12/31/2022 – 64 squares. For some they mean the world. In the past month, the World Congress for Chess Composition was held, as I quickly reported. Among the new books there was also the FIDE Album 2016-2018 (for a history of the FIDE Albums see our September 2019 article) | Photo: Pixabay

11/26/2022 – Pattern recognition is a major feat of the human brain, albeit one that can lead to wrong outputs. Examples include seeing faces where there are none, known as pareidolia. Once it was believed that the planet Mars has a face structure on it, speculations about former inhabitants of the planet ran wild, later it turned out that this isn't the case and could be attributed to the low resolution of the photo. | Photo: Pixabay

10/29/2022 – This month, I planned to write about chess composition in Japan, but it turned out that not much information was obtainable. The situation in Singapore is even worse regarding sources. So instead, in this month's column we have a small mix of shorter articles again. | Photo: Pixabay

9/25/2022 – Last month, we talked about themes that blurred into the philosophical, but also into insanity. Jan Sprenger combines both: His profession is philosophy, his recent mastery of endgame studies is insane. Yours Truly sent a few questionnaires to Jan Sprenger, the results of the interview as well as a selection of his studies is presented below. | Photo: Pixabay + Wikipedia

8/27/2022 – On 30 June 1908, just after 7 AM (all dates correspond to our Gregorian calendar), an explosion occurred in the harsh forests in Siberia near the Tunguska river. The explosion happened over an area that is nearly unpopulated, so apart from an estimated 80 million trees (and, we suppose, the wildlife in that area of 2150 km²) only three humans died in the event that would likely have been a major catastrophe if it had happened over a densely populated area.| Photos: Pixabay

7/31/2022 – The term "malyutka" - "baby" - is used for endgame studies with up to five pieces. The art of such studies is very old, but some modern composers extensively researched such positions. Obviously, endgame tablebases made composing such endgame studies easier in the late 20th century, and it seems that there can't be much variety with only three pieces apart from the kings. Yet, even with so few pieces, some interesting ideas can be found.| Photos: Pixabay

6/25/2022 – Free association is an interesting mechanism to make up introductions for articles. Let us try: "Music was my first love and it will be my last", John Miles sang many years ago. The "Children" of Caissa rather would see their "Circle of Life" in Chess, where the WCCT-7 theme might have been predicted by Phil Collins in "Against All Odds" (who also performed the song named in the previous quotation): "Take a look at me now! There's just an empty space!", the bishop in the Kozłowski study might say this. | Photos: Pixabay

5/28/2022 – 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

4/30/2022 – Castling is a fascinating move. According to Wikipedia, "it originates from the 'king's leap', a two-square king move added to European chess between the 14th and 15th centuries, which took on its present form in the 17th century". The intricacies of the rules of castling have inspired many studies. Specialized columnist Siegfried Hornecker presents some of them. | Photos: Pixabay

3/26/2022 – Due to recent events, in these times of turmoil that have divided the world, I will this time not speak on behalf of the WFCC, but on behalf of my own, my personal opinion. | Photos: Pixabay

2/26/2022 – Humans formed belief systems based on stellar bodies. If you ask an astrologer about it, he might tell you his beliefs which of those have the most influence on your life. If you ask a scientist, he will likely name at least two: Sun and Earth. Ancient cultures already measured a phenomenon that - relative to each other - Earth rotates around the sun as well as around its own axis. A full rotation around itself is called a "day", a full rotation around the sun a "year". Relatively speaking, that is in relation to the sun, Earth returns to its current position after one year. One hundred such rotations are called a "century". A man who is on Earth for such a time is called a "centennial". A centennial who contributes to endgame theory is called... Yuri Averbakh. | Photo of Averbakh: Eteri Kublashvili

1/29/2022 – Endgame studies sometimes go to extremes, e.g. by demonstrating a win in 584(!) moves in a study, in which King, Rook, two Bishops (standing on the same colour), and pawn fight against King, Queen and Pawn. But are these and similar studies relevant for the theory of the endgame or practical games? It depends. Siegfried Hornecker takes a closer look.

12/25/2021 – The Serbian name "Darko" comes from "Dar" for "gift". Good wishes are bestowed often upon our children, be it luck with the Biblical name "The son of luck" or "Benjamin", or in this case, the gift of being gifted. A special gift indeed was given to Darko Hlebec, an interesting composing style. Study specialist Siegfried Hornecker presents presents examples of his work and Darko's comments about it.

11/27/2021 – Richard Kenneth Guy was a British mathematician, with a passion for chess. Siegfried Hornecker's "Study of the Month" is all about this great "Guy", his life, and his studies. The professor of mathematics, who composed almost 200 endgame studies for the "British Chess Magazine", died last year at the age of 103. | Photo: Wikipedia

10/30/2021 – Halloween is near — and inspired Siegfried Hornecker to search for compositions and studies that are suitable to this time of the year. After all, a good endgame study doesn't ask "Trick or treat?" but rather offers both. Enjoy!

9/25/2021 – In football, the German word "Schwalbe" (the swallow bird, and the football term for "diving") is an attempt by a player to feign a foul by deliberately dropping himself in a tackle with an opposing player to gain an unfair advantage. The Schwalbe in chess, doesn't mean that players fake a fall to the ground, and knock off the chess pieces to work out a mate in four. Columnist Siegfried Hornecker shows us the way on how to solve chess problems with the thematic idea of the Schwalbe, and takes us on a journey about the history of the German chess problem society. | Photo: www.dieschwalbe.de

8/29/2021 – 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

7/31/2021 – In a multifaceted column, Siegfried Hornecker looks at a young Austrian chess player who went missing in the Alps and never returned, how geometry on the chessboard is vastly different from a Euclidean two-dimensional plane, a curious episode from the 1951 World Championship match between Botvinnik and Bronstein, and a couple of endgame studies created by women composers. | Pictured: Julius Perlis