Slovensky vyber

Or in English...

Slovak selection

Selected chess compositions by Slovak authors 1993-1998.

The characteristics of this book, that just appeared, is given in Postscript: "This publication contains 393 selected chess problems by Slovak composers (some of them in coauthorship with foreign authors) from the period 1993-1998, and also 49 compositions from previous years. Although the compositions in all seven sections (twomovers, threemovers, moremovers, helpmates, selfmates, fairies and studies) have been chosen and evaluated on points by pairs of foreign judges, this selection is by no means a competition, rather it is historical evidence of this era's chess composition. That is why some other works, not submitted by the authors in the book, have also been included. In this way we hope to achieve the main goal of this publication, the documentation of a specific creative period in Slovak chess composition, and in so doing to offer an aesthetic experience to all lovers of chess art. (In this spirit some of the more critical comments by the judges have also been edited...)"

Who created the book, who hopes to achieve that goal? There were many people working on the book. Juraj Brabec, Ladislav Salai jr., Lubos Kekely did the most of coordination, computer and correspondence work, the authors submitted their problems, renowned judges selected them, there were written comments to all problems, historical remarks, terminology by many people, the pictures were painted by Ludo Lehen... It is nice to see this immense effort of many chess composition lovers formed into the printed book.

The book has 188 pages, the people with the most problems published in it are: Emil Klemanic 52.75, Zoltan Labai 52.58, Karol Mlynka 39.25, Juraj Lörinc 34.58, Peter Gvozdják 33.08, Juraj Brabec 18.50, Stanislav Vokal 17.50, Stefan Sovik 15.50, Michal Hlinka 13.33, Ladislav Salai jr. 13, etc., together 61 Slovak composers and 16 foreign coauthors.

The standard is 3 diagrams per page with solution in symbolic notation beside, plus a comment in Slovak language (but that fortunately isn't serious flaw for non-Slovak readers as the problems are naturally mostly understandable without comment). If you are interested in this book (I can't simply say GOOD book as I have there a lot of problems and I worked on it too :-), but I bet it is good book indeed), you can write to Juraj Brabec, the price is 10 EUR.

Now let's look at 7 not so known problems in respective sections...
Emil Klemanic
1st Prize Práca 1993

1.exd7? th. 2.Sd3#, Bd4#, Rd5#
1...Qxf3 2.Sd3#, Bd4# (Rd5+? A)
1...Qxf4 2.Rd5#, Sd3# (Bd4+? B)
1...Qxf5 2.Bd4#, Rd5# (Sd3+? C)
1...Sf7!

1.e4! th. 2.Sd3#, Bd4#, Rd5#
1...Qxf3 2.Bd4#, Rd5# (Sd3+? C)
1...Qxf4 2.Sd3#, Bd4# (Rd5+? A)
1...Qxf5 2.Rd5#, Sd3# (Bd4+? B)

Vasyl Dyachuk: "Very unusual idea - "Fleck + anti-Lacny" (cyclical change of mates that don't work). Well, but the doubled mating continuations don't look as the nicest."









#2 (13+10)
Zoltan Labai
Peter Gvozdják
1st HM idee & form 1994

1.Sc5? A th. 2.Se3+, Qxd3+, Sxe6+
1...Se5 a 2.Sxe5+ B f4 3.Qe4#
1...Sxc5 b 2.Be5+ C Kd5 3.Se3#
1...bxc5!

1.Se5! B th. 2.Sc3+, Qxd3+, Sc6+
1...Sxe5 a 2.Bxe5+ C Kd5 3.Qd3#
1...Sc5 b 2.Sxc5+ A f4 3.Qe4#

Karol Mlynka: "Application of Kiss cycle in threemover."









#3 (11+12)
Stanislav Vokal
Die Schwalbe 1997

1.Sf7+? Kf5 2.Sxh6+ Qxh6+!

1.Sdxe4+? Kf5 2.Sd6+ Ke5 3.Sb7+ Kf5 4.e4+ Sxe4!

1.b6! (th. 2.Sb5+ Kf5 3.Sxd4#) Sb3 2.Sdxe4+! Kf5 3.Sd6+ Ke5 4.Sb7+ Kf5 5.e4+ Qxe4 6.Sd6+ Ke5 7.Sf7+! Kf5 8.Sxh6#

Ladislav Salai jr.: "Two preliminary plans and main plan in logical moremover are attained using white battery as strong constructional element."









#8 (6+12)
Emil Klemanic
Ladislav Packa
1st HM Nedelna Pravda 1997

1...exd6+ 2.Kd7 dxe7 3.Kd6 exd8Q#

1.Sb7 e6 2.Bd8 e7 3.Rd7 e8S#

Michal Dragoun: "Two wp promotions in the form of set play and solution."









h#3* (4+10)
Karol Mlynka
Die Schwalbe 1998

1.Rd2! th. 2.Bxe4+ Bxe4#
1...Sg2 AB 2.Se3+ Sxe3#
1...Re7 BC 2.Qxd6+ Kxd6#
1...Sd3 CA 2.Qxd4+ Kxd4#

Juraj Lörinc: "Typical selfmate theme. Cycle of three forms of motives in three variations and in two functions: defence and harmful motivation. A = closing of white line, B = direct guarding, C = closing of black line."









s#2 (7+14)
Juraj Brabec
Ludovit Lehen
Die Schwalbe 1995

1.LEb5? th. 2.Ze6#
1...Gxe8, Gh8, Gxc8
2.Gd5# A, Gf5# B, Zxe2# K
1...Nf4!

1.LEd6? th. 2.Ze6#
1...Gxe8, Gh8, Gxc8
2.Gb5# C, Qd2# L, Gf5# B
1...Gd5!

1.LEef5? th. 2.Ze6#
1...Gxe8, Gh8, Gxc8
2.Sxc2# M, Gb5# C, Gd5# A
1...Ggg4!

1.LEef4! th. 2.Ze6#
1...Gxe8, Gh8, Gxc8
2.Zxe2# K, Sxc2# M, Qd2# L

Václav Kotesovec: "The battery of wNf2 is attacked by three bGs. White in three tries always closes on bG line by try key, the second attack is removed by defence and third in mate by white again. The content culminates by original halfpin in the solution. The best composition of fairy collection given to me for selection."









#2 (15+15)
2+8 grasshopper, 1+1 nightrider
4+0 leo, 3+0 zebra
Michal Hlinka
Karel Husak
1st Comm Grzeban MT 1993

1.Sg1 Bf4+! 2.Bxf4 Sxf4+ 3.Kg5 Sh3+ 4.Kg4 Sxg1 5.Ra1+ Ke2 6.Kg3 Sf3 7.Rc1!! (7.Rb1? Sd2 8.Kxh2 Kf2 9.Ra1 Sf1+ and Black wins) 7...Sd2 8.Kxh2 Kf2 9.Kh3=

Emil Vlasak: "Here the "Hlinka" position with pawn before promotion is spiced by original fine point 7.Rc1!!"









= (4+5)

Comments to Juraj Lörinc.
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