Lessons from a Composition GM: How Chess Compositions Build Tactical Vision and Creative Thinking
Endgame studies benefit us
Yochanan Afek is a chess composition grandmaster and an international master in over-the-board chess. In his years of experience, he can state with certainty the importance of studying endgames, which form a significant part of the exercises he composes.
"For good reason, many chess trainers advise their students to solve endgame studies as a training tool", Afek says, in reference to famous trainers IM Mark Dvoretsky and GM R.B. Ramesh.
Afek is known by the best of the best for his brilliant compositions; just ask the challenger for the next world title, GM D. Gukesh, "There are exercises and the positions are so interesting, Afek is a brilliant composer. The positions are so beautiful." Gukesh said of Afek's book, Practical Chess Beauty in an interview with ChessBase India.
Practical Chess Beauty is a reflection on Afek's lifelong experiences as a player and a composer. In its introduction, he sums up the benefits of endgame studies: Top grandmasters use studies as part of their training programs to improve their creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, to polish their calculating skills, to enrich their arsenal of tactical weaponry and to deepen their endgame understanding. And no less importantly: to keep sharp in general and intensify their joy in chess!
Endgame studies are a genre of chess compositions. They include many other genres like mate problems, more movers, self-mates, helpmates and fairy chess. "It is a huge ocean which shows the treasures of chess which are not necessarily directly related to the practical game. The endgame study genre is the most related to and beneficial for the over-the-board game", Afek says. Other genres can also be helpful for over-the-board players, for example, two mover problems help train the calculation of short lines.
Endgame studies are composed positions mainly from the last stage of the game. "For me it is so natural. In principle endgame studies are composed endgames." They are artificial but sometimes based on artistic ideas in real endgames. On the other hand, many endgames in games are inspired by ideas from studies. Several examples are shown in Practical Chess Beauty.
Afek guesses that he has composed about 350 endgame studies and about 100 problems in other genres of composition. "I never counted them."
About Yochanan Afek
Yochanan Afek (born Kopelovich) was born in 1952 in Tel Aviv to a Romanian-born father and a Polish-born mother, both Holocaust survivors. Since he was 14 years old, Afek has been active as a player and a study composer with virtually no break.
He began playing in chess tournaments in 1967 and continued playing until the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020. As a player, he has visited almost all European countries many times. Especially memorable was his visit with an Israeli team in Egypt 1981, two years after the peace treaty between the two countries was signed in Washington. "Our team was invited by the President of the Egyptian chess federation, who was the brother of the late President Anwar Sadat." After many years, Afek still is the official delegate of Israel in the world congresses of chess composition.
At the age of 48, Afek moved to Paris, where two years later in 2002 he scored his best tournament result by winning the Paris championship, scoring a GM-norm with a performance of 2670. In 2000, Afek became a resident in the Netherlands, where he played for clubs in Apeldoorn, Bussum, Wageningen and Amsterdam. He also acted as a player and a trainer in German, French and Belgian clubs.
"Chess is the main essence of my life. It is the only thing I have ever done for work, with just one exception at a young age: I composed for ten years the weekly crossword in a daily newspaper. I am pretty good at Hebrew by now, thanks to that."
What especially attracted him to chess was the way he was welcomed by the chess community as a young boy. "The chess world accepted me as I was and I could contribute from the very beginning to chess life in the Tel Aviv youth centre under the leadership of IM Moshe Czerniak, who taught us chess love and was a great fan of endgame studies. My good old friends Amatzia Avni and Ofer Comay were also members of the club and they became chess masters and fine composers. Later when Czerniak passed away, I became a full-time manager of the Tel Aviv chess club. Most importantly, I can express in chess most of my natural gifts, like writing, composing and playing."
Afek has five official FIDE chess titles: an International Master over the board, Grandmaster of chess composition, FIDE Master in solving, International Arbiter and International Judge of chess composition. "Actually I could also apply for the titles of FIDE Trainer and International Organizer but titles are actually not that important. Creative achievements and contributing to the community are far more satisfying."
In 2000, he moved to Amsterdam, where he still lives. Uniquely, he received a permanent residence permit from the government thanks to his contribution to Dutch chess culture.
