Chess Composers: November 18th

Saturday, November 17, 2012

November 18th

Harold Maurice Lommer (18-11-1904 - 17-12-1980) British-Spanish composer and International Master

Harold Lommer
[Ajedrez365]

Harold Lommer was born in England from German parents and moved to Spain after WWII. He wrote "1234 Modern End-Game Studies" with M.A. Sutherland in 1938 and a sequel "1357 End-Game Studies. The best chess compositions 1935-1973" in 1975. More details about him can be found (in Spanish) on Ajedrez365.
He composed problems and studies.

Lommer, Harold Maurice
Journal de Genève, 1933
1^st Prize

8 + 7

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Lommer, Harold Maurice
Feenschach, 1966

h#8

2 + 5

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Александр Павлович Гуляев (18-11-1908 - 18-02-1998) Russian composer and Grandmaster (Aleksandr Pavlovich Gulyaev/Grin)

Aleksandr Gulyaev - © A.O.Никитин, 2012

Aleksandr Gulyaev adopted the pseudonym Grin after 1958. More details about his personality and his chess career can be found in English in the obituary written by A.J. Roycroft and published in EG129 (July 1998). Other details are presented in Alain Pallier's article published in EG 182 (October 2010) "A Soviet composer in the West" and revolve around the question: why Gulyaev was the only Soviet composer to take part in Western endgame study tourneys after WWII.
Finally, his biography published in "Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov", No. 11, pp. 2 - 8, November, 1998 at the occasion of his 90th birthday can be read here.
He composed problems and increasingly more studies as he grew older.

Гуляев, Александр Павлович
«64» 1927
1^st Prize

6 + 10

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Гуляев, Александр Павлович
5-й МК З.Бирнов, Молодой ленинец (Волгоград) 1985
1^st Prize

6 + 9

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Rudolf Queck (18-11-1910 - 27-04-2003) German composer

Rudolf Queck
[Kartothek L-Z page 33]

Rudolf Queck composed direct mate, helpmate and fairy problems.
He wrote the booklet "36 Gitterschachaufgaben" in 1989.

Queck, Rudolf
84^th TT, Die Schwalbe, 1947
1^st Prize

sh#13

5 + 2

Series helpmate in 13 moves.

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Umberto Castellari (18-11-1912 - 02-11-1976) Italian composer

Umberto Castellari was a twomover and helpmate composer. He edited the magazine "Il Due Mosse" from 1952 to 1962 and from 1966 until 1974 the helpmate section of the "Sinfonie Scacchistiche".

Castellari, Umberto
Sinfonie Scacchistiche, 1969
1^st Prize

6 + 11

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Touw Hian Bwee (18-11-1943) Indonesian composer and Grandmaster

Touw Hian Bwee
Source: Problem 95-98, 1965, page 102

Touw Hian Bwee is a twomover and threemover composer. A compilation of his problems was published by Milan Velimirović in 2008 "A Collection of Chess Problems by Touw Hian Bwee." (authors: Touw Hian Bwee, Milan Velimirović, Michael McDowell and Darko Šaljić). As Milan wrote in the preface:

"Touw Hian Bwee had that certain something, excelling as one of the most popular and charismatic composers of the second half of the 20th century. His clear and technically perfect compositions based on highly attractive chess motifs like pins, interferences or batteries are guaranteed to gladden the solver’s heart even if he fails to understand the theme completely."