July 31st

Henry Hosey Davis (31-07-1855 - 07-05-1954) British composer

"Henry Hosey Davis, a British chess player, seated in an ornately carved chair"
[John G. White Collection, Cleveland Public Library]

Henry H. Davis wrote the compilation "Chess problems" in 1906. He composed direct mates and has a very long composing career.

Davis, Henry Hosey
Bristol Mercury, 1892
1^st Prize

#2

10 + 8

Show Solution

1.Rb6 ! ZZ

1...Rc5 2.Qxg8#
1...Rc4 2.Qf5#
1...Ra6/Ra7/Ra8/Rb5 2.Rb5#
1...Rb4 2.Sxb4#
1...Rd4 2.Kf6#
1...Re4 2.Bxe4#
1...Rf4 2.Kxf4#
1...Rg4+ 2.Kxg4#
1...Rh4 2.Kxh4#
1...Se3/Sf2/Sc3/Sb2 2.Sc3#
1...hxg6 2.Kxg6#
1...Bf7 2.Bxf7#
1...Be6 2.Qc6#

A difficult block key followed by many variations, as was the fashion at the end of the 19th century.

Salomon Rosenfeld (31-07-1881 - 1937) Romanian composer

Salomon Rosenfeld composed selfmates such as this s#7 but also problems with retro content: who mates in two moves in the following position?

Rosenfeld, Salomon
Deutsche Schachzeitung, 1923
dedicated to Wolfgang Pauly

#2 Who?

12 + 11

Show Solution

Black captured wBc1 with an officer on c1 and exdxcxb; White captured fxg and g5xh6, so there are three white captures left to explain. wBg3 is wPa2 promoted on b8 following axb and b6xa7xb8=B, because this pawn is the only one that could not have been captured by bPe7, so last move was not a7-a6. bPe7 captured lightsquared wBf1 on its way to b3, so last move was not b4-b3. The other seemingly possible last moves by Black are easily ruled out, so White made the last move, and it is Black who mates in two.
Solution:
1... Kxe8+ 2. Sf6 Dxf6#, not 1. Sdf6+? Ke7 2. Rxd7.

Rauf Gadschiaga Ogl Aliovsadzade (31-07-1945) Azerbaijani-American composer

Rauf Aliovsadzade
[popovgl.narod.ru]

Rauf Aliovsadzade is a world-class violinist, member of the Lincoln Symphony (Nebraska) and chess master. He moved to the US in 1997 and has become the threemover editor at "StrateGems". He composes direct mates, helpmates and sometimes retro problems.

Aliovsadzade, Rauf Gadschiaga Ogl
Olimpiya dünyası 2008
1^st Prize

#3

13 + 11

Show Solution

1. Rd8! (2. Sxb5+ Bd7, Kxe2 3. Rxd7, Sxc3#)

1... f3 2. Sf5+ Rd5, Kxe2 3. Rxd5, Sxg3#
1... Rd5 2. Sf3+ Bxf3 3. Rxd5#
1... Bd7 2. Sb3+ Rxb3 3. Rxd7#
1... Qb6 2. Sxb6 (3. Sc4#) 2... Be6 3. Sb3#

Rainer Staudte (31-07-1953) German composer

Rainer Staudte is a German computer scientist with research interests in computer chess and fuzzy logic. Rainer Staudte is a chess player, youth chess coach and composes direct mates, endgame studies, selfmates and helpmates.

Staudte, Rainer
EBUR, 2004
1^st Honorable Mention, Averbach-80 jubilee

=

3 + 2

Show Solution

1. h7 !
{1. Sh5 ? Qg6 2. h7 Qf7 3. Sf6 Kb4 4. Sg8 Kc5 5. Sh6 Qf6+ 6. Kg8 Qg6+ ! 7. Kh8 Kd6 -+ ; 1. Sf5 ? Qg6 2. h7 Kb4 (2... Qf7 ? 3. Sh6 ! Qf6+ 4. Kg8 Qg6+ 5. Kh8) 3. Se7 Qf7 ! 4. Sg8 Kc5 5. Sh6 Qf6+ 6. Kg8 Qg6+ ! 7. Kh8 Kd6 -+: 1. Se4 ? Qg6 2. h7 Qf7 3. Sf6 Kb4 4. Sg8 Kc5 5. Sh6 Qf6+ 6. Kg8 Qg6+ ! -+}
1... Qd5
{1... Qa8+ 2. Kg7 Qb7+ 3. Kg6 Qc6+ 4. Kg7 Qd7+ 5. Kg8 Qd8+ 6. Kf7 ! Qh8 7. Kg6 ! =) ; 1... Qb2+ 2. Kg8 Qb3+ 3. Kg7 Qc3+ 4. Kf7 Qc4+ 5. Kg6 Qg4+ 6. Kf7 =}
2. Sf5 !
{2. Kg7 ? Qg5+ ! 3. Kh8 Qh6 4. Kg8 Qg6+ 5. Kh8 Qf7 6. Se4 Qf8# ; 2. Se4 ? Qf7 ! 3. Sf6 Kb4 4. Sg8 Kc5 5. Sh6 Qf6+ 6. Kg8 Qg6+ ! -+ ; 2. Sh5 ? Qf7 ! 3. Sf6 Kb4 4. Sg8 Kc5 5. Sh6 Qf6+ 6. Kg8 Qg6+ ! -+}
2... Qf7 3. Sh6 !
{3. Se7 ? Kb4 4. Sg8 Kc5 5. Sh6 Qf6+ 6. Kg8 Qg6+ ! -+}
3... Qf6+ 4. Kg8 Qg6+ 5. Kh8 Kb4 6. Sf7 ! Kc5 7. Se5 ! Qg5 8. Sg6 ! Kd5
{ 8... Kd6 9. Kg7 !}
9. Kg7 ! draw.
A good analytical study.

