Good Grief!

[garykevinware]

Martin Greif 'wrote' a series of about a half dozen books, all with titles like, 200 Classic Chess Puzzles. I have read reviews of his books at http://www.amazon.com, that had such criticisms as that the author just listed a bunch of problems, without any attribution as to composer or source. Also, there is the usual criticism by OTB players, that the positions are 'unnatural', and that because of the 'unpopularity' of composed problems, that is why the author does not include attributions, that would indicate that they are composed problems. Also, there are complaints of unsound problems, with multiple solutions. I checked out from the library, one of his books, and indeed, only with the solutions, were two of the problems given any attribution. They were both problems composed in the shape of a letter, as in my article, Mr. Postman, Have You Got A Letter For Me?, http://main.uschess.org/content/view/8381/446, and they were both composed in 1866, by J. Schoumoff, and dedicated to various persons.



J. Schoumoff 1866 Dedicated to Count M.N. Mouraview, a 19th century Russian nobleman, one of the finest chessplayers in Russia #4



J. Schoumoff 1866 Dedicated to Howard Staunton #3

7 points for sending me complete variations to both problems, at garykevinware@yahoo.com , by next Wednesday.

[garykevinware]

Here are the answers to last week's problems:
Schoumoff #4-
1 Rc1 Bxd3 2 Rc4+ Bxc4 3 Qe3+ Kd5 4 Nf6#
Schoumoff #3-
1 Nf7 Kf5 2 Qe6+ Kf4 3 Qe5#
1...Kg3 2 Qg1+ Kf4 3 Qg5#
The two problems came from 200 Demanding Chess Puzzles by Martin Greif.
David Dana-Bashian suggested the following 'letter' problem, which he composed in 1972, and it was published in Chess Life in 1985.



David Dana-Bashian Chess Life September 1985 #3

3 points for sending me a complete variation to this bonus problem, at garykevinware@yahoo.com , by next Wednesday. I will be posting the regular problem(s). later this evening.

[garykevinware]

Here is the answer to last week's bonus problem:
Dana-Bashian #3-
1 Qc6 Ke5 2 Qd6+ Kxf5 3 Qf6#
1...Kg5 2 Qh6+ Kxf5 3 Qf6#
1...N~ 2 Q(x)e4+ Kg5 3 Qg4#
Here is David's commentary on the problem:
"My original interest in composing problems came in the summer of 1972 with Pal Benko's composing contest that year. I submitted a complete "A" to "Z" set of letter problems, but none made the cut then. Thirteen years later, I successfully submitted this letter "I" problem from that set for publication in Key Krackers, where it appeared as problem #66. After that publication, I turned to helpmates, and never returned to direct mate composition."
"The problem's themes are a give-and-take key and switchback mates. The key "gives" e5, f5, g5 to, but "takes" f3 from, Black as flight squares. Three of the four mates (1...Kxf5 2 Qf6#) end on f6, the White Queen's origin, and thus those three mates are switchbacks. The fourth mate breaks the otherwise symmetry (about the f-file) of the set of mates."
In keeping with the theme of 'letter problems', Hans Nieuwhart composed a couple of problems in my honor; a 'G' for Gary, and a 'K' for Kevin. He did not compose a 'W' for Ware, but the last problem in my article, Mr. Postman, Have You Got A Letter For Me?, http://main.uschess.org/content/view/8381/446, was a 'W', and I 'pretended' that it represented my last name.



Hans Nieuwhart Gary's Gems 2010 #5



Hans Nieuwhart Gary's Gems 2010 #4

9 points for sending me complete variations to both problems, at garykevinware@yahoo.com , by next Wednesday. I will be posting the regular problem(s), later this evening.

[garykevinware]

Here are the answers to last week's bonus problems:
Nieuwhart #5-
1 Rxe4 Ke1 2 Rxe2+ Kf1 3 f4 Kg1 4 Re1+ Kxf2 5 Bh4#
1...e1=Q 2 Qd5+ Kc2 3 Rxe1 Kb2 4 Qa8 exf6 5 Qa2#
Nieuwhart #4-
1 Qf2 g1=Q 2 Qxg1 Ke5 3 Qg3+ Kf5 (3...Kd5 4 Nf6#, 3...Nf4 4 Qg5#) 4 Bg6#