Jan C. Roosendaal (Deventer 23 november 1921 – Amsterdam 16 mei 2017)

Chess composer 

In Memoriam Jan C. Roosendaal

"After a rich and worldly life, he has reached our 95th year of life, and on Monday 22 May we have taken a small circle of family, friends and knowledge of his differences. Under the W.O. II will pack him up and have to do his part-time work in German factories. According to reports in Latvia and Russia, he returned home because no one wanted to see him alive again. He was a versatile man with a broad orientation: publicist, journalist, writer, poet, musician and bring together everything that came to him. His house at the Overtoom in Amsterdam, where he has remained for some time, thanks to his children and friends, was a storage place for books and magazines. He has given his life a lot of money by playing chess. In 1940 he became youth champion of Amsterdam S.G.A., and again in 1983 club champion of De Pion after which he was also director and editor of the club magazine. From 1970 to 1990 also members of Schach-Echo. In 2013 he received the Golden Reward from the Schaakbond for more than 50 years of loyalty. I myself have spent 70 to 90 hours in the chess cafés of Amsterdam where I not only wanted to throw a pot at him but also play a game of bridge with him, and overcome his great passion for chess problems, especially for the flight from which he, to my mind, has given out two meeting books. In 1991 he also published the book in his own right: Mat in twee zetten – an excursion to the land of the tweezets. He did not play an active role in our problem group, I thought, but because in our eyes a number of problems would come to light (and in others too). His oeuvre includes many two things, but he did not shy away from switching to other types of problems. Up until now he has been active as a chess composer; his latest publication was in Probleemblad 2014."

Alfons Jaakke, mei 2017.

Source: Nederlandse bond van schaakprobleemvrienden