Monday, December 24, 2012

December 25th

William Anthony Shinkman (25-12-1847 - 25-05-1933) American composer

William Shinkman
[Wikipedia]

William Shinkman was a very prolific composer (more than 3,500 problems), 672 of them in "The Golden Argosy" which can be downloaded and read from here.
His surprising and paradoxical keys owed him the surname of "the Wizard of Grand Rapids". He composed many classics.
More about him on ChessProblem.net by Gary Kevin Ware.

Shinkman, William Anthony
Huddersfield College Magazine, Oct 1877
1st Prize


#2 5 + 4

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Shinkman, William Anthony
St. John's Globe, 1890
1st Prize


#3 5 + 6

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Shinkman, William Anthony
Deutsche Schachzeitung, Sep 1893


#4 5 + 2

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Shinkman, William Anthony
Sunny South, 1891
2nd Prize


s#3 7 + 8

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Карл Артур Леонид Иванович Куббель (25-12-1891 - 18-04-1942) Russian composer (L.I. Kubbel or K.A.L. Kubbel)

Leonid Kubbel
[Wikipedia]


Leonid Kubbel was a prolific and remarkable composer of endgame studies and problems. He was considered as one of the greatest study composers. He collaborated with chess magazines such as "Shakhmatny Listok" and published two compilations of his compositions during his lifetime.

Timothy Whitworth published in 1994 his complete endgame works in "Leonid Kubbel’s Chess Endgame Studies" (2nd complete edition, 2004). Yaakov Vladimirov and Yuri Fokin published in 1984 the soberly titled "Leonid Kubbel" including more than 700 problems and studies by K.A.L. Kubbel, a detailed biography and a critical apparatus.
See also Alexandr Baturin below for another book about Kubbel's works.

Куббель, Карл Артур Леонид Иванович
Skakbladet, 1935
1st Prize


#2 v 13 + 7

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Куббель, Карл Артур Леонид Иванович
Nová Praha, 1927
1st Prize


#3 12 + 9

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Куббель, Карл Артур Леонид Иванович
Rostov Komite Fizkultura i Sport, 1941
1st Prize


+ 5 + 7

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Александр Андрианович Батурин (25-12-1909 - 05-08-1981) Russian composer (Alexandr Andryanovich Baturin)

Alexandr Baturin was an editor for "Шахматы в СССР" (Shakhmat v SSSR) and composed mostly modern twomovers and strategic threemovers. He was an International Judge.
He wrote a compilation of 577 problems by Leonid Kubbel in 1958 "Избранные задачи Л. И. Куббеля".

Батурин, Александр Андрианович
Magyar Sakkvilág, 1947
3rd Prize


#3 11 + 15

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Kauko Virtanen (25-12-1931 - 24-07-2023) Finnish composer

Kauko Virtanen, 2002
[Finnish Chess Problem Society]


Kauko Virtanen was an International Judge who composed direct mates and helpmates.
He also held a popular chess problem column in Suomen Kuvalehti between 1976 and 1979. The columns were later published in a book:

Kauko Virtanen's book:
Musta ratsupyörä
Suomen Kuvalehden shakkipalstat vuosina 1976-1979


Virtanen, Kauko
1st WCCT, 1972
1st Place, 1972-1975


h#38 solutions 5 + 14

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Volodea Vaisman (25-12-1937) Romanian-French composer

Volodea Vaisman
[IulianCeausescu]


Volodea Vaisman is o.t.b. IM, trainer and maybe he has forgotten that he once composed this threemover:

Vaisman, Volodea
problem (Zagreb) 1960 (1555)


#3 12 + 12

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Unto Heinonen (25-12-1946 - 17-09-2022) Finnish composer and Grandmaster



Unto Heinonen
[© Hannu Harkola]


Unto Heinonen "composed everything", as Juraj Lörinc put it on his website, where he shows 5 fairy problems by the Finnish composer. He was also a remarkable Proof Games composer.
His article about the Ceriani-Frolkin theme can be read on Problemskak.
On this blog you can discover his sh=42 with Rex Solus beating the record established by Zdravko Maslar in Problem, 1958 (sh=34).

Heinonen, Unto
Die Schwalbe, 1989
1st Prize


h#34 solutions 2 + 16

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Heinonen, Unto
Springaren, 1999
1st Prize


r#2 10 + 9

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Heinonen, Unto
harmonie, 1991
2nd Prize


h#42 solutions
Circe
h7, d1: Pao
3 + 3

The Pao is a chinese piece: moves like a Rook, captures like a Rook over a hurdle.

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Александр Н. Буянов (25-12-1958) Russian composer (Alexander Buyanov)

Alexander Buyanov
[Facebook profile]


Alexander Buyanov composed few direct mate problems.

Буянов, Александр Н.
МК Д.Банный-65, Шахматная композиция 1997 (20/)


#2* 7 + 7

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Андрей Н. Журавлёв (25-12-1963) Russian composer and FIDE Master (Andrey N. Zhuravlev)

Andrey Zhuravlev
[Wikipedia]

Andrey Zhuravlev has composed more than 300 twomovers, threemovers, moremovers and helpmates. Three of his problems are presented on his Wikipedia webpage.
He is also a chess trainer, master of sports and was champion of Russia in 2015.

Журавлёв, Андрей Николаевич
U.S. Problem Bulletin, 1994 (/3150)
3rd Prize


#2 12 + 9

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4 comments:

  1. Dear Eric,

    a picture of Heinonen can be found at http://www.saunalahti.fi/~stniekat/st/heinonen.htm.

    Best, Manfred

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the tip ! The picture has been added.

      Delete
    2. Dear Eric,
      you may find photo of Zhuravlev and some information on Russian Wikipedia page: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%96%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D1%91%D0%B2,_%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87

      Best wishes

      Delete
    3. Thanks for the tip. The photo and information are now added.

      Delete