Chess in the Cyprus Internment CampIsaac and Israel Rot, along with their cousin Aryeh Klein, were H
Chess in the Cyprus Internment CampIsaac and Israel Rot, along with their cousin Aryeh Klein, were Holocaust survivors caught as illegal emigrants to Palestine by the British in 1946 and sent to a Cyprus internment camp until 1948. Their fellow inmate, a chess master, offered to teach them the game if they presented him with a set. They started carving stones before hitting upon the idea of ‘industrial production.’ They made the lathe from a pair of skates bought from one of the inmates, and started producing chess sets and selling them to British soldiers as souvenirs. -- source link