Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Three games where I need the full score

Troitzki - Focht, 1896

FEN: 2kr4/1ppb1pp1/1b4r1/pP2p3/P3P3/5qN1/2Q2P1P/2R1B1KR

1.Rd1!! Bh3? 2.R:d8+ K:d8 3.Qd1+! Q:d1 stalemate
 The game looks fake but I have seen the full game score at some point in my life, unfortunately I have no idea where. It might be in a book of the East Berlin "Sportverlag", possibly translated by Bodo Starck.

Source: Jugendschach 4/1994, "Teste dein Rechenvermögen" column by Bodo Starck

Simagin - Bronstein, Moscow 1947

FEN: 8/6k1/3b1p2/7p/5P2/2P5/PPKQ4/2B4q

1.-h4? 2.Q:d6 Qg2+ 3.Kb3 h3 4.Qd7+ Kg8 5.f5 h2 6.Bg5!! h1Q 7.Qe8+ Kg7 8.Qg6+ Kf8 9.Q:f6+ Kg8 10.Qd8+ Kg7 11.Qe7+ Kg8 12.Qe8+ 1-0
Simagin noted that his opponent could have probably drawn by 1.-Qe4+!. When and where was this game analysed by Simagin?

Source: Jugendschach 10/94, "Teste dein Rechenvermögen", column by Bodo Starck 

Volpert - Zatulovskaya 1960 (?)

FEN: 8/3k1p2/5p1p/2K1p2P/4P1P1/5P2/8/8

41.-Ke7 42.Kd5 Kf8 43.Kc6!! Kg7 44.Kc7 Kh7 45.Kd7 Kh8 46.g5! h:g5 47.Ke7 f5! 48.e:f5 e4? 49.f:e4 g4 50.K:f7! g3 51.f6 g2 52.Ke8 g1Q 53.f7 "and White won"

Black could have drawn with the phantastic 48.-Kg8!!

Source: Shakhmaty v SSSR 2/1961, "Etjudnoe okonchanie". Article by Igor Bondarevsky.


In all cases, the full game score is sought!

Monday, July 28, 2014

War never changes(?)

100 years ago, Kaiser Franz-Joseph I. of Austria-Hungaria declared war against Serbia. World War I had started...


War, such the impression if we watch movies, writes stories of heroes. Stories of people who do the impossible.

There is only one story of heroes in World War I, but it is the most moving story a war might ever have brought. In a bloody war where young men were sent into a senseless death in artillery fire, the other soldiers hoping and praying to survive the very next day, it might have been the logical outcome to end this war as soon as possible. H.G. Wells called it the War That Ends All Wars, but for the wrong reasons. If war would have ended soon, maybe peace could have been in Europe. But as history showed us, no cruelty is big enough to prevent war, so maybe it would only have postponed the inevitable...

It was christmas. We have the year 1914, a day in a war that waged on without any visible results other than not only shattering the dreams of a generation but shattering the generation itself. The civilized Europe has fallen into barbarism, bloody menace waged on the battlefields of an endless slaughter.

For the first time the air became the place of battles, Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron", is a name well-known as a synonym for the pilots of that era. Soon enough, tanks would roll, although very few, and artillery was the main enemy of about everyone. It might have been the last war that was not aimed against the civilians, a war that as clean as it is on this side, was dirty against the foot soldiers who never stood any chance to survive. A single mistake - or just bad luck - would mean their death.

But it was christmas. Somewhere in Europe soldiers were tired of being murdered for their Vaterland. Somewhere on the battlefields of this inhuman place, humanity broke its way. It isn't clear how it started, or how big its impact really was in the end. Maybe it was some soldier starting to sing a christmas song and the enemy tuning in. On that evening, the men who minutes ago were the fiercest enemies now were as close as brothers. Something big had happened. Something beautiful. It was christmas.

The truce lasted for days, in some places for weeks, but then the commanders, most likely people who were not directly involved in the war, forced it to go on. For a last time, humanity had spoken up, for a last time humans were brothers.

