April 19th

John Niemann (19-04-1905 - 22-07-1990) German composer and Honorary Master of chess composition

John Niemann
[binnewirtz.com]

John Niemann was an expert in helpmates, composed about 500 of them and wrote in 1950 "Echo im Hilfsmatt" containing 375 echo mate helpmates and in 1977 "Wenigsteiner im Hilfsmatt".
He also collected during his life about 65,000 helpmate problems, which were later input into the Chess Problem DataBase.
He was International Judge and director of the helpmate section of the 1914-1944 FIDE Album.

Niemann, John
8^th TT, Feenschach, 1953
Prize

h#6

2 + 13

Show Solution

1.Ra2 Bxh6 2.f5 Bc1 3.Rh4 Bxb2 4.Re4 Bc1 5.Rf2 Bh6 6.Rff4 Bg7#
An amazing Rundlauf by the wB and a surprising ambush of the bR at the 1st move make this problem difficult to solve.