September 17th

Johannes Seeberger (17-09-1843 - 11-11-1879) Austrian composer

Johannes Seeberger was one of the best composers of direct mates in three and more moves of his time.
He gave his name to a moremover theme:
Seeberger theme : Black Cheney-Loyd where the intercepted piece can't move. Then White plays a waiting move to oblige the intercepting piece to move.

Seeberger, Johannes
Illustrirtes Familien-Journal, 1860

#4

8 + 6

Show Solution

1. Ra8! (2.Rf8+ Bf7 3.Rxf7#)
1...Bxa8 2. Ba3 (3.Bxc5 ~ 4.Bd6#)
2...Sb7 3. Be7 ! h5 4. Bg5#
Seeberger with the black Bishop as the intercepted piece and the black Knight as the interceptor.

Max Dischler (17-09-1894 - 22-03-1981) German composer

Max Dischler
[Kartothek A-K page 58]

Max Dischler was a direct mate composer.

Dischler, Max
Die Schwalbe, 1930

#2

8 + 7

Show Solution

1.Qh8 ! ZZ and mate follows.
A good training for solvers.

Ernst Hasselkus (17-09-1876 - 17-03-1957) Austrian-German composer

Ernst Hasselkus
[Kartothek A-K page 126]

Ernst Hasselkus was a selfmate composer specialized in long and very analytical problems. His selfmate in 63 moves against two black Bishops is especially memorable but a little too complicated to be mentioned here.
Let's content ourselves with the following simpler and economical selfmate:

Hasselkus, Ernst
Die Schwalbe, 1950

s#6

2 + 3

Show Solution

1.c7-c8=Q !
1...a3-a2+ 2.Kb1-a1 Kb3-a4 3.Qc8-a6+ Ka4-b3 4.Qa6-c6 ZZ 4...Kb3-a3 5.Qc6-c2 ZZ b4-b3 6.Qc2-e4/Qc2-c4 b3-b2#
1...Kb3-a4 2.Qc8-a6+ Ka4-b3 3.Qa6-c6 ZZ a3-a2+ 4.Kb1-a1 ZZ etc.

George Koltanowski (17-09-1903 - 05-02-2000) Belgian-American composer

George Koltanowski
[Wikipedia]

George Koltanowski possessed an amazing memory which allowed him to play simultaneous blindfold games (34 in 1937) and to make spectacular exhibitions. In 1948 Koltanowski became the chess columnist for the "San Francisco Chronicle" and carried his chess column every day for the next 52 years until his death.

Koltanowski, George
Tijdschrift vd NSB, 1924

#2 v

9 + 7

Show Solution

1.Sd2+?
1...Kxf5[a] 2.Qh7#[A]
1...Kxd5[b] 2.Qb7#[B]
but 1...Kxe3!
1.Qe8! ZZ
1...Kxf5[a] 2.Sxg3#[C]
1...Kxd5[b] 2.Qa8#[D]
1...Bf4 2.Qa4#
1...Bd4/Bc3/Bb2/Ba1 2.Kxg3#
1...exd5 2.Rf4#
1...exf5 2.Rd4#
Changed mates.

Mihai Olariu (17-09-1926 - 01-08-2005) Romanian composer

Mihai Olariu composed mostly moremovers and long helpmates. He wrote articles for "Revista Romana de Sah" and for "Buletin Problemistic" and collaborated with Valeriu Petrovici.

Olariu, Mihai
Thema Danicum, 1992

h#6

b) bKh6->h7

3 + 7

Show Solution

a) 1.Bc1 f4 2.Se5 fxe5 3.a1=R e6 4.Ra6 e7 5.Bg5 e8=Q 6.Rg6 Qh8#
b) 1.Bg5 f4 2.a1=R+ Kf2 3.Ra6 fxg5 4.Rh6 g6+ 5.Kh8 gxf7 6.Rh7 f8=Q#
Roughly echo mates.

Juraj Lörinc (17-09-1973) Slovak composer and Grandmaster

Juraj Lörinc with his IM diploma, Jesi 2011

Juraj Lörinc composes mostly fairy problems but he has also indulged in orthodox helpmates and direct mates. He is renowned for his expertise in fairy problems and for his website Chess Composition Microweb which has been existing since 1998. He has organized until now 30 thematic tourneys. He has registered and commented 400 of his problems on his site on 66 different pages.

As an International Judge, Juraj has been busy too - for instance twice acting as a judge for the FIDE Album (1998-2000 and 2007-2009).
He also feeds a blog about chess composition in Slovak.

Lörinc, Juraj
Sach Profil, 1996

hs#3

2 solutions

6 + 5

Show Solution

1.Kd3! Bxb6 2.Be2 Kxd7 3.Qe6+! Kxe6#
1.Ke3! Rxd7 2.Re2 Kxb6 3.Qb5+! Kxb5#
A very aesthetic helpselfmate without pawns, where all pieces play a role in both solutions. Diagonal orthogonal transformation and royal battery creation.

Lörinc, Juraj
Vladislav Buňka-60 J.T. 1997
2^nd Prize

h#3

3 solutions h8, g7, f6, c5, e4, a3, a2: Grasshopper

9 + 8

Show Solution

1.Kg4-g5 Ga3-d6 A 2.Gc5-g1 Ga2-d5 B 3.Gg1-g4 Gg7-e7# C
1.Kg4-f5 Gg7-e7 C 2.Bf7-h5 Ga3-d6 A 3.Bh5-g4 Ga2-d5# B
1.Kg4-f4 Ga2-d5 B 2.Sc4-e3 Gg7-e7 C 3.Se3-g4 Ga3-d6# A
Cycle of white moves ABC-CAB-BCA.

Александр Ильич Сыгуров (17-09-1984) Russian composer and International Master (Aleksandr Ilich Sygurov)

Aleksandr Sygurov
[Grigory Popov]

ion
Aleksandr Sygurov is a direct mate composer. He was initiated into chess composition in 2000 and since 2003 he has mainly worked in collaboration with Evgeni Fomichev. Of his own account he most admires Josef Moravec, Milan Vukcevich, Leonid Zagoruiko, Aleksandr Kuzovkov, Mikhail Marandyuk, Robin Matthews and Hans Peter Rehm.

Фомичёв, Евгений Васильевич & Сыгуров, Александр Ильич
Проблеміст України 2008 (1(15)/417)
1^st Prize

#4

9 + 13

Show Solution

1. Ra5! (2. Rxe5+ Bxe5 3. Rf4+ Bxf4 4. Qxf4#)
1... Rf7 2. Qxf7 (3. Qd5+ Sxd5 4. Bxd5#) 2... Bxa5 3. Qf4+ exf4 4. Re8#
1... Bf3 2. Rxf3 (3. Re3+ dxe3 4. Qxe3#) 2... Bb6 3. Rf4+ exf4 4. Qxf4#
Decoy, active sacrifice. The problem also fulfils the Sygurov-Fomichev theme, which consists in a White magnet (moves Qf2-f7 and Rf8-f3 are 'magnet' moves).