Tim Krabbé's book "Schaakkuriosa" showed a study by the Bulgarian chess composer I. Ionchev, flawed but nevertheless interesting. Yours truly tried to follow in his footsteps. Nadareishvili explored the same concept, and it might be unfair to associate the name with Ionchev as he was neither the first, the last, nor the most important one to show it - only the most famous. | Photo: Pixabay
Polarchy or Polyarchy is the idea to have the burden of government on the shoulders of multiple people, as opposed to the monarchy that only sees one king or queen with all the burden. In chess, the king remains the sole objective of the game, but in rare cases one might be faced with the constellation that said king is joined not only by one but two queens. | Photo: Pixabay
A special kind of magic trick is to turn one thing into another a.k.a. a switcheroo. In endgame studies, one such transformation is turning a stalemate into a checkmate. Columnist Siegfried Hornecker shows phenomenal examples which made use of this fantastic ‘magic trick’. | Pictured: Ernest Pogosyants
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Study of the Month: April 2021
What is an ‘endgame study’? By definition, it is (unless an author specifies otherwise) a position in which White wins or draws
in exactly one way.
How do you know that there is exactly one way? Endgame tablebases (EGTB) are a proof, but unlike many other genres, there is no way to use brute force or heuristically solve an endgame study to find a complete proof of it being correct. That is where cook hunters come in. A cook is an incorrectness in an endgame study, either a refutation or a dual. A dual first and refutation later might lead to a unique solution, but not to a correct study usually, as the author’s intention is lost. Let’s explore cooks!
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congratulations today, Harold, on your 60th.
Harold finished a PhD in 2009, while he was working at the research and development laboratory of the veterinary company Royal GD. After his PhD he became a full researcher and went on to lead a group of 20 technicians at the company.
But that is not what Harold is famous for. It is related to his hobby: chess studies, of which he has to date published around 150 (winning 28 prizes and many horourable mentions and commendations in the process).
But it is not even this for which he is famous. It is for collecting endgame studies and creating the largest collection in the world.