Tuesday, April 16, 2013

First Original Problem in a Palestinian / Israeli Chess Publication -- but Mistakes will Happen...

Mate in .. ? Source: Doar Ha'Yom, 27.11.22

We have previously published various "firsts" about chess problems in Palestine: we believe the first original chess problem published in a Palestinian chess magazine by a Palestinian composer were those by Mohilever, which were published in Ha'Sachmat [Chess], the first Palestinian chess magazine. We also reported that the first problem of any sort published in a Palestinian paper was in 1918, a famous Loyd problem. Finally, we noted that, currently, we think the first chess problem published in a Hebrew (not necessarily Palestinian) source was "L. M."'s mate in three (can any reader with an access to a problem database find the author?)

All this leave open the question: which was the first original problem, not published elsewhere before,  published by any composer, including a foreign one, in a Palestinian chess publication -- or, for that matter, a Hebrew-language one? Assuming L. M.'s problem is not an original publication, the latter question remains open for the moment. Our candidate for the Palestinian chess publication first original problem is one is from Doar Ha'Yom, by Jacob Kopel Speiser of Zawierci, Poland -- as so often, the exact name was found using Jeremy Gaige's Chess Personalia -- on 27.11.1922, i.e., about a year before the first issue of Ha'Sachmat was published.

On 29.10.22 Doar Ha'Yom notes they received two original and two previously-published problems from Speiser, who notes in his letter [which they published] that he by chance saw a copy of Doar Ha'Yom and wants to support it with his problems.

The problem with all this, as it was published, it was not mentioned a mate in how many moves it was supposed to be; and there was a rather brutal "cook" -- 1. Bxd6 with mate on the next move. In the next column, 4.12.1922, there was a correction printed... which was itself, due to a printer's error, unclear: a line was printed twice, so all the correction tells us is that a piece should be added on f8. But the only two pieces that prevent the cook -- a bishop or a queen -- make it into a rather pointless mate in 4, or highly unlikely mate in 8, in both cases starting with the crude 1. d5+. Surely this was not the composer's intention.

Can any reader attempt to reconstruct the original problem or improve it?

No comments:

Post a Comment