Herbstman composed 350 studies during his long career and was among the 6 composers who were awarded the title of IM in composition in 1959 (with another endgame studies composer, André Chéron). He wrote ten books about chess studies and met many important Russian study composers of his time - the Kubbel brothers, V. Platov, N. Grigoriev and A. Troitzky. He recounted his relations with them in his article "Memories of famous composers" published in EG 65, 1981 which can be downloaded here.
His book "The Modern Chess Study" (1937, in Russian) can be downloaded here in .djvu format.
Herbstmann, Alexander
Schackvärlden, 1936
1st-2nd Prize
Schackvärlden, 1936
1st-2nd Prize
| + | 4 + 7 |
Show Solution
Michel Caillaud (10-04-1957) French composer and Grandmaster
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| Michel Caillaud in his element, receiving a prize at Messigny [anselan.com] |
Michel Caillaud is a phenomenon: Grandmaster in solving and in composing, he was crowned twice world chess solving champion in 1987 and 2000 and has scored more than 250 points in the FIDE Album. He composes in all genres (twomovers, retro problems, helpmates, fairy problems, you name it). He is also International Judge, the French delegate at the WFCC and he organizes every year the Champagne tourney and a composing tourney at the Messigny meeting.
The quality of his problems never disappoints: out of his 2100 problems registered in a database, 29% were awarded a prize (this is an exceptionally high rate).
In spite of all this, Michel is still very modest and good natured.
And we all love his accent in English.
Joyeux anniversaire Michel!
To give an idea of the extent of his talent, we have selected three problems in 4 moves: a helpmate in 4, a selfmate in 4 and a direct mate in 4.
Caillaud, Michel
Die Schwalbe, 1992
2nd Prize
Die Schwalbe, 1992
2nd Prize
| h#4 | 2.1.1... | 3 + 6 |
Show Solution
Caillaud, Michel
The Problemist, 1986
1st Prize
The Problemist, 1986
1st Prize
| s#4 | 13 + 9 |
Show Solution
Caillaud, Michel
Seneca MT, 1980
3rd Prize
Seneca MT, 1980
3rd Prize
| #4 | 13 + 4 |
Show Solution
Xenophon Hawkins (10-04-1841 - 05-05-1919) American composer
Hawkins was thought to have been the last living Morgan's Raider when he died.
Hawkins, Xenophon
The Pittsburgh Gazette Times, 1915
1st Prize, third quarter
The Pittsburgh Gazette Times, 1915
1st Prize, third quarter
| #3 | 9 + 11 |
Show Solution
Damien Grossi (10-04-1899 - 1987) French composer
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| Damien Grossi [Problemiste.fr] |
Damien Grossi was a composer and International Judge.
In 1977 he wrote a brochure of 24 pages "Multi-thèmes compositions de Damien Grossi". More complete information about him can be found on Problemiste.fr [broken link] in French.
Here is an interesting #3 composed with Pierre Bansac:
Grossi, Damien & Bansac, Pierre
Themes 64, 1976
Themes 64, 1976
| #3 | 6 + 11 |
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Helmer Ludvig Ternblad (10-04-1906 - 19-07-1992) Swedish composer
The idea of this helpmate has been shown many times, but this is the most economical and elegant form, for these strategic contents:
Ternblad, Helmer Ludvig
Schachmatt, 1949
1st Prize
Schachmatt, 1949
1st Prize
| h#2 | SetPlay | 3 + 5 |
Show Solution
Моисей Борисович Нейман (10-04-1898 - 23-10-1967) Belarusian composer (Moisei Borisovich Neumann / Neiman)
Neumann is the usual transliteration of his name, although Neiman is possible too.
Moisei Neumann started composing at the age of 12. His first encounter with chess problems happened in the chess column of the magazine "Вокруг света" (Around the World) which was edited by Grandmaster O. Bernstein. In 1915 he had his first notable success with this awarded threemover.
He was one of the pillars of the magazine "Задачи и этюды" (Zadachy y etyudi) from its first issue in 1927 until the last.
Influenced by the work of T.R. Dawson, he began to promote fairy chess in the Soviet Union. In 1927 he wrote an article about the helpmate genre: he gave it its Russian terminology "кооперативный мат". The multisolution form dates from Lange, 1862, but was named "Neumann" in reference to his 1927 helpmate with three solutions.
After 1930, he devoted himself to his professional career as a prominent chemist (author of 600 scientific papers, more details here). He came back to chess composition in the 1960s.
More details about him in this article from tables-games.ru.
Нейман, Моисей Борисович
Шахматный вестник, 1914
Шахматный вестник, 1914
| = | 6 + 6 |
Show Solution
Show Solution
Сергей Юрьевич Румянцев (10-04-1956 - 02-07-2020) Russian composer (Sergey Yurievich Rumyantsev)
Sergey Rumyantsev was a GM in solving chess. He also composed direct mates, studies, helpmates and selfmates. He composed his first problem at the age of 12.
More details about him on his personal website.
More of his studies on the ARVES website.
Румянцев, Сергей Юрьевич
64 — Шахматное обозрение, 1972
3rd Prize
64 — Шахматное обозрение, 1972
3rd Prize
| = | 5 + 4 |
Show Solution
Xenophon Hawkins
ReplyDeletehttp://genforum.genealogy.com/hawkins/messages/6606.html
was thought to have been the last living Morgan's Raider when he died:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan%27s_Raid
"...and was among the 10 composers who were awarded the title of IM in composition in 1959..."? 6 composers: Ellerman, Mansfield, Kipping, Hartong, Cheron and Гербстман!
ReplyDeleteThanks, the mistake has been corrected.
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