Kavalek at Huffington: Prokes's Windmills

by ChessBase
10/18/2010 – In the magical world of chess composition, he was called "the player's composer", since his gems resembled positions from practical play. Ladislav Prokes (1884-1966) spread the pieces, usually not too many, around the board naturally and the solutions were very logical. A strong player, he composed 1,200 chess studies, of which GM Lubomir Kavalek has picked two wonderful examples.
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Chess Puzzles: Prokes's Windmills

By GM Lubomir Kavalek

Ladislav Prokes (1884-1966) was a strong player who represented Czechoslovakia in three chess olympiads (1927, 1928 and 1930). He was also a prolific writer and columnist, but his main contribution to chess was composing nearly 1,200 wonderful chess studies. His creations were clear, witty, instructive and easy to understand.

I am presenting Prokes's two works, in which the white queen acts like a windmill. In the first study, Prokes teamed up with Oldrich Duras, the first Czech grandmaster and one of the greatest Czech players, who was also an eminent composer. It was published in Casopis ceskoslovenskych sachistu in 1921.

Ladislav Prokes / Oldrich Duras

White wins

In the second study, Prokes swings the windmill in two different directions. It appeared in the magazine Sachove umeni in 1947.

Ladislav Prokes

White wins

The solution to the puzzles will appear next week.

Original column here – Copyright Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is an American news website and aggregated blog founded by Arianna Huffington and others, featuring various news sources and columnists. The site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet and liberal/progressive alternative to conservative news websites. It offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and comedy. It is a top destination for news, blogs, and original content. The Huffington Post has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site each month. According to Nielsen NetRatings, the site has around 13 million unique visitors per month (number for March 2010); according to Google Analytics the number is 22 million uniques per month.

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