May 27th

We may now mention in passing Thomas Winter-Wood (27-05-1818 - 07-05-1905), a British chess player and patriarch of a Devon chess dynasty. His three children were chess players and two of them composed chess problems: Edward and Edith, who later became Mrs. Edith Baird, the "queen of chess".

Georges Mathieu Fuchs (27-05-1908 - 22-12-1992) French composer

Georges Fuchs
[Thèmes-64 111, juillet-septembre 1983]

Georges M. Fuchs learned chess at 8 and composed his first problem at 14. At the age of 18, he wrote in the French magazine "La Stratégie" and translated Franz Palatz's articles and book about strategic miniatures. He composed endgames, fairy problems and direct mates, mostly twomovers.
170 of his problems were collected in a monography by Jean Bertin in 1984.

Fuchs, Georges Mathieu
Western Morning News, 10^th Sep 1927
1^st Prize

#2

7 + 14

Show Solution

1.Sd7! (2.Bxb6#)

1...Kc4+/Kc3/Se4 2.Be5#
1...Sc4 2.Se2#
1...Sb3 2.Qb4#
1...Qc3 2.Qh4#
1...Qc4 2.Qe5#

Levman, give-and-take key.

Hans Winter (27-05-1919) German composer 

Hans Winter composed direct mates.

Winter, Hans
Die Schwalbe, 1982 (3981)

#4

13 + 8

Show Solution

1.Rd1-e1 ! ZZ
1...e2xf1=Q 2.Bh3xf1 e3-e2 3.Qb1-d1 ZZ e2xf1=Q, e2xd1=Q 4.Qd1-h5, Bf1-b5#
An amusing block.

Toma Garai (27-05-1935 - 30-01-2011) Romanian-American composer and Grandmaster

Toma Garai

Toma Garai is a helpmate composer and an International Judge for helpmates. He composed more than 2000 helpmates and wrote many theoretical articles about helpmate themes. He also wrote "Chess Problems of the Same Kind; 208 Selected Helpmate Three-Movers" in 1994.
You can read his article "What's Up Doc?", published in Thema Danicum 100, 2000, on problemskak.dk.

Garai, Toma
The Problemist, 1983
2^nd Prize

h#3

2 solutions

4 + 7

Show Solution

1.Sb4-d3 Re4-e1 2.Qe5-e2 Bd6xe7+ 3.Kf6-e5 Re1xe2#
1.Sb4-c6 Bd6-b8 2.Qe5-c7 Re4xf4+ 3.Kf6-e5 Bb8xc7#
Maslar, anticipatory interference, Bristol, and perfect diagonal-orthogonal correspondence.

Marcel Tribowski (27-05-1962) German composer and Grandmaster

Marcel Tribowski
[Wikipedia]

Marcel Tribowski composes in all genres, with a preference for moremovers.
On Thorsten Zirkwitz's website you may read TZ and Marcel Tribowski's article about the Popandopoulo battery (in German).
You may check the two excellent problems quoted on Wikipedia.de and here are two other problems he composed in the moremover and helpmate genres:

Tribowski, Marcel
harmonie, 1998
1^st-2^nd Prize

h#6.5

Set play

2 + 5

Show Solution

1. ... 2. Rd3 Sb3 3. Rc4 Sc1 4. Bc6 Kg6 5. Kd4 Kg5 6. Qc5+ Kf4 7. Bd5 Se2#
1. ... Se6 2. Rc8 Sg5 3. Bb5 Kg6 4. Qb4 Kf5 5. Kc4 Ke4 6. Rc3 Sf3 7. Rc5 Sd2#
Echo mates with great interplay. The move 2.Rc8 is extremely hard to find by the solver.

Tribowski, Marcel
diagrammes, 1994
5^th Prize

#6

13 + 13

Show Solution

1. h4! (2. Rf1 [3. Sxe4+ Kxd5 4. Rd1#] 2... Sf2 3. Rxf2 Qxd5 4. Sxd5+ Kxd5 5. Rd2# or 3... c4 4. bxc4 Qxd5 5. Sxd5#)
Two variations:

1... Rxh4 2. Sxe4+ Kxd5 3. Sac3+ Ke5 4. Sxf6 Qxf6 5. Sce4+ Kd5 6. Sxf6#
1... exf3 2. Sa2+ K:d5 3. S4c3+ Ke5 4. Sb4 cxb4 5. Sca2+ Kd5 6. Sxb4#

Popandopoulo battery.

Руслан Альбертович Сурков (27-05-1968 - 05-09-2010) Russian composer and FIDE Master (Ruslan Albertovich Surkov)

Ruslan Surkov [popovgl.narod.ru]

Ruslan Surkov was a twomover composer.

Сурков, Руслан Альбертович
diagrammes, 2000
2^nd Prize

#2 v

9 + 9

Show Solution

1.Sg4? (2.Sxe5#)
1...Sxf3[a] 2.Qb3#[A]
1...exf3[b] 2.Qd3#[B]
but 1...Rd6!
1.Sd7! (2.Sxe5#)
1...Sxf3[a] 2.Qd3#[B]
1...exf3[b] 2.Qb3#[A]
1...Kd5 2.Sb6#
1...Rd6 2.Qxc5#
Reciprocal change.