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A true and exciting heroic story.
Together we will win.”
FOR SURE!
Yosef Rozhanski—heroic chess player!
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Posting one more time to make this show up on the main forum page.
Yosef got to play the Israeli chess champion! He has also been teaching chess while recovering from the amputation of his leg.
https://www-ynet-co-il.translate.goog/yedioth/article/yokra13696728?_x_tr_sl=iw&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The Victory of the Spirit
The 67-year-old chess master Yosef Rozhensky came to visit his family in Kibbutz Holit and fell into the inferno of Black Sabbath. He managed to save his family after holding the door of the hospital for hours, but lost his leg to the terrorists' shots. While he is recovering from surgery at the Ichilov Hospital, Rozhensky gives accelerated chess lessons to the other hospitalized patients, and this week he meets for an exciting game against the Israeli champion, Ido Gorstein, at the initiative of the Israel Chess Association - and came out victorious regardless of the result.
"During a morning walk in the kibbutz, I suddenly saw smoke and heard explosions. At first I thought it was a drill by our army," Yosef Rozhansky recalls the morning of October 7, when he and his wife, residents of Kiryat Shmona, were visiting their daughter and grandchildren at Kibbutz Hulit in the Eshkol region. "I returned to the house, and after a few minutes we realized that the terrorists were in the settlement and houses started to catch fire."
Rozhensky (67), a chess master, has been hospitalized since Black Sabbath at the hospital for the Medical Center in Ichilov. That day, after holding the door of the medical center together with his wife for hours to prevent the terrorists from entering, "My daughter wanted to help the neighbor while there were alarms And the terrorists are walking around the kibbutz, and she actually saved her life. After that we locked ourselves in the mamad and asked the children to be quiet," he recounts the terrifying experience.
"The terrorists came and demanded that we open, and my wife and I held the door by force. There was a big boom, they threw a grenade and pierced the door, and then started shooting through the holes. I was hit by a bullet and fell immediately, but we managed to hold on until the IDF forces arrived after three hours. Me, my wife and the six-year-old granddaughter were injured," he recalls.
Rozensky was rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery to amputate his leg. Since then he has been recovering, and in the meantime teaches the other hospitalized people the secrets of chess. This week, at the initiative of the Israel Chess Union, which mobilized to make the veteran chess master happy, Rozensky met in Ichilov for a short game (blitz) against the Israeli champion, Grandmaster Ido Gorstein, who in Israel is expected to have a great future at the top of world chess. Rozhansky did not hide his excitement and said: "If chess players come to play with me, it makes me feel good and raises my morale."
And how did the game end? The chairperson of the Chess Association, Tzvika Barkai, who followed every move, concluded: "It was a very difficult game. Ido of course played excellently, and Yosef also demonstrated a very high level of play. The game was even, a relatively equal situation that leads to a draw, but it is considered that Yosef lost because his time has passed." Barkai, a colonel in the resp. in Golani, added that "I used to fight, today our goal is to strengthen and support and help in whatever way we can. The goal of The game is of course also the victory of the spirit, the continuity and the return to the things we love. Despite the difficult event, the people of Israel rise up, beat their enemies and continue forward. Chess allows everyone to play, even with one disability or another. Rozensky has proven that he is a gifted chess player even without a leg."
The young champion Gorstein said that "it was a good game. Rozhensky seemed fine, he even got up when we arrived, which made me really happy, as well as the fact that he is teaching the guys there to play chess. I was recently released from military service, and today we are establishing an enterprise that will allow people to play and compete and that's how to pass the time and relieve the tension with good things. Everyone tries to contribute their part to the common good and this is my contribution, like coming to meet Rozensky, having an exhibition match with him and strengthening him. It's very important that everyone gives what they can."
Below is an article about Yosef Rozhanski, an Israeli chess player, born in 1956. He is ranked the 278th player in Israel. This article was posted on the Israeli Chess Federation website, and has been translated using Google Translate. I’ve edited it in a few places for better readability/accuracy.
On the last holiday of Simchat Torah, which became one of the most terrible days in the history of the State of Israel, the chess master Yosef Rozhansky from the Kiryat Shemona Club was hosted by his daughter in Kibbutz Hulit.
Yosef, his wife, and mother-in-law came to help his daughter and her four children during the Sukkot holiday, when her husband went to a congress in Paris.
Yosef says that on Saturday morning he got up at six in the morning, took a tour of the quiet and pastoral kibbutz, when suddenly he noticed a light and heard the sound of an explosion in the air.
Yosef returned home, and noticed that there was smoke in the houses next to their house. They wanted to put out the fire and rescue those staying in the nearby houses, but realized that terrorists had entered the mamad [bomb shelter], so they locked themselves in the mamad.
They kept an exemplary silence which was not easy. At around 11:00 [a.m.] they heard terrorists trying to break into their house without success. The terrorists brought with them a kibbutz girl who was taken as a hostage and forced her to ask Yosef's family to open the door for them. Luckily, they realized it was a scam.
When the terrorists saw that they could not open the door, they threw a grenade into the room. The damage caused by the grenade was great. Yosef, his wife, and one of his granddaughters were moderately and severely injured.
They lay wounded for about seven hours when luckily his daughter (with extraordinary resourcefulness) made him a tourniquet and took care of his wife and granddaughter.
Only at 18:30 [6:30 p.m.] did the IDF forces arrive and rescue them from the window and evacuate them to the hospitals.
Yosef lost part of his leg and is hospitalized in Ichlov Hospital in the rehabilitation department.
A true and exciting heroic story.
Together we will win.