June 17th

Radu Drăgoescu (17-06-1914 - 07-12-1999) Romanian composer

Radu Drăgoescu
[radudragoescu.com [broken link]]

Radu Drăgoescu selfportrait
[radudragoescu.com [broken link] ]

Radu Drăgoescu was a painter and composed chess problems in all genres, with a predilection for selfmates and helpmates. He wrote many articles for "Buletin Problemistic" and for "Planeta Sah".
Valeriu Petrovici and Marian Stere published a book about Radu Drăgoescu's works ("Radu Drăgoescu", 2004) and his family had created a website in his memory [radudragoescu.com - broken link].

Drăgoescu, Radu
The British Chess Magazine, 1991
1^st Prize

#3

10 + 13

Show Solution

1. Sb3! (2. Qd5+ Bxd5/Sfxd5/Sexd5 3. Sc5#)

1... Be~ 2. Qc4+ Sxc4 3. Sd4#
1... Bd5! 2. Qxe7+ Rxe7 3. Sc5#
1... Sf~ 2. Qxe5+ Bxe5 3. Rxe5#
1... Sfd5 2. Qc6+ bxc6 3. Sc5#

Clearance sacrifices by the white Queen, black correction by bB and bS.

Drăgoescu, Radu
Revista Română de Şah, Jan 1987

h#2

2 solutions

8 + 8

Show Solution

1. Re3-g3 Rb3-f3 [A] 2. Bc4-d5 Be2-b5# [B]
1. Bc4-a6 Be2-b5 [B] 2. Re3-e5 Rb3-f3# [A]
Line closing, pin mates, interversion of white moves.

Every year the Romanian Chess Federation offers a "Radu Drăgoescu" trophy, which is a painting by Radu Drăgoescu offered by his daughter Şerbana Drăgoescu.
Below a painting by Radu Drăgoescu which was recently auctioned in Bucharest:

Faleza la 2 mai - by Radu Drăgoescu
[Artmark.ro]

Андрей Яковлевич Лобусов (17-06-1951 - 13-07-2010) Russian composer and Grandmaster (Andrey Yakovlevich Lobusov)

Andrey Lobusov
[popovgl.narod.ru]

Andrey Lobusov published his first chess problem at the age of 11, in 1962. From then on, he composed high quality problems, mainly two- and threemovers, but also some moremovers.
He wrote many articles as well as the manuscript of a book from which was selected the article published on Andrey Selivanov's website in 2010.

Let's show 3 problems in 2, 3 and 4 moves in order to realize how talented he was:

Лобусов, Андрей Яковлевич
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
1^st Prize

#2

9 + 10

Show Solution

Set play:
1...Rf8[a] 2.Rg5#[A]
1...Qa7/Qa5/Qb8/Qc8 2.Sf6#[B]
Try:
1.Bd2? (2.Ke3#)

1...Rf8[a] 2.Rg5#[A]
1...Qa6[b] 2.Se3#[C]
1...Bb3[c] 2.Nxf2#[D]
but 1...f1N!

1.Re6! (2.Ke5#)

1...Rf8[a] 2.Rg6#[E]
1...Qa6[b]/Qb8 2.Sf6#[B]
1...Bb3[c] 2.Se5#[F]
1...Qxd5+ 2.Kxd5#
1...Rxe6+ 2.Bxe6#
1...Bxd3+ 2.Kxd3#

Changed mates.

Лобусов, Андрей Яковлевич
Шахматы в СССР 1990
1^st Prize

#3

10 + 10

Show Solution

1. Qh2! (2. Sd4+! cxd4, Sxd4 3. exd4, Sd2#)

1... Qc8 2. Sg5+! fxg5 3. fxg5#
1... Rc7 2. Se5+! dxe5, fxe5 3. fxe5, Sg5#
1... Ra5 2. Sd2+! Sxd2 3. e4#

Battery play and active sacrifices of the wSs.

Лобусов, Андрей Яковлевич
Rudenko JT, 1988
2^nd Prize

#4

9 + 8

Show Solution

1. Bd6! (2. Kh6 ~ 3. Bxb5+ Qxb5 4. Sd2#)

1... Bg6 2. Se5+! Sxe5 3. Bxb5+ Qxb5 4. Sd2#
1... Rh1(3) 2. Se3+ Sxe3 3. Sd2+ Qxd2 4. Bxb5#

Anticipatory interference in order to prevent a check , active sacrifice

Andrew G. Buchanan (17-06-1959) British (Scottish) composer

Andrew Buchanan, 2008

Andrew Buchanan himself writes it on his website: "I love designing retrograde analysis chess problems." About this love, its history and its manifestations you can read here.

In 2000 Andrew "stumbled across the curious idea that became 'Dead Reckoning'" and developed it further. Many problems and explanations are included on his website and make it a worthwhile read. The Dead Reckoning idea is based on article A 1.3 of the FIDE Laws of Chess, which states: "if the position is such that neither player can possibly checkmate, the game is drawn."

The article published by Ronald Turnbull about Dead Reckoning in pages 140-141 of The Problemist, July 2001 can be read here ; Andrew's tutorial here and Andrew's article in StrateGems 16, Oct-Dec 2001 here.

Let's see one of Andrew's Dead Reckoning problems:

Buchanan, Andrew
StrateGems, 2001

Dead Reckoning. #3. Castling rights? [Kside & Qside]

16 + 1

Show Solution

Unless White can castle on the king's side, the game was already a dead draw before Black's last move, and the game would have ended prematurely. So White is definitely allowed to castle on the king's side:
1. O-O! Kxe2 2. Bc4+ Ke3 3. Ra3#.
However, White has made 14 pawn captures, and one must have been a promoted rook pawn. Since White can castle on the king's side, Black promoted a pawn and White must have lost Queen's side castling rights.
So 'Dead Reckoning', the principle of FIDE Law 1.3, allows us to infer not just the presence of castling rights, but also their absence.

A proof game in 9 moves with homebase position (all remaining units stand on their initial squares):

Buchanan, Andrew
Commendation, Die Schwalbe 2013

SPG 9.0

11 + 11

Show Solution

1.h4 e6 2.h5 Qf6 3.h6 Qxb2 4.hxg7 Qxc2 5.gxf8=S Qxa2 6.Rxa2 Sa6 7.Rxa6 Ke7 8.Rxe6+ Kxf8 9.Re8+ Kxe8 diagram
White S Schnoebelen (the promoted wS is captured on its promotion square without having moved).
The wS promotion is the only one that allows the black King Rundlauf e8-e7-f8-e8.

Алексей Николаевич Студенецкий (17-06-1912 - 1988) Russian composer (Alexey Nikolayevich Studenetsky)

Alexey Studenetsky
Problem, May 1979
[Thanks to Александр Никитин]

Alexey Studenetsky was a strong chess player and excellent study composer. He also composed direct mate problems.
You may read Peter Krug's article here.

Студенецкий, Алексей Николаевич
Шахматы в СССР 1951
1^st Prize

#4

7 + 4

Show Solution

1.Rb6-b1 ! Sc1-e2 (prevents 2.Rb1-g1#) 2.Rb1-e1 Se2-f4 (prevents 3.Re1-e6#) 3.Re1-e4 ZZ and after these 3 consecutive ambushes of the white Rook behind the black Knight, the mate by 4.Re4-e6 or Re4-g4 follows, depending on Black's reply.