October 27th

Kārlis Bētiņš (27-10-1867 - 28-03-1943) Latvian composer

Karl Behting (Deutsches Wochenschach, 5 January 1908)
[Wikipedia]

Kārlis Karlovich Bētiņš (Karlis Betins, Karl Behting) was a chess master and composer of studies, as was his brother Jānis. We remind our readers of the existing brochure by John Beasley about the Behting brothers which can be read on John Beasley's site (BESN special number 52).

Recently John Nunn published on ChessBase some analyses related with Karl Behting's draw study Baltische Schachblätter 1908 which, with the help of a seven-man database, was proved correct.

Bētiņš, Kārlis
Kagan's Neueste Schachnachrichten, 1920 (22)
1^st Prize

+

5 + 5

Show Solution

1. Kb2 Sxd3+
{1... Se2 2. Bh2 h3 3. Be5 a3+ 4. Kxa3 Sc1 5. Se1 Kxa5 6. Kb2 Se2 7. Sf3 Kb5 8. Kc2 Kc5 9. Kd2 +-}
{1... a3+ 2. Kb1 Se2 3. Bh2 Kb4 4. Be5 +-}
2. Kc3 Sc1
{2... Sf4 3. Sd4+ Kxa5 4. Kc4 a3 5. Sb3+ Ka4 6. Sc5+ Ka5 7. Bh2 ! +-}
{2... Sb4 3. Sd4+ Kxa5 4. Kc4 +-}
3. Sd4+ Kxa5 4. Sc6+ Kb5 5. Sa7+ Ka5 6. Be3 h3 7. Sc6+ Kb5 8. Sd4+ Ka5 9. Bxc1 h2 10. Bf4 ! h1=Q 11. Bc7#
If Black insists on promoting, he gets mated.

May 9th

Jānis Bētiņš (Johann Behting) (09-05-1856 - 1946) Latvian composer

Johann Behting and his brother Carl composed studies. They were contemporaries of Troitzky and Rinck and their best studies are certainly of a similar level.
In 1930 Carl and Johann Behting published a brochure "Studien und Probleme". However, they seem not to have composed any work in collaboration.
An easy miniature to start with:

Bētiņš, Jānis
Deutsche Schachzeitung, 1889

#4

3 + 1

Show Solution

1.Kh5-g5 ! ZZ
1...Kh7xh8 2.Kg5-f6 (threatens 3.f7-f8=Q+ Kh8-h7 4.Qf8-g7#) 2...Kh8-h7 3.f7-f8=R ZZ 3...Kh7-h6 4.Rf8-h8#

Why don't we reproduce any study by Johann Behting? Simply because of the existing brochure by John Beasley about the Behting brothers which can be read on John Beasley's site (BESN special number 52) or here. You can find there detailed analysis about some of the Behtings' best studies.