Impressions from Belgrade

(Note: This article uses the westernized spelling of several places. Apologies for this, but I would spell it probably even wronger otherwise.)

On the corner of Kneza Milosa and Nemanjina Street is a big scar, a leftover from a direct missile hit in the night of 29 to 30 April 1999, the 37^th day of the NATO aggression, and the night of 7 to 8 May 1999, the 45^th day of the NATO attacks against Belgrade in 1999 (see photo).

Photo by Darko Hlebec, used with permission

A short walk away from this leftover of the war is to one side Kneza Milosa 53. Directly abroad that address the former U.S. embassy building is now for sale. To the other side of the former Army Headquarters as seen in the photo along the Kneza Milosa and then one further street to the right we can find the building with the chess club of Belgrade.

I arrived first on Airport Nikola Tesla and then in Belgrade on 2 June 2015 to participate in the annual Belgrade Problem Chess Festival. On the days leading up to the festival, Darko Hlebec showed me around the city, being always helpful even when I was demanding. As a personal highlight, we visited his family where his wonderful grandmother gifted me an artistic booklet of hers. Another booklet was received on the evening of the 5^th June in the Belgrade chess club where Ivan Denkovski presented a collection of proofgames, printed in 2013. Several mini-lectures were held, including Marjan Kovačević talking about a theme by our late friend Milan Velimirović.

In the technical university of Belgrade, some blocks away from the chess club, the solving event of the Open Championship of Serbia took place on the 6^th and 7^th of June. Yours Truly immediately took the first place after the twomovers round – from behind. After the threemovers, I had achieved five points but then my specialty came up – endgame studies. One particular pawn endgame was impossible to crack for me while the study ending in stalemate was easy to solve for a full five points. The first of the set of three studies proved to be the most difficult because of the move 1.-Qd2, very hard to find, but then everything ran by itself. Yet at the end of the solution I gave a point away by giving the sideline that is in my opinion equal to the main line since the same moves with the same idea are played. I gave the sheet one minute early to the judge Ivan Denkovski. When later a dual was found in the stalemate study, several results were uprated, making that minute crucial to me being the best endgame study solver with 11 points and 99 minutes, in front of Branislav “Branko” Djurasević with 11 points and 100 minutes. So I can call myself the inofficial champion of Serbia in solving endgame studies.

After this, we went again to the chess club where we friendly sat together and composers should show one work they produced since the last meeting, so I presented my study from the Sam Isenegger MT 2014 which, as Dragan Stojnić showed me, had also appeared in the “Sahovski informator” in Afek’s column (thanks, Yochanan!). I also showed around a study I composed recently which was met with positive comments. Since currently Martin Minski and I still develop it, it is not possible to present it to the public yet, sorry!

The second day saw helpmates of which I solved one completely and a line of another one. Unfortunately I wasted my time on the too difficult one instead of the easier third one, thereby probably wasting some points. The directmates had a hellish surprise by “Rätselonkel” Fritz Giegold:

Fritz Giegold

Die Welt, 1978

Mate in 5

I had of course seen this problem a long time ago but did not remember the solution. I still remembered it was by Giegold, which should have led me to the solution but it took me 70 of the allotted 80 minutes for moremovers to find it: Can you do better?

The selfmates saw me solving the two- and threemover. I was surprised at myself. Unfortunately the fivemover proved to be a too tough nut for me, chasing the wrong idea 1.Rb1 d:e6. In the end I reached place 16 of 29 contestants and a respectable 37.5 points in 259 minutes. Of course this is far behind, but more than half of the points of winner Michel “Kajo” Caillaud (68.5 points / 327 minutes). I will look forward to seeing my half-rating (in solving you must compete in two tournaments to receive a full rating).

You can find the complete results, the problems and the solutions by clicking the links in this sentence (all PDF files).

Later on the day we visited the grave of my friend Milan, bringing the closure and possibility to honor him to me that I sought when I first came to Belgrade in 2013.

On the evening of the 8^th of June a special treat awaited those who participated in the “normal” chess club evening: Darko Hlebec just had won (shared) the draw section of the Johann Berger 170 Memorial and presented his study that ends in a wonderful end pattern. Judge Peter Krug from Austria was right in awarding the highest honors to it, even if a certain other composer disagreed because of the two inactive pieces in that position.

See video (or with this link as part of a playlist with several lectures from Belgrade).

Darko Hlebec

Johann Berger 170 MT, Draw section, 1^st/2^nd prize

White to move and draw

I give only the main line of the solution, you can find the full solution in the PDF file of thepreliminary award:

1.Ra6+! R:a6 2.S7c5+ Kb5 3.Sd4+ Q:d4 4.Q:d4 Rg6+ 5.Kf4 Sg2+ 6.K:f5 Sh4+ 7.K:e4 Rg4+ 8.f4 B:d4 9.e8Q+ Kc4! 10.Qe6+/Qf7+ Kc3 11.Sa4+ B:a4 12.Qc4+ K:c4 stalemate

Final position.

The stalemate is funny and interesting, of a certain beauty since the whole fourth rank is filled. Sergiy Didukh on his blog however complained that the two pieces on the left side, the Ba4 and Pb4, are unessential for the stalemate. However, I believe they were intentionally added by Darko, which he pretty much confirmed, and they do contribute in my opinion to the overall final picture.

As all journeys will reach their end, so did mine. Armed with one painting bought from street painter Zoran and with the 8 June 2015 issue of “Politika” in my luggage that featured our solving competition on page 29, I left Belgrade on the early morning of 9 June 2015 by plane. For a short moment prior to the landing it did not look good: We flew through clouds and suddenly something black seemed to show up below the wing – smoke? No, as it turned out, the weather in Germany just made the ground look rather dark. We arrived safely, and as the customs police officer told me I did not have to pay taxes for the beautiful painting showing the back of a half-naked young woman. It might not be Jan Vermeer’s Maiden with the Pearl Earring, but I don’t think any other German has a painting of Zoran from Belgrade in his apartment?

As we say in Germany: Ein schöner Rücken / kann entzücken.