Monday, May 14, 2012

May 14th

William Meredith (14-05-1835 - 10-08-1903) American composer

William Meredith
[source: Cleveland Public Library]

William Meredith composed 200 problems. His specialty was problems of at most 12 pieces. Hence the name of "Meredith" given to this sort of problems, after a Good Companion tourney dedicated to him in 1916. 100 of his direct mates, each with commentary by one of the "Good Companion" club, can be found in the A.C.White Christmas Series "100 Chess Problems" (1916).

Let's start with a not so easy Meredith:

Meredith, William
Dubuque Chess Journal, 1872
5th Prize


#3 5 + 1

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This one may be easier to solve. Since Black obviously threatens direct checks by the Qg6 and discovery checks by the Bc5, some drastic measures must be taken:

Meredith, William
Chess Journal, 1871
2nd Prize


#3 8 + 7

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Eric Manfred Hassberg (14-05-1918 - 08-01-1987) American composer

Eric Hassberg
[© Hannu Harkola]

Eric Hassberg was a specialist of two and threemovers. He was the editor of several chess problems columns (for instance "Chess Correspondent"), of the magazine "The American Chess Problemist" between 1949 and 1952, and wrote the books "To Alain White" (1945) and "The Best American Chess Problems of 1946" (1948). He was also an international judge and a threemover theme bears his name.
168 of his problems are quoted in E.Holladay's book "E.M.Hassberg Ingenuity" (1978).
You may read here the tribute of his grandson.

Hassberg, Eric Manfred
British Chess Federation 36th Tourney, 1941
1st Prize


#3 7 + 9

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Marko Klasinc (14-05-1951) Slovenian composer and FIDE Master

Henk le Grand and Marko Klasinc, Crete 2010


Marko Klasinc is mostly a helpmate composer, but he has a large repertoire. He is also the Slovenian delegate at the WFCC and the organizer of the 2002 Portoroz congress as well as an International Judge and a Solving FIDE Master.

Klasinc, Marko
Die Schwalbe, 1978
Prize

h#4Circe
d7: Neutral Pawn
g2: Neutral Knight
 
1 + 2 + 2

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Marco Bonavoglia (14-05-1953 - 05-12-2022) Italian composer

-
Marco Bonavoglia
Vladimir Tyanin]


Marco Bonavoglia was more interested in heterodox problems: helpmates, retro and fairy problems.
In 1985 he created the magazine "Etero Scacco Problemi" which became a fairy oriented website (last update: 10/2010).
Marco was also the Italian delegate at the WFCC.
Here is one of his recent successes:

Bonavoglia, Marco
Andernach, 2008
1st Place


PG 10.5           Magic Kings       8 + 16

Magic Kings cause the immediate change of colour of any piece they come into contact with or observe again from a different direction. This colour-change happens to pieces of either colour regardless of which side has made the move, which means that a piece entering the King’s field changes colour on arrival. Any pieces newly observed by two Magic Kings at once retain their own colour, as do Magic Kings themselves.

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Владимир Александрович Персиянов (14-05-1955) Russian composer (Vladimir Aleksandrovich Persiyanov)

Vladimir Persiyanov
[Facebook]

Персиянов, Владимир Александрович
Probleemblad, 2006

r#2  8 + 14

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Mirko Degenkolbe (14-05-1964) German composer and FIDE Master

Mirko Degenkolbe
[Wikimedia]

Mirko comes from the Arbeiter Schach movement from former East Germany. He edits (edited?) the twomover section of the Problem-Forum. He is however best known nowadays for his longhelpmates. He is interested in such paradoxical features as "Static White Queen in the orthodox helpmate" (article in The Problemist, March 2005).

Degenkolbe, Mirko
Niemann-80 JT Die Schwalbe, 1987
1st Prize


h#5* 6 + 7

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1 comment:

  1. Marco Bonavoglia last had elo 2013 in normal chess.
    On www.chessgames.com you can replay 5 of his games.

    ReplyDelete