EG 15 survey

We would like to draw attention to a survey in EG 15, which we have replied to in detail. The Word document with the reply can be found on my Dropbox account:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q7p2n1jyd8biqdo/EG%2015%20reply.doc?dl=0

We would like to invite other composers and judges to share their views.

Stories

I would like to share some of my own short stories with you which are not written well, but have interesting conceptual views.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tsxgv3pr13smjj0/AADQ5u3MNAKvlO4qz9yoscZ0a?dl=0

That's all for now. Sorry, no chess related content there.

Help wanted (Introduction / I): G. Enderlein

Introduction

In the series "Help wanted" I will present things that need further investigation. It is kind of like the Chess Notes of Edward Winter, which are highly recommended, but for more obscure matters. Also because of the openness of the subjects, I recommend that you would use the comments section, including a source, unless you need to quote copyrighted / protected material. In the latter case you most likely can rephrase it to avoid conflicts. To find all episodes, please use the key word / tag "Help wanted".

If you don't want to act in public or can't sue, you can send me an e-mail. For special conditions, such as your name or quote not being used on the website, you MUST include this with the e-mail at a place where it easily is found (for example in front of the actual quote).
For security reasons, do NOT send any attachments at your first e-mail. Make sure your PC is not infected if you send any. If a virus and/or other malware is detected, I will not open it and I might blacklist the address.

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Help Wanted (I): G. Enderlein

Having seen the name in an issue of the Serbian e-mail newsletter of Goran Tomić named "Šahovske hronika" (likely translates to "Chess Chronicles"), we would like to reprint here the problem from there and ask if information can be found about Enderlein. His nationality is German, according to the database "Composers' Names in Various Alphabets" as of 28 July 2015, but that is the only information I can find there. There is no first name to be found, nor any city, date of birth or date of death.

G. Enderlein

Akademisches Monatsheft für Schach (134) 1910

Mate in 4

 

Please do NOT post the solution before next Tuesday.

Any information about the composer is sought. Please send it via the comments or to my e-mail address.

Herbert Ahues (2.iii.1922 - 11.vii.2015)

The international problem chess community mourns the death of GMCC Herbert Ahues at the age of 93 in a hospital in Bremen.

Links:
- Read more about Ahues in German Wikipedia (German language, permalink)
- Short obituary in English by me on MatPlus
- More than 400 problems of Herbert Ahues in the Problem Database of the Schwalbe

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.

Halldór Ásgrímsson (8.ix.1947 - 18.v.2015)

We have seen news that Halldór Ásgrímsson has died. He was prime minister of Iceland when it granted refuge to my childhood hero Bobby Fischer in March 2005 from the United States. No three years later, on January 17, 2008, Bobby Fischer died at the symbolic age of 64.

There is an interesting historic article on the Icelandic politics of that time on grapevine.is, an online magazine from Iceland's capital Reykjavik.

(We believe that as of writing this blog post en-Wikipedia's date of 19.v.2015 is incorrect, de-Wikipedia gives 18.v.2015 with the source Iceland Review Online.)

Congratulations to the Klarsfeld couple!

We would like to congratulate our almost president Beate Klarsfeld and her husband Serge Klarsfeld for receiving the Bundesverdienstkreuz, the highest civil honor of Germany. (The both links are to de-Wikipedia, en-wikipedia has an article on them as a couple.)

Beate Klarsfeld is a famous nazi hunter, most well known are her contributions to the capture of war criminal Klaus Barbie as well as her controversial bitchslap against alleged nazi criminal Kurt Georg Kiesinger while he was chancellor of Germany in 1968.