3/24/2018 – Mate in 2 — It's not easy to see at first how White can checkmate in two moves. If White could give a check on g7, then 1.Bg7+ Ke7 2.Nc6 mate is reminiscent of a famous opening trap in the Russian (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4!? 4.Qe2 Nf6?? 5.Nc6+). Of course in the problem, the king just could take on g7. This is but one of nine problems you will encounter in this look at the life of the three Kubbel brothers, from study expert and historian Siegfried Hornecker.

2/17/2018 – At the World Congress for Chess Composition (WCCC) 2017 in Dresden it was decided to dedicate the second year of this “Study of the Month” series to the education about chess composition history. Following this, we look at the successors of Troitzky this time: The Platov brothers.

1/20/2018 – There is an old saying about dwarves on the shoulders of giants, traced back to Bernard of Chartres 1120, said most pointedly by Sir Isaac Newton in his letter to Robert Hooke on 5th February 1676: “If I have seen further it is by standing on [the] shoulders of giants.” A historical narrative from our study author Sigfried Hornecker, who reminds us (among other things) not to confuse Troitzky with "Trotzky"!

12/23/2017 – In the final episode of this year, we will have a look at a some great enthusiasts among the chess composition community who by their work directly or indirectly made this monthly column possible. The first two of them are the former and the current chief editor of the magazine "eg" (or: EG), short for "end-game".

11/4/2017 – As our readers will know, the Australian state Victoria was named for the British queen whose long-reign record was surpassed two years ago by Queen Elizabeth II. Being the most powerful person of the world, we can draw a parallel between her majesty and chess where queens also have great power — although not nearly such great one.

10/4/2017 – While playing through the game Dennis Khismatullin vs Pavel Eljanov in 2015, our study expert saw a truly incredible king move. This inspired him to dig up some equally remarkable studies that feature king walks and astonishing manoeuvres. You will see how chess is not just about protecting your king — that piece can in fact be a powerful attacking force in deciding the outcome of a game. Siegfried Hornecker demonstrates in seven interesting and instructive examples. | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

10/2/2017 – Inspired by the image of endgame expert Alexey Troitzky sitting in a Siberian forest, analyzing night after night whether king plus four knights can always beat king plus queen, Prof Azlan Iqbal set his AI composer Chesthetica on finding a nice 4N-Q chess problem. It took his program a week, and the result was deemed not aesthetically perfect. So we issued a challenge to our readers: come up with a better problem of four knights vs queen. Here are the results.

9/8/2017 – It is a seven-piece ending over which Troitzky once toiled. In the meantime endgame databases have mastered it and can solve billions of non-trivial positions, each in an instant. But can a computer program be taught to generate interesting studies or problems with the given material? KI researcher Dr Azlan Iqbal has instructed his software to try, and it has produced a mate-in-five. We ask our readers: can you do better?

9/2/2017 – The Ecclesiastes and the famous fictional rabbi Ben Akiba tell us, there is nothing new under the sun, everything has happened before. In a certain way this might hold true to chess — all the ideas might have been shown, but not in that particular setting or not in this particular combination. Looking at our first example, similarities to a previous selection are seen at the end, but the introduction is completely different.

8/5/2017 – There is a six-minute long crazy mix of music genres, recorded for fun by a musical idol, which became — against all warnings of the people working at the record labels — a megahit. It was “Bohemian Rhapsody”, the band was Queen. And then there is there is a fast-paced pop song about a 17-year-old girl, providing a great performance. So one has to “see that girl, watch that scene.” ABBA called her the Dancing Queen. Today we are going to watch her on the chessboard.

7/3/2017 – In his new article, Siegfried Hornecker shows how rooks can be the rock stars of the chessboard. We look at the inofficial "Study of the Year 2015" by Serbian composer Mirko Miljanic, a surprising checkmate by Alois Wotawa and Henri Rinck's king helix. As an addition, a musical work by former World Champion Vasily Smyslov is discussed. The extraordinary high art of chess studies never ceases to impress.

6/5/2017 – That's the subject of this month's pick by our study expert Siegfried Hornecker. He introduces us to three prolific Soviet composers, each of whom had created around 110 studies. While researching the background for his article Siegfried hit upon a coincidence involving the number 110. It involves the Canadian Master Zoltán Sárosy, and we have included a lovely interview with him at the end of the article. Can you guess what the coincidence was?

5/1/2017 – GM Jan Timman, in his work as a chess composer, is a fan of checkmates with the bishop. He may be pleased to see that we will be presenting studies where a bishop is the hero of the day – partly as a gift to Jan, whose 65th birthday composing tourney has as its theme "mate by the bishop or struggle against mate by the bishop". Todays three studies are by Soviet composers, one of whom perished tragically under Stalin. Fortunately (for the chess world) he handed his notebook to Mikhail Botvinnik before he disappeared.

2/4/2017 – In our previous monthly study column we saw how powerful pawns are. The subject is amplified this time with three positions, two from games and one a study by two prolific chess composers from Georgia. In that study White would like to move his pawn backwards, which of course the rules of chess do not allow. So he has to promote it, very carefully, and then move the queen or rook to the square the pawn could not occupy. A remarkable idea and an amazing study.

1/3/2017 – Two problemist friends, John Nunn and Yochanan Afek, have proposed it: introduce a monthly column on our newspage to demonstrate the artistic beauty of chess studies. It is a genre in which authors are able to show beautiful patterns and ideas that never occur in regular tournament chess games, but which are possible in composed positions. We have gladly accepted and present the first installment by German composer Siegfried Hornecker. Enjoy.