April 18th

Edouard Pape (18-04-1870 - 06-03-1949) French composer

Edouard Pape on the Eiffel Tower
American Chess Bulletin, sept. 1921
[mjae.com]

Edouard Pape composed more than 2000 problems, most of them twomovers in the "Good Companions" style - he was vice-president of the Good Companions. He wrote a chess-themed novel "La variante F.VIII du Gambit Camulogène". The Pape theme requests the double en-passant capture of the same white pawn.

Pape, Edouard
Good Companion, 1917
1^st Prize

#2

7 + 10

Show Solution

1.Ra1! ZZ

1...d3 2.Rxf5#
1...h3 2.Qg3#
1...Sf8 2.Bxf6#
1...Bc2/Bd3/Be4 2.Rg1#
1...Ba2 2.Rg1#/Rxf5#
1...bxa1=~ 2.Qc1#
1...Qe5/Qd5/Qc5/Qxb5 2.Sh3#

Григорий Леонтьевич Попов (18-04-1950) Russian composer and International Master (Grigory Leontievich Popov)

Grigory Popov

Grigory Popov is a moremover composer with many recent successes. He was 7th in the moremovers section in WCCI 2004-2006. Here is a sample of his talent:

Попов, Григорий Леонтьевич
Московский конкурс 2010
3^rd Prize

#7

6 + 9

Show Solution

1.Kd4! (2.Sc6/Sd7#)
1...Qh8! 2. Kd5! Qh5 3. Ke4! Qe2+ 4. Kd4 Qb2+ 5. Kd5 Qd2+ 6. Bxd2 ~ 7. Sd7#
A nice wK-bQ duel.

Попов, Григорий Леонтьевич
Gafarov-70 MT, Uralsky Problemist, 2006
3^rd Prize

#12

9 + 10

Show Solution

1.Rd8! (2.Sd3#) Bg6 2.Sd7+ Kd6 3.Sxf8+ Kc5 4.Sd7+ Kd4 5.Se5+ Kc5 6.Rd1 (7.Sd7#) Be8 7.Sd3+ Kd4 8.Sxb4+ Kc5 9.Sd3+ Kd4 10.Sf2+ Kc5 11.Ba2 (12.b4#)
A logical moremover.
1.Sd3+? Kd6 2.Sxb4+ Kc5 3.Sd3+ Kd6 4.Sf2+ Kc5 5.Ba2 (6.b4#) fails on 5...Rxf4! and establishes the thematical try. Hence the foreplan meant to capture the black Rook f8.

Попов, Григорий Леонтьевич
Шахматная поэзия 2009
2^nd Prize

#14

9 + 11

Show Solution

1.Sa3+! followed by two variations:
1... Kc3 2.Be5+ Kd2 3.Sc4+ Ke2 4.Sf4+ Kf2 5.Bd4+ Kg3 6.Se2+ Kg4 7.Se5+ Kg5 8.Be3+ Kf6 9.Sg4+ Ke6 10.Sd4+ Kd6 11.Bf4+ Kc5 12.Sb3+ Kc4 13.Se3+ Kc3 14.Be5#
1... Kc5 2.Be3+ Kd6 3.Sc4+ Ke6 4.Sf4+ Kf6 5.Bd4+ Kg5 6.Se6+ Kg4 7.Se3+ Kg3 8.Be5+ Kf2 9.Sg4+ Ke2 10.Sd4+ Kd2 11.Bf4+ Kc3 12.Sb5+ Kc4 13.Se5+ Kc5 14.Be3#
The two variations remind one of A.D. Petrov's longmovers.
Is it cooked?

Margus Sööt (18-04-1980) Estonian composer

Margus Sööt (right)
Cologne, 2007
[kwabc.org]

Margus Sööt is a chess player and solver who sometimes composes. He is also the studies editor of the Swedish magazine "Springaren".

Sööt, Margus
49^th PCCC, Vodka Ty, 2006
Comm.

#3

4 + 3

Show Solution

1.Se5 ! (2.Kf4/Ke4 ~ 3.Qg6#)

1...Kxe5 2.Bxe7 (3.Qe4#)
1...Bg7 2.Ke4 (3.Qf5/Qg6#)