August 11th

Ottó Titusz Bláthy (11-08-1860 - 26-09-1939) Hungarian composer

Otto Blathy
[Wikipedia]

Ottó Titusz Bláthy was an electrical engineer and an inventor. He was specialized in long moremover problems, but he composed in all genres. He was mostly interested in length records: in 1922 he published a selfmate in 342 moves. In 1889 he published "Vielzügige Schachaufgaben" which contains 400 of his problems. On berlinthema.de you can see the solution of his #292 (1890, illegal position) and a photo of him. 

Bláthy, Ottó Titusz
International Chess Magazine, 1886

#5

2 + 5

Show Solution

1.Bd6! Re8 2.Bc5
2...Rd8 3.Be7 Rd6/Rf8 4.Bxd6/Bxf8 and mate follows
2...Re4 3.Ba3 Rb4 4.Bxb4 and mate follows.

Bláthy, Ottó Titusz
Magyar Sakkvilág, 1922

h#7

2 + 7

Show Solution

1.h1=S dxe3 2.Sg3 e4 3.Sf5 exf5 4.e1=B f6 5.g1=R f7 6.Rg4 f8=Q 7.Bg3 Qh6#
Allumwandlung with typical transformations in B and R, but for that period it is remarkable.

Antonín Zeman (11-08-1865 - 14-10-1947) Czech composer

Antonín Zeman composed Bohemian direct mates.
The brochure "Galerie ceskoslovenskych skladatelu, volume 05: Antonin Zeman" (1966) contains 36 problems of his. It can be downloaded here.

Zeman, Antonín
Besedy lidu, 13^th Sep 1902 (242)

#3

8 + 7

Show Solution

1.Sg7-e8 ! (2.Se8-f6+ Kd5-e6 3.Bb5-d7#)

1...Sd2-e4 2.c2-c4+ Kd5-e6 3.Se8-g7#
1...Kd5-e6 2.Bb5-c6 (3.Se8-g7#)
1...Sa8-b6 2.Se8-c7+ Kd5-e4 3.Bb5-d3#

Carl Schrader (11-08-1901 - 29-05-1959) German composer

Carl Schrader
[Thanks to Александр Никитин]

Carl Schrader was the president of "Die Schwalbe" in a difficult period, after WWII.
He composed direct mates.

Schrader, Carl
Die Schwalbe, 1939
1^st Prize

#2

10 + 9

Show Solution

1.Sc8! (2.Se7#)
1...d6 2.Sg3#
1...d5 2.Qe6#
1...g6 2.Rxf6#
1...g5 2.Se3#
Self interferences by bP.
1...Bd6 2.Sxd6#
1...Sg8/Sd5 2.Qe4#
1...Qe3 2.Sxe3#/Bg6#
1...Sxg4 2.Qxg4#

Karol Mlynka (11-08-1944 - 07-09-2022) Slovak composer and FIDE Master

Karol Mlynka was a twomover and fairy composer. Juraj Lörinc summed it up on his website:

Teacher of Slovak and German languages. Known Slovak composer, he composes since 1961, inventor of Mlynka theme (cyclic change of defence motives of 3 defences in 2 phases) as well as many other original themes from the field of so called Slovak school. International judge FIDE since 1987 and FIDE master since 1990. In recent time he works well in Pat a Mat redaction, where he is editor for #3.

Karol Mlynka also invented the Supertransmuting King and has composed many problems with this fairy piece. The definitions and some examples can be found also on Juraj Lörinc's website:
The transmuting king is a king which, when in check, takes the power(s) of the checking unit(s) in place of its own,
The Supertransmuting king is a king which, when checked, takes on the power(s)of the checking unit(s) in place of its own, and retains it/them after the check has been parried. At this point it loses its royal status, so that the play continues without a royal unit for this side.
Karol Mlynka's book "100 selected chess compositions" can be downloaded from selivanov.ru.

Mlynka, Karol
idee & form, 2006

h#3

4.1... WhiteSuperTransmutingKing

1 + 13

Show Solution

1.Ka1 Kxe5 2.Bc7+ Kxd4=B 3.b1B Bxc3#
1.Sa1 Kxe5 2.Sd3+ Kc4=S 3.Sc1 Sa3#
1.a1=Q Kd5 2.Qa2+ Kxd4=Q 3.Sf3 Qd1#
1.Bd1 Kf5 2.Rf8+ Kf1=R 3.Sf3 Rxd1#
The four transformations (S, B, R, Q) of the Supertransmuting King.

Roland Baier (11-08-1954) Swiss composer and FIDE Master

Josef Kupper and Roland Baier, Halkidiki 2004

Roland Baier is a solver (World Champion in 1983, Grandmaster in 1988), an International Judge and composes mostly direct mates.

Baier, Roland
Basler Nachrichten, 1975
1^st Prize

#3

11 + 14

Show Solution

1.d3-d4 ! (2.d4-d5 [3.Bf7xe6/Re2-e5#] 2...Ra4-e4 3.f3xe4#)
1...Ra4xd4 2.Sd7-c5 (3.Sc6xd4/Re2-e5#) 2...Rd4-d5, Rd4-e4 3.Bf7xe6, f3xe4#
1...Ba7xd4 2.c3-c4 (3.Bf7xe6/Sc6xd4#)
Cyclic threats (AB/BC/CA) and triple Novotny.

Henri Nouguier (11-08-1958) French composer

Henri Nouguier composes retro problems. He used to edit the retro column of the French magazine "diagrammes" until Nicolas Dupont replaced him.

Consequent series-movers are series-movers where, at every moment during the series, the intermediary position must be legal as if we were in an orthodox game. It is not possible to enter positions with no retro-analytically "legal past". For retro-analytical purposes, all intermediary positions are evaluated independently.
Examples in the Retro Corner.

Nouguier, Henri
Europe Echecs 349, 1988 (491)

ser-hc#6

4 + 12

This is a consequent series helpmate in 6 moves.

Show Solution

1.fxg3 e.p.! 2.Kh5 (and not 2.g4 illegal because White has no last move!) 3.Kg6 4.Kf7 5.Ke8 6.O-O-O (legal in consequent series!) 6... a8=Q#
Valladao theme.

Jukka Tapanimäki (11-08-1961 - 01-05-2000) Finnish composer

Jukka Tapanimäki
[zak.fi]

Jukka Tapanimäki is a regretted game programmer who wrote his games for the Commodore 64 computer.
During the 1980s he composed twomovers, helpmates and series help-problems and he enjoyed problems with pins.

Tapanimäki, Jukka
The Problemist, 1985
2^nd Prize

h#2

2 solutions

6 + 12

Show Solution

1.♕d2 ♘×d3 2.♗c3 ♘f4#
1.♕g4 ♘×e6 2.♖f7 ♘d4#
Rich pinning and unpinning play.