Monday, July 9, 2012

July 10th

Otto B. Wurzburg (10-07-1875 - 19-10-1951) American composer

Otto Wurzburg
[Valery Surkov [broken link] ]


Otto Wurzburg was the nephew of W.A.Shinkman. He composed more than 1200 problems in 3 or more moves. He gave his name to a form of the Plachutta theme, the Wurzburg-Plachutta, whose definition was explained by Emmanuel Manolas on his blog.
Edgar Holladay compiled 200 of his problems in "Wurzburg Artistry" (1974) and Valery Surkov proposed many of his problems with their solutions on his website [broken link].

Wurzburg, Otto B.
Norwich Mercury, 8th Apr 1913


#4 9 + 11

Show Solution


Wurzburg, Otto B.
The Pittsburgh Gazette Times, 15th Jul 1917
1st Prize


#3 10 + 6

Show Solution






Carlos Rodriguez Lafora (10-07-1884 - 19-04-1966) Spanish composer

Carlos Rodriguez Lafora
[javiastu.blogspot]

Carlos Lafora became International Judge in 1960. He was famous for his collection of more than 18,000 endgame studies. Based on his collection he wrote two books: "Alfiles en casilla distinto color" (1963) and "Dos caballos en combate" (1965). He published several KSS vs KP endgames in "Dos caballos..."



József Pogáts (10-07-1928 - 2004) Hungarian composer

József Pogáts
[magyarsakkszerzok]

József Pogáts was a helpmate composer who was specialized in long problems.

Pogáts, József
Zászlæonk
1st Prize, 1943-1944


h#14 9 + 7

Show Solution




Геннадій Шинкаренко (10-07-1978 - 23-05-2007) Ukrainian composer (Gennady Shinkarenko)



Gennady Shinkarenko was a talented composer too early departed. He was the web-designer of the site KOZATSKA SHAKHIVNITSA edited by Vitaly Shevchenko and Leonid Lyubashevsky.

Шинкаренко, Геннадій
Vukcevic-60 JT, 1999
1st Prize


#4 11 + 13

Show Solution




Jan van Reek (10-07-1945 - 08-08-2015) Dutch composer

Jan van Reek
[KWABC]

Jan van Reek was a chess analyst, lover of chess history and composer who proposed many analyses and other goodies on his website endgame.nl [broken link].
He wrote many articles and books, such as "Endspielstudie - Zwischen Theorie und Artistik".


Timman, Jan Hendrik
van Reek, Jan

Wola Gułowska 1994
1st Prize


+ 5 + 6

Show Solution




Vasile I. Tacu (10-07-1910 - 1993) Romanian composer

Vasile Tacu was a chess player and composer. He was also quite renowned as an author of epigrams (some of them can be read in Romanian here).
He played correspondence chess and was involved in an international tourney until 1958, when due to political reasons he was no longer allowed to write any letter to anybody abroad. How he contacted his old pen pal Henry Kell in 1990 after 32 years is narrated in an article of the Kokomo Tribune May 13, 1990.
He was a friend of Radu Dragoescu's and they often discussed retroanalytical themes and other problem chess topics. They composed together a few problems, such as this or this retro problem.

Tacu, Vasile I.
543, Europe-Echecs 1991


Position after Black's 6th move, #1 0 + 31

To solve this problem you must identify the pieces in the position, based on the clue that White can mate in 1 move.
Show Solution


2 comments:

  1. The two links of Jan van Reek are dead. Unfortunately, his website no longer exists either. Jan van Reek published pictures of his family on the internet, which unfortunately have also disappeared.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your update. So many links disappear forever.

      Delete