Friedgood: solutions to the chess problems
Photo John Saunders
David Friedgood emigrated to the UK from South Africa in 1978, and became the
leading player of the country, winning the SA Closed Championship three times
and representing the country at four Olympiads. He began to take an interest
in endgame studies well before his teens and composed a few minor works from
age fourteen onwards. From 1961 onwards he started to compose chess problems
and became a dedicated problemist. The firs problem he ever composed was the
one we started his
new column with:
In his second problem David presented a problem, also from his young days,
composed with a fellow South African, that has two Grimshaws,
but with a little twist (the Grimshaw theme involves two line-moving pieces,
typically a rook and a bishop, but also a bishop and a pawn on its initial square,
which interfere with each other on the same square.
The Novotny theme
has proved to be a very fertile concept for many composers. Definition of Novotny:
a white unit plays onto the intersection square of (typically) a black rook
and bishop, causing a double interference. One of the finest two-mover Novotnys
ever composed was the following, by Michael Lipton, who has been the President
of the BCPS and is still active today as a composer and writer.
The two-mover is a somewhat limited showcase for the Novotny. As you can see
from Lipton's problem as well as the Mansfield masterpiece quoted
by Steve Giddins, the interest tends to be in the choice of Novotny to solve
the problem, and there is very little to enjoy post-key. Let us therefore turn
to the broader canvas of the three-mover. The problem below will suffice as
a taster:
Any queries or constructive comments can be addressed to the author at david.friedgood@gmail.com
Copyright in this article David Friedgood 2012/ChessBase
