In the third and final instalment of the Chess Artistry Adventure series, we bring you seven more studies, six of them originals, by world-class composers like Arpad Rusz, Amatzia Avni, Michael Pasman, and more. We also briefly discuss the composers and try to understand how they can turn positions from games into original compositions. Like in the previous article, we also have an assortment of flavours here. Some of the studies are concrete and tactical, while others are a bit on the technical side. However, regardless of style, each composition is deeply instructional, and you can be sure to come out wiser as a chess player if you go through them all.
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
Chess studies have brought pleasure to enthusiasts over the centuries. They show the depth of the game more dramatically than regular over-the-board encounters. They can be mind-bogglingly clever. But how do authors go about composing studies? Amatzia Avni is a Fide Master in both OTB play and composition. He describes the process of spotting an idea and refining it, step by step, together with a colleague, until you have a competition-worthy study.