Sunday, June 17, 2012

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
1st Prize


#3 10 + 13

Show Solution


Drăgoescu, Radu
Revista Română de Şah, Jan 1987


h#22 solutions 8 + 8

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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
1st Prize


#2 9 + 10

Show Solution


Лобусов, Андрей Яковлевич
Шахматы в СССР 1990
1st Prize


#3 10 + 10

Show Solution


Лобусов, Андрей Яковлевич
Rudenko JT, 1988
2nd Prize


#4 9 + 8

Show Solution



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


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



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 direct mate and endgame study composer.

Студенецкий, Алексей Николаевич
Шахматы в СССР 1951
1st Prize

#4  7 + 4

Show Solution

1 comment:

  1. The h#2 of Radu Dragoescu is completely anticipated by my own 1 Pr Rex Multiplex 1985 (PDB P0535365).

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