April 18th

Edouard Pape (18-04-1870 - 06-03-1949) French composer

Edouard Pape on the Eiffel Tower
American Chess Bulletin, sept. 1921
[mjae.com]

Edouard Pape composed more than 2000 problems, most of them twomovers in the "Good Companions" style - he was vice-president of the Good Companions. He wrote a chess-themed novel "La variante F.VIII du Gambit Camulogène". The Pape theme requests the double en-passant capture of the same white pawn.

Pape, Edouard
Good Companion, 1917
1^st Prize

#2

7 + 10

Show Solution

1.Ra1! ZZ

1...d3 2.Rxf5#
1...h3 2.Qg3#
1...Sf8 2.Bxf6#
1...Bc2/Bd3/Be4 2.Rg1#
1...Ba2 2.Rg1#/Rxf5#
1...bxa1=~ 2.Qc1#
1...Qe5/Qd5/Qc5/Qxb5 2.Sh3#

Григорий Леонтьевич Попов (18-04-1950) Russian composer and International Master (Grigory Leontievich Popov)

Grigory Popov

Grigory Popov is a moremover composer with many recent successes. He was 7th in the moremovers section in WCCI 2004-2006. Here is a sample of his talent:

Попов, Григорий Леонтьевич
Московский конкурс 2010
3^rd Prize

#7

6 + 9

Show Solution

1.Kd4! (2.Sc6/Sd7#)
1...Qh8! 2. Kd5! Qh5 3. Ke4! Qe2+ 4. Kd4 Qb2+ 5. Kd5 Qd2+ 6. Bxd2 ~ 7. Sd7#
A nice wK-bQ duel.

Попов, Григорий Леонтьевич
Gafarov-70 MT, Uralsky Problemist, 2006
3^rd Prize

#12

9 + 10

Show Solution

1.Rd8! (2.Sd3#) Bg6 2.Sd7+ Kd6 3.Sxf8+ Kc5 4.Sd7+ Kd4 5.Se5+ Kc5 6.Rd1 (7.Sd7#) Be8 7.Sd3+ Kd4 8.Sxb4+ Kc5 9.Sd3+ Kd4 10.Sf2+ Kc5 11.Ba2 (12.b4#)
A logical moremover.
1.Sd3+? Kd6 2.Sxb4+ Kc5 3.Sd3+ Kd6 4.Sf2+ Kc5 5.Ba2 (6.b4#) fails on 5...Rxf4! and establishes the thematical try. Hence the foreplan meant to capture the black Rook f8.

Попов, Григорий Леонтьевич
Шахматная поэзия 2009
2^nd Prize

#14

9 + 11

Show Solution

1.Sa3+! followed by two variations:
1... Kc3 2.Be5+ Kd2 3.Sc4+ Ke2 4.Sf4+ Kf2 5.Bd4+ Kg3 6.Se2+ Kg4 7.Se5+ Kg5 8.Be3+ Kf6 9.Sg4+ Ke6 10.Sd4+ Kd6 11.Bf4+ Kc5 12.Sb3+ Kc4 13.Se3+ Kc3 14.Be5#
1... Kc5 2.Be3+ Kd6 3.Sc4+ Ke6 4.Sf4+ Kf6 5.Bd4+ Kg5 6.Se6+ Kg4 7.Se3+ Kg3 8.Be5+ Kf2 9.Sg4+ Ke2 10.Sd4+ Kd2 11.Bf4+ Kc3 12.Sb5+ Kc4 13.Se5+ Kc5 14.Be3#
The two variations remind one of A.D. Petrov's longmovers.
Is it cooked?

Margus Sööt (18-04-1980) Estonian composer

Margus Sööt (right)
Cologne, 2007
[kwabc.org]

Margus Sööt is a chess player and solver who sometimes composes. He is also the studies editor of the Swedish magazine "Springaren".

Sööt, Margus
49^th PCCC, Vodka Ty, 2006
Comm.

#3

4 + 3

Show Solution

1.Se5 ! (2.Kf4/Ke4 ~ 3.Qg6#)

1...Kxe5 2.Bxe7 (3.Qe4#)
1...Bg7 2.Ke4 (3.Qf5/Qg6#)

Frideswide Fanny Rowland née Beechey (18-04-1980) Irish composer

Frideswide Rowland
[Cleveland Public Library Digital Gallery]

Frideswide Rowland was a strong chess player and composer.
She published her first chess problem anthology "Chess Blossoms" in 1883 and other chess books later. For more details about her chess career, this article on Chess.com is quite exhaustive.
She composed direct mates in 2 or 3 moves and was the first woman to win a prize in an international problem tourney, for this problem.

Rowland, Frideswide F.
The Irish Sportsman, 1885
1^st Prize

#2

9 + 6

Show Solution

1.♖g6!
1...♖×b1 (♖b8,♖b4,♖d4) 2.♘d4#
1...♖×h4 2.♘×h4#
1...♖g4 2.♖f6#
1...♖f4 2.♘g3#
1...♖e4 2.d×e4#
1...♖c4 2.d×c4#
1...♖a4 2.d4#
1...d5 2.♖e5#
1...♗f4 2.♘g7#
1...♗g5 (♗g7,♗f8) 2.♖×g5#
1...♘d8~ 2.♖f7#
Black correction by black Rook.