This
week’s column is based on a true story, the events of which
occurred November 17, 2006 in Berlin, capital of Germany,
where I reside.
That
day I went to see a very interesting live event: Junior female
world champion, 22‑year‑old German Elisabeth Pähtz,
and 31‑year‑old Irina Gaponenko from Ukraine,
who in the 2006 Chess Olympics led her national team to victory,
were playing a number of rapid chess games. The location
was the Emanuel Lasker Society, in an area of Berlin called
Kreuzberg. It was a weekend and outside the snow was slowly
covering the city with its white mantle. The playing room
was crowded, the two players deeply engrossed and the spectators
totally silent.
An
old man came to me and asked in very low voice, “Are you Mr.
Hernández?” I answered “yes” and then he gave me a letter.
“We will talk after the games are over,” he said.
The
tournament came to an end. Elisabeth Pähtz had won. People
clapped and began to leave the hall of the Emanuel Lasker
Society. The old man then came to me again. He told me that
in the letter there was a chess problem that he had been using
for more than 50 years with his pupils. “So few pieces and
yet quite difficult,” were his words.
When
I arrived home, I opened the letter and found the problem
we present today. It is one of the most beautiful compositions
of Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Meyer. He was a very famous German
problemist born in Hannover on June 6, 1839. He died in the
English city of Letchworth on January 15, 1928.
The
problem was first published in the British story paper Boy’s
Own Paper in 1903. This publication was very well known because
it usually published chess problems and puzzles, and many
of the most important chess problemists published their work
there. I also found that the man’s words were right. Even
though there are few pieces on the chess board, this mate
in three moves is more difficult than it seems and thus is
beautiful as well.
I
never saw the old man again. I just know that his name is
P. Lüpke because he wrote it in the letter he gave me, and
that he is the chess teacher at Goethe High Schoo, in the
Berliner area of Willmersdorf. This article is dedicated to
him and to the people who devote their lives to expand the
knowledge of the king of games.
Solution:
1.Bb8 f2 2.Rc7 Kh2 3.Rh7++
Accredited
by the Chess Federation of Madrid in Spain, Carlos García
Hernández teaches chess at Humboldt University in Berlin,
Germany. His weekly chess column appears in the German newspaper
Neues Deutschland.