Then war took over again. The coming years saw 10 million dead soldiers, and almost as many civil victims of diseases. Eventually the peace treaty of Versailles would lead to a nail in the heart of the German people's soul, and - by Hitler, but it could have been everyone else since essentially the will for genocide was already planted even before World War I - would lead to World War II only two decades later, a war that knew heroes because it was even more inhuman. A war lead against civilians, enabling everyone to be a hero at the risk of his own life. A war that eventually would become the second biggest catastrophe and the biggest crime of the twentieth century.

But that is another cruel story...


If there is anyone who is a winner of World War I, it is the generation of today. Only in the late 1990s has Europe truly united. But as can be seen by the many conflicts that go on, war still is not far away. With the technology of today, another world war could indeed end all wars by our total destruction, or at the least it could be a calamity much bigger than anything seen before.

Humanity faces challenges that can only be overcome if we all work together - and maybe not even then. Will we learn from our history or will we be doomed?


Let it not happen again!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

FIDE - 90 years old

The FIDE becomes 90 years old today!

Congratulations to the founders, but let us not discuss about their politics of today... ;-)

Thursday, July 17, 2014

My connection to Karl May

It is said that each person knows each other over at most six corners. The same applies even to me and Karl May:

In 2008(?) I met Lothar Schmid without knowing it, as he - much in his usual humor - promised to come to a problemist meeting. He did, but only ate lunch there, without showing up at the actual meeting.

Lothar Schmid was the grandson of the Karl-May-Verlag founder E.A. Schmid, who in turn founded it together with Karl May's widow Klara May.

So here is the connection:
Me -> Lothar Schmid -> E.A. Schmid -> Klara May -> Karl May

If this short not-meeting doesn't count, you can add a lot of people between me and Lothar Schmid, for example Manfred Mädler with whom I conversed some years ago. Six corners, indeed.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

The Zweikönigstreffen

The Zweikönigstreffen is a meeting of chess composers in Stuttgart that is organised by Uwe Karbowiak. It is held twice a year, and I was luckily participating each time so far. There are usually three or four lessons held by the participants, between the lessons there is a lunch break.

This time I held a lesson about perpetual stalemate with an added bonus that will both most probably be published in an article in EG 2015. Hans-Peter Rehm referred about the quality of FIDE album fourmovers, similarly Rupert Munz after the lunch break. Between Rehm and Munz, Michael Schlosser presented symmetry and ASymmetry problems, partially based on his book with Martin Minski.

At the afternoon, I ventured home earlier than usual. Looking forward to the next meeting.


An example from my lecture:

Mark S. Liburkin
Shakhmaty v SSSR 1928, second semester, 5th prize
Draw

In this famous Liburkin study or rather scheme, White draws after 1.Rh8+ Kg7 2.Rg8+ Kh7 3.B:a2 R:a2+ 4.Kb1 Sc3+ 5.Kc1 Ra1+ 6.Kb2 Rb1+ 7.Ka3 Ra1+ 8.Kb2 Ra2+ 9.Kc1 K:g8 stalemate



Friday, July 11, 2014

Why I created a new blog

On the "Zweikönigstreffen" in Stuttgart-Heslach Ralf Krätschmer asked me about continuing my blog. Well, I think with the lack of spam protection it unfortunately is impossible, but of course it is possible to start a new one. I tried WordPress and tumblr, but on both sites I had issues, so I hope to finally be able to create the new blog here on Blogger.

Blogger belongs to Google, so there is a certain risk involved in this - maybe Blogger will be closed and merged with Google+, who knows.

Until then, this blog will be the successor to both my old blog and my website, those will most probably both be closed in 2014.

I will put the warning upfront: The contents of this blog may be offensive to people, this includes especially those that are not about chess. If you are easily offended, please refrain from killing me (especially if you're a certain ex-politician) and post some comments here or via my e-mail address.
New blog means new luck? This time in English! :-)