Boys' Life

[garykevinware]

Many of you probably know that Bobby Fischer wrote a chess column, Checkmate, for Boys' Life magazine, from December 1966 to December 1969. Each column included a composed chess problem or endgame study. At one point, I had saved, some or all of his columns, but since threw them out. I have since found traces of his columns on the web, including this one at, http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/rogoff/files/Fischer69.pdf.
I will go into more detail, next week, but now, here is one of the problems from Fischer's column:



Nikolai Gerasimenko Schach (Berlin) 1966 #4

4 points for sending me a complete variation, at garykevinware@yahoo.com , by next Wednesday. There is also a bonus problem, under Knight vs. Bishop, worth 11 points, and so 15 points are possible this week.

[garykevinware]

Here is the answer to last week's problem:
Gerasimenko #4-
1 Bd8 Kxd8 2 Kd6 Kc8 3 Rb2 Kd8 4 Rb8#
1...Kc8 2 Kc6 Kb8 3 Bb6 Ka8 4 Rd8#
1...Ke8 2 Ke6 Kf8 3 Rg2 Ke8 4 Rg8#
Chess historian, Edward Winter, recently wrote about Bobby Fischer's Boys' Life columns, giving a summary of most of the columns. http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fischer2.html He makes mention of a Capablanca v Lasker joint composition 1914. It was undoubtedly one of the two following similar positions.



Capablanca and Emanuel Lasker Vossische Zeitung 1914

1 Nxc7 Nxc7 2 Ra8+ Nxa8 (2...Kxa8 3 Kxc7 Ka7 4 Kc6) 3 Kc8 Nc7 4 Kxc7 Ka8 5 Kxb6 1-0



Capablanca and Emanuel Lasker Vossische Zeitung 1914

1 Rxa8+ Nxa8 2 Kc8 Nc7 3 Kxc7 Ka8 4 Kxb6 1-0