Sergiy Didukh (*1976) is a Ukrainian chess composer whose influential weblog is in Russian with translator buttons for English, French, German and Ukrainian. There he held a section for the “Study of the Year 2015”, the officially discontinued project of the World Federation for Chess Composition, which was replaced by this series of articles, in cooperation with ChessBase, to propagate studies to the public, a role intended for the Study of the Year, by selecting the most suitable study to present to the general public.
While the selection was not an official event, the result still shall be presented here, and I want to thank Sergiy and the voters for the work put into the selection. The study of the Year also is the study of this month.
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Mirko Miljanic (*1946) is a Serbian former financial sector worker (bank controller/reviser). He composes helpmates, long direct mates, such as “mate in 100 moves”, and endgame studies. [Information provided by Branislav Djurasevic].
Composers Branislav Djurasevic, Martin Minski, Mirko Miljanic und Borislav Ilincic, Belgrad 2016 [photo courtesy of Martin Minski]
Rooks were also a favorite piece of Austrian prosecutor Dr. Alois Wotawa.
I asked Klaus Wenda, an Austrian prosecutor himself, for details on Wotawa once, but he replied that in Austria the different generations usually would not talk to each other. An email to the Austrian prosecution office a few years back also was never replied to. Thankfully, some historians in addition to Wotawa’s books shed light on the mystery of his biography:
Alois Wotawa (1896-1970) was an Austrian prosecutor, mainly on the field of economic offences. According to research published in feenschach, Wotawa worked as judge for a while, where he also handed out death sentences, as was the law of that time.
For his around 350 endgame studies and some problems, Wotawa received the title of International Master for Chess Composition in 1966. A personal collection of his best 150 studies can be found in his 1965 book “Auf Spurensuche mit Schachfiguren” where Wotawa also published a short Sherlock Holmes story. Sadly this was his only chess book. [Thanks to Schwalbe president Bernd Gräfrath for some information, as I have not read the feenschach article!]
Years before, prominently the endgame of two against two rooks had been examined by a great classical composer. Here is only one of the studies of him.
Henri Rinck (1870-1952) was born into a brewer family, famous in Lyon with their “Brassérie Rinck”, from 1860 to 1970 at 66 Cours Suchet [source: “Capsules de Bieres Francaises” website]. According to Wikipedia, he graduated as a chemical engineer in Germany and founded a factory, apparently for the distillation of vegetal oil. As a cervisaphile, your author finds it a pity the Rinck brewery doesn’t exist anymore, as it would surely have been interesting to taste their beer. I found some interviews with a beer expert named Didier Rinck, who most likely is a member of the Rinck family, seeing as he – or someone else with the same name? – provided a death certificate of Henri Rinck to a chess committee in Lyon.
In the field of endgame studies, Henri Rinck composed over 1600 works, 1414 of them being published in his magnum opus 1414 fins de partie on 11 February 1952, six days before his death. It served as a grave gift later, as Rinck’s body was burnt with a copy of the book under his arm. Seeing that several similar books were published before, it might be correct, although possibly misleading, to say the book took over four decades to write (if we assume the works published from 1909’s 150 fins de partie as earlier versions of the book).
Finally, I want to add a very famous study, serving as kind of a dessert for last month, mostly because I want to point out one aspect on the biography of the composer. Do you know why it was a lucky event for chess history that an aspiring baritone’s audition at the Bolshoi theater in 1950 failed?
Vasily Smyslov (1923-2010) was the young aspiring Russian baritone who after the failed audition decided to pursue his chess career. Together with Mark Taimanov (piano) he performed classical works during chess events, not hindering him in the least to become the seventh world chess champion seven years later in 1957. Smyslov's composing career took off especially along with the deterioration of his eye sight . Chess composition kept him creative away of competitive chess.
Aspiring in his games to harmony of the pieces, he left us works of even greater aesthetical value than his games - as he recorded several vinyls and CDs. Your author imagines Smyslov singing in heavenly opera houses next to the man he greatly admired, Enrico Caruso.
Here are two samples of his baritone skills:
Interpolis: Vassily Smyslov singing Stenka Rasin
PS: Zoltán Sárosy, the spirited chess master featured in our previous column, sadly has died – at the age of 110. If you haven't already please read the obituary by Albert Silver. You may also want to read this interview given before his 110th birthday and his autobiographical summary written in 2010 and reproduced with permission by Bob Armstrong, Scarborough.
I was deeply saddened to hear about his death.
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About the author
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Siegfried Hornecker (*1986) is a German chess composer and member of the World Federation for Chess Composition, subcommitee for endgame studies. His autobiographical book "Weltenfern" (in English only) can be found on the 
