Isenegger Memorial Study Tourney (3)

ARVES Isenegger Memorial Tourney

Yochanan Afek , Bern WCCF congress 2014

This tourney commemorates the well-known endgame study composer Samuel Isenegger (2.11.1899 – 15.11.1964), who was born in Bern the Swiss capital and passed away fifty years ago. A repeating motif in his studies – pawns fighting pieces – was selected as the theme of this event. A Jenever tourney record of 33 entries by 20 composers from 11 countries. The general standard proved exceptionally high, especially for such a short deadline.

Dorette and Harold van der Heijden, Composition GM Davit Gurgenidze, endgame expert John Roycroft

Pawns fighting pieces, in the spirit of David vs. Goliath encounters, have always been popular. However this event has shown that with and without the help of modern technology it is still possible to delve even deeper and enrich this sub-genre with new findings. Since the power of the pawns is at the focus of attention, play following promotion or underpromotion was not considered thematic. Quite a few composers have shown interesting realizations of the Festina Lente theme (choosing the shorter first move of a pawn). Thus this award might offer considerable contribution to the research of this theme.

In the first part of this report we brought you the compositions that won the first to fourth prizes, in the second part the studies that got a special prize and honorary mentions. Today in this final section you can enjoy the studies that got special commendations.

1st Commendation: Pavel Arestov, Russia

Once again an attractive Festina Lente with a thematic reciprocal zugzwang and stalemate tries.

2nd Commendation: Martin Minski, Germany

Martin Minski, 45, is a mathematics teacher living in Berlin, Germany.
He is a Fide Master and International Judge for chess compositions

An accurate pawn play leads to a drawish Troitzky position.

3rd Commendation: Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen, Denmark

Age 39, from Copenhagen, Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen is a journalist and chess player with an
OTB top rating of 2262 (current rating: 2126). His top achievement: first prize in Timman 60 JT.

Advanced pawns create a nice stalemate net, though not a model one.

4th Commendation: John Nunn, England

John Nunn, 59, is an over the board International Grandmaster and a chess writer,
living in England. John is also an International Grandmaster for study and problem solving.

An elegant improvement on a famous stalemate by Kubbel and others.

5th Commendation: Daniel Keith, France, & Martin Minski, Germany

Octopus and Kubbel: Daniel Keith, 61, is a professor of technology living in France

Knights tend to hate the opponent's edge pawns and this study shows once again why. The Festina lente appears here too, this time by black to refute the thematic try.

Yochanan Afek is an Israeli chess player, composer, trainer and arbiter, the only person to possess international titles at four different facets of chess, being an International Master, International Master of chess compositions, International Arbiter and International Arbiter of the chess compositions.