Борислав Гађански (31-07-1953) Serbian composer and International Master (Borislav Gadjanski)

Borislav Gadjanski

Borislav Gadjanski is the president of the Serbian Society of Problemists and the captain of the Serbian composition team. He often takes part in chess composition congresses. He is a mathematician and has been a deputy in the National Assembly. He composes direct mates, helpmates or fairy problems.

Гађански, Борислав
Quick Composing Ty Antalya, 2008
1^st Prize

h#2

2.1...

7 + 9

Show Solution

1.Sxf4 Rxf4+ 2.Ke5+ Sd5#
1.Sxf6+ Qxf6+ 2.Ke4+ Sd5#
Spectacular counter-checks, exchange of functions between wQ and wR.

Timothy George Whitworth (31-07-1932 - 17-04-2019) British composer

Timothy Whitworth
Source: Arves

Timothy Whitworth was a chess endgame study composer and author. He was the Studies columnist for the British Chess Magazine from 1988 to 1995.
He is well known for his anthologies of the works of Leonid Kubbel, Hermanis Matisons, The Platov Brothers or Mike Bent, as well as Endgame Magic (with John D. Beasley).
For more details about him: an article by Brian Stephenson, a selection of studies on the ARVES site and an obituary by John D. Beasley.

Whitworth, Timothy George
EG, 1982

+

3 + 4

Show Solution

1. Se7+ [1. Kf4? c2 2. Bc2 h2]
1... Kh7 [1... Kg7 2. Ke5 h2 (2... Kh7 3. Kf6) 3. Sf5] [1... Kf7 2. Sd5 h2 3. Sc3] [1... Kf8 2. Sg6 Kg7 3. Sf4]
2. Kf6 [2. Kf4? h2 3. Bd5 c2] [2. Sd5? h2 3. Sf6 Kh8] [2. Bd5? c2] [2. Bc2? h2 3. Ke5 Kh8]
2... h2 [2... Kh8 3. Sg6] [2... Kh6 3. Sf5]
3. Bxd5 c2 [3... h1=Q 4. Bh1 c2 5. Be4 Kh8 6. Sg6] [3... Kh6 4. Sf5 Kh7 (4... Kh5 5. Bf3#) 5. Se3]
4. Bg8+ [4. Be4? Kh8 5. Sg6 Kg8]
4... Kh6 [4... Kh8 5. Kf7 c1=Q 6. Sg6#]
5. Sf5+ Kh5 6. Bd5 Kg4 7. Se3+ Kg3 8. Sxc2 Kf2 9. Sd4 wins

George Clarence Alvey (31-07-1890 - 06-09-1929) British composer

Let's quote Michael McDowell from his book "A Selection of Chess Problems by G. C. Alvey":

Alvey's early problems were of the conventional kind "White is to play and force mate within n moves against any black defence", but after a while he came under the spell of the "fairy chess" enthusiastically championed by T. R. Dawson in the pages of the Chess Amateur. This embraced imaginative composition of all kinds: problems with unorthodox objectives of play, puzzles in which the main task was to work out how the given position was reached, and compositions which explored what might happen if the players had use of pieces other than the normal king, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn.

The abovementioned book provides many examples of Alvey's work and you can read it here. You may have a look at this fairy #2 with Nightrider that features a three-piece Grimshaw or at the following selfmate in two:

Alvey, George Clarence Vincent
The Chess Amateur, Nov 1921 (S115v)

s#2

8 + 8

Show Solution

1.♕g1! (2.♘g4+ ♗×g4#)
1...♗×f6 2.♕h1+ ♗h3#
1...♕g5~ 2.♘f5+ ♗×f5#
1...♗c8~+ 2.♘g8+ ♖×g8#
Nice play with the half-pin on the a1-h8 diagonal and the black battery on the 8th rank.