For more detail, see PWO Illegal Stamps and the excellent Expertizers article on illegals (including a listing of naughty dealers who try to sell fraudulent issues on eBay). Domfil Catalogue - New Edition ! Domfil have released the 2nd edition of their chess stamp catalogue. It has a new dual column layout, with 108 pages and costs €24. Rose Online Catalogue Our Online Catalogue is still in its second beta release (b2). It's dynamic, it's interactive, it's illustrated, and it zooms. A new version is being planned ...

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About Chess on Stamps

• the above gallery - for those passing through
• the online catalogue - for collectors

Feature Column   Poland Booklet Chess on Stamps has a new feature column. To start things off, here is a scarce and rare official Polish chess booklet from 1975: [ Click to see internal view ] The booklet contains the Poland chess issue of 1974 (4 x 1 Zloty: Gibbons SG2309) + a non-chess Polish stamp (4 x 1.50 Zloty) yielding a total face value of 10 Zloty. This booklet is not listed in current chess catalogues and surprisingly, after 30 years, appears to be previously unknown to chess collectors.

Site archive Nico van der Plas in Holland always has something of interest; Jon Edwards has an excellent site (USA), with pages on chess stamp errors and more; Steve Trussel covers the early years (1947-1952) of philatelic chess; Riccardo Andreis covers chess stamps, cancels and more; Jacques Foissotte is based in France; International Master Conrad Goodman provides detailed country listings; Alberto C M Borges in Brazil has a super new site (in development); Aare Sepp offers a new site in Estonia; Vladislav Amigood focuses on Russian aspects of philatelic chess; Elias Sarlé's site is based in Spain; fognin lists many Yugoslavian stamps on cover, and Hennes Deuker has a German site. Enjoy !

Societies and Journals

Amicale Philatélique Themechecs - France    

L'Amicale publishes the quarterly journal Philemat (with listings, competitions, and fascinating articles) and produces its own catalogue entitled Themechecs. It also provides a subscription service for new issues, postmarks, covers etc. A wonderful society.

COSSU - Chess on Stamps Study Unit of the American Topical Association

COSSU publishes the quarterly journal Chesstamp Review, which includes check lists (no pun intended) alternatively covering stamps, postal stationery and EFO (Errors, Freaks and Oddities on chess stamps). They hold mail auctions and keep a stock of chess stamps and postmarks for sale. Dues are US$15 per year for N. Americans, and US$21 for all foreign members. For more information, contact the President, Ray Alexis at Chessstuff911459@aol.com or the Secretary-Treasurer, Jim McDevitt at cwouscg@aol.com .

Gemeinschaft der Schachmotivsammler (GSM) - Germany

GSM publishes the journal Messenger in both German and English. They offer a subscription service, competitions, and auctions. For more information, contact their chairman Herbert Roeder at hroeder@gsm-schach.de .

Motiefgroep Schaken - Netherlands

Motiefgroep Schaken publishes a quarterly journal in Dutch with news about chess related stamps, telephone cards, etc. They have a fine web site including an interesting listing of chess on money. They also have frequent auctions that are very well run. For more information, contact Nico vd Plas at nico.van.der.plas@wanadoo.nl.

Vlaamse Schaak-Philatelisten (VSP) - Belgium

VSP is a group of chess stamp collectors in Belgium, founded in 1988. They meet every two months, and publish a bi-monthly journal De Schaakphilatelist (in Dutch), with information and news about chess stamps, cancels etc ... They have an interesting web site.

Printed Catalogues

Current Catalogues
• Domfil - CHESS Thematic Stamps Catalogue - second edition - by Jordi Domingo I Gimeno (2004). Sorted: by country (also by time). Price: €24. Gives Yvert, Michel, Scott and Domfil numbers! High quality production, dual column layout in full colour. 108 pages.

  Unfortunately, the Domfil catalogue includes many fraudulent issues which rather questions its value as a stamp catalogue altogether. The stated catalogue prices are also often unrealistically high. For example, Tanzania 1986 is listed with a catalogue value that is about 25 times higher than true market value. Finally, the abbreviations on each page are in Spanish which can makes it difficult to decipher.

• Stanley Gibbons - Collect Chess on Stamps - second edition - by James S. Young (1999), SG, London. Sorted: by country. Price: £6.95. Uses SG numbers.

  In the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, stamps of dubious philatelic merit are listed separately in special appendices (e.g.: some issues from the Central African Empire, Equatorial Guinea and Fujeira). This is very helpful and can save one from buying worthless fraudulent issues.

• Themechecs - published 1997 by l'Amicale Philatélique (see above) with colour illustrations. Sorted: by time and by country. Price: 150FF (US$20). Uses Yvert numbers. Separate appendix listings for abusive and dubious issues. Contact Amicale to place orders.

• GSM / Henninger - available from GSM. Sorted: by time. Price: 50DM (about US$25). About 170 pages - kept up to date with supplements. Uses Michel numbers.

Out of Print Catalogues
• Checkmate - a Swedish catalogue by Hans Ulfstromer covering stamps and official chess postmarks. Extends to 1988. Out of print. Illustrated supplements (1988-1996: over 30 pages) are maintained by Herr Gutt of Germany.

• Checkmotif - a recent German catalogue by Lutz Seger (1995?). Covers everything - stamps, FDC, stationery, official chess postmarks, and other chess collectibles. Sorted: by country. 600 pages! Out of print.

• Echecs en Philatelie - published by the French stamp dealer G.P. Gerlinger. Out of print.

• Flexa - a 5-volume catalogue written by Brazilian Ruy Arco e Flexa: stamps and postmarks. Sadly, Ruy Arco e Flexa passed away in March 2000, and the catalogue is no longer available.

Related notes
• Chess Informant publishes a cumulative illustrated listing entitled Chess through Stamps.
  See volumes 20, 23, 25, 28, 31 ...

• Chesstamp Review (the COSSU journal) includes an up to date text listing once a year.

• Errors, Freaks and Oddities - by Jim McDevitt, Henry Meifert and Russ Ott. This listing of varieties and errors is published once a year in the COSSU journal.

• Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps - by Felix Berkovich and Nathan Divinsky.

Album Pages

• Washington Press sell blank pages with an illuminated chess motif border for mounting a topical chess collection. Price: US$4.35 for a packet of 12. Contact: washpress@washpress.com. (Thanks to: Douglas Halliday)

• Domfil sell deluxe pre-formatted pages for mounting your chess collection.

Sponsored by the Theoretical Research Institute - tr(I)