Chess Composers: March 2nd

John Odin Howard Taylor (02-03-1837 - 15-05-1890) British composer

Taylor's Folly [Source]

Doesn't it look like a chess Rook?
The Pinebanks tower was built by John Odin Howard Taylor in Whitlingham. Here you may read that "the tower was climbed by Queen Kapiolani of Hawaii in 1887. She was in the country to celebrate Victoria’s Golden Jubilee". It must have been a special pleasure for Taylor to be able to welcome a Queen at his Rook.

Taylor was a chess player and direct mate composer who also wrote the book "Chess Skirmishes" (1889).

Taylor, John Odin Howard
The Chess Player's Chronicle, 1859

6 + 6

Show Solution

Carl Schlechter (02-03-1874 - 27-12-1918) Austrian player and composer

Carl Schlechter [Wikipedia]

Carl Schlechter's first and only teacher in chess was an Austria-Hungarian chess problemist, Dr. Samuel Gold, which may explain why, beside being one of the best players of his times, he also composed chess problems. He is also known as a theoretician who prepared the eighth and final edition of the famous "Handbuch des Schachspiels" openings treatise.
His chess games can be found here and more biographical details here.

Here is a mate in 2 that should be easy to solve:

Schlechter, Carl
Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, 1908

4 + 3

Show Solution

Henry D'Oyly Bernard (02-03-1878 - 23-11-1954) British composer

Henry D'Oyly Bernard
[ChessDevon]

Some biographic data about Henry D'Oyly [or D'Oily] Bernard may be found on the website ChessDevon. He was a pioneer in the field of mutate twomovers.

Bernard, Henry D'Oily
Good Companion, 22^nd Feb 1921
2^nd Prize

#2 vvvv

9 + 12

Show Solution

Josef Hašek (02-03-1897 - 1981) Czech composer

Josef Hašek
From the F. Bondarenko archive
[Thanks to Nikolay Griva and Rainer Staudte]

He composed endgames studies and was the contemporary of Czech endgames study composers Richard Reti and Artur Mandler. John Beasley reviewed some of his studies in BESN 14 when he mentioned the publication of Vladimir Kos's anthology "Josef Hašek – 215 šachových studií" (1998).
His chess games can be browsed here.

Hašek, Josef
ce, 1951
Prize

6 + 5

Show Solution

A famous pawn study by Hašek:

Hašek, Josef
28. rijen, 1924

3 + 4

Show Solution

Fritz Emil Giegold (02-03-1903 - 13-11-1978) German composer

Leupoldsgrün.
That's the place.
It became world-famous, at least in the problemists' world, because of one person: Fritz Emil Giegold. His enigmatic, difficult but facetious and ravishing longmovers fascinated and amused solvers of many chess magazines and newspaper columns and owed him the nickname of "Rätselonkel" (Oncle Puzzle). His specialty consisted in forced black play, but very hidden and counter-intuitive white moves.

Rätselonkel (Fritz Emil Giegold)
SSZ 1967, page 80

Fritz Giegold published his first problem in 1916. He edited the chess column of the Frankenpost newspaper from 1948 until 1978 and also collaborated with other publications.
He wrote one book with Walther Horwitz: "Zaubereien auf dem Schachbrett" (1962) and two anthologies were published after his death: Herbert Engel and Karl-D. Schulz's "Fritz Giegold - 200 problematische Einfälle und Ideen." (1982) and Herbert Engel's "Problemsammlung von Fritz Giegold" (1985) which you can read and download here.

Let's start with one of his wSf6/bKf6-bSh8 problems:

Giegold, Fritz Emil
Züricher Woche, 1967

7 + 10

Show Solution

Giegold, Fritz Emil
Stern, 1969

12 + 4

Show Solution

Giegold, Fritz Emil
Süddeutsche Schachzeitung, 1959

9 + 6

Show Solution

Tibor Flórián (Feldmann) (02-03-1919 - 02-03-1990) Hungarian composer

Tibor Flórián
[magyarsakkszerzok]

Tibor Flórián was born Feldmann and gave his name to the Feldmann theme.

Flórián, Tibor
Munkássak, 1936
1^st Prize

14 + 10

Show Solution

Flórián, Tibor
BCF 015. Ty.
1^st Prize

r#2

12 + 13

Reflexmate in two.

Show Solution

Herbert Siegfried Oskar Ahues (02-03-1922 - 11-07-2015) German composer and Grandmaster

Herbert Ahues, 1968
[SSZ 1968, p.52, page 39]

The son of IM Karl Ahues was a specialist of modern twomovers, especially the white lines combinations (A, B, C themes) presented with thematic try play.
He has composed more than 2000 problems and has been GM since 1989. He was also International Judge.
He has published a selection of his best problems: "Meine besten Schachprobleme. 600 ausgewählte Zweizüger und 3 Dreizüger" (1988, 2nd ed. 2006). His "Weiße Linienkombinationen mit thematischen Verführungen" was published as a special issue of "Die Schwalbe".

Ahues, Herbert Siegfried Oskar
Troll, 1993
1^st Prize

#2 vv

9 + 9

Show Solution

Ahues, Herbert Siegfried Oskar
Suomen Shakki, 1988-89
1^st Prize

11 + 8

Show Solution

Hannu Erkki Juhani Sokka (02-03-1947 - 11-07-2014) Finnish composer

Hannu Sokka
[Suomen Tehtäväniekat [broken link]]

Hannu Sokka was an active member of the Problemist Club of Turku and was talented in chess, bridge, mathematics, computers.
He was the fairy editor of the Finnish chess problem magazine "Tehtäväniekka" formerly known under the name of "Suomen Tehtäväniekat". He has also been active as a composer and editor of problem columns in "Suomen Shakki".

Sokka, Hannu Erkki Juhani
Suomen-Turnier, 1974
2^nd HM