Parents often say their children have distinct personalities. There is the aggressive child, who is pure action and energy, constantly in movement with a fire burning inside. And on the other side there is the reflective child, who knows how to keep his cool and acts as if there is an objectively cold ice in his blood.

Whether this true or not in all cases, it seems to be what happened with the Pachman brothers, Ludek and Vladimir.

Most of the chess public only knows Ludek. He was the fire. His life was filled with action almost from the beginning. He was born on the May 11, 1924 in the Czech town B lá Bezd zem. His two passions were chess and politics. Perhaps that is why he decided to study journalism and become a famous chess author. He also happens to be one of the best chess players of the 20th century. From 1943 to 1984, he won more than 15 international tournaments and wrote more than 80 books. His most famous work is "Checkmate in Prague: Memoirs of Ludek Pachman."

World War II and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia profoundly influenced Ludek. Born in a poor family, the war pushed him and his relatives to an abject standard of living. When the Soviet Union freed his country, Ludek became a militant communist. He saw in the new order the answer to all his wishes. His chess career was burning brilliantly and he entered a happy time of his life.

But this period of contentment did not last long. The burning fire inside did not let him accept what his eyes were seeing. The communist regime grew increasingly authoritarian, and when the Soviet tanks rolled into his country during the Prague Spring of 1968, he could not take it any more.

Ludek strongly criticized the communist dictatorship. In the beginning, his fame protected him against the brutality of the government, but during the yuletide of 1968, the Soviets threw him in jail. There Ludek was tortured almost to death. In fact, the police even called his wife to tell her there was little chance of his survival after Ludek jumped out of a window to escape the torture. Pachman miraculously survived, but thereafter was banned to play any chess tournament.

After much effort from his friends in non‑communist countries, Ludek was allowed to fly to the German Federal Republic in 1972. After winning the West German national championship in 1978, Ludek immigrated to the same country and restarted his chess career.

In 1998, after the Velvet Revolution brought democracy back to his country, he recovered his Czech citizenship, but that was not good enough for him either. In the same year, Ludek returned to Germany after several problems with the new Czech government, which he believed was not heading in the right direction as well. He died in Germany on March 6, 2003.

His brother Vladimir was the ice. He was born in 1918 and died in 1984. Reportedly, he never had any major political problems and led a quiet and dedicated life, but he also holds a prominent place in chess history, as a brilliant chess problemist. In 1960 he became International Master of chess composition, and in 1976 he received the title of Grand Master. Vladimir Pachman composed more than 900 problems, most of them to be found on his most famous work "Logic Studies," published in 1980.

Today we present one of his most interesting compositions. It is a checkmate in 3 moves, which he first published in the chess magazine, Ceskoslovensky Sach, in 1950. The solution is so beautiful and imaginative, that one can only eulogize it.