One of his best early efforts from 1972 won second prize in the Swedish magazine Tidskrift for Schack. White to play and win:
1.Rb5+! [1.Ne5? Kxb6 2.Nd7+ Kc6 3.Nxf8 Bxg4 4.Nh7 Bd1 5.Nxg5 b4=] 1…Kxb5 2.Ne5+ Ka4 [2…Kc5 3.Kd7+; 2…Kb6 3.Nd7+] 3.Nd7 threatens mate in one! 3…Be2! The only move to prevent mate, but what is the idea behind if white just takes? 4.Bxe2 Rb8+! Wow, that was the idea! If white takes the rook it is stalemate. What now?
5.Bb5+!! The most phenomenal move of this study! [5.Nxb8?=; 5.Ka2? Rb2+!=] 5…Rxb5+ 6.Ka2 Wow! Black is in Zugzwang. Whatever move he does with his rook, it doesn’t matter, he always will lose it!
Work with other composers
Afek enjoys collaborating with other composers. He has occasionally worked with top composers such as Martin Minski, Amatzia Avni and Harold van der Heijden, who created the largest endgame study database in the world (https://www.hhdbvi.nl). Sometimes he works with youth and amateurs if they come up with a nice idea or a game position.
White to move:
"Study of the century", Yochanan Afek 1976
Appreciation of Afek's work
Afek's work has been appreciated by great trainers and other composers. One special example is his "Study of the Century" as the great Georgian composer GM David Gurgenidze named it. The study is based on an analysis of one of Afek’s own games. IM Mark Dvoretsky used the study in training advanced players. Gameviewer Study of the Century
Yochanan Afek, Israel Ring Ty. 1981
Second position: Tom Molewijk – Karel van Delft, ’t Harde 2014
An example of the connection between endgame studies and over-the-board chess can be seen in a position the author of this article, Karel van Delft, had on the board in a rapid tournament against Tom Molewijk. Black failed to see the draw variations and resigned. When Van Delft showed the position to GM Artur Yusupov, Yusupov immediately responded: "The position is the final stage of a study by Afek with reversed colours."
M. Liburkin, 1935
Promoting endgame study
Afek is always happy when he can promote the art of endgame study, which he has done in some interviews with some high-profile players, such as GM Judit Polgár and IM Sagar Shah.
Yochanan Afek with sunglasses in the middle. In front of him is GM Boris Avrukh. On his left stands Karel van Delft and on his right GM Jan Gustafsson. (Photo credit: Ferdi Kuipers)
Yochanan Afek and Mark Dvoretsky giving simuls to Apeldoorn school kids
Endgame studies in education
Afek believes that mini-studies are useful in training and in education, even in combination with developing life skills. "For example via Réti (White Kh8, pawn c6, Black Ka6, pawn h5, White to move) and Saavedra’s famous studies, various paradoxes may be demonstrated. Not everything is what it seems to be. Via chess positions you can show the importance of looking for more options and candidate moves as well as the value of patience and self-control." Nevertheless, the studies should be easy, Afek says. If too difficult, the final stage of the studies may be used. Depending on the level of the solvers, a teacher may decide how many moves should be solved.
In order to stimulate interest, Afek suggests showing kids YouTube videos of Indian grandmasters Vidit and Praggnanandhaa solving studies blindfold.
Educators may find mini-studies at www.arves.org or in Afek’s Anthology of Miniature Endgame Studies.
Learning how to compose studies
Afek recommends five articles for people who want to learn how to compose studies.
1. Johan Hellsten: Composing endgame studies
https://www.chess.com/blog/jhellsten/composing-endgame-studies
2. John Nunn: Composing a study
https://www.wfcc.ch/wp-content/uploads/Nunn-Composing-a-Study-TP2019.pdf
3. Steffen S. Nielsen: Strip or massage: Two ways of creating studies from games
https://www.wfcc.ch/wp-content/uploads/Steffen-Nielsen-Strip-or-massage-2-ways-of-creating-studies-from-games.pdf
4. WFCC President Marjan Kovačević: 8th YCCC: Inspiring the next generation of chess composers
https://en.chessbase.com/post/8th-yccc-inspiring-chess-composers
5. Karel van Delft: De passie voor eindspelstudies van Harold van der Heijden
https://maxeuwe.nl/de-passie-voor-eindspelstudies-van-harold-van-der-heijden
Books and courses by Yochanan Afek
Yochanan Afek: Anthology of Miniature Endgame Studies
Yochanan Afek: Practical Chess Beauty
Yochanan Afek: Extreme Chess Tactics
Yochanan Afek and Emmanuel Neiman: Invisible Chess Moves
Yochanan Afek and Hans Böhm: The Royal Chess Couple (combination of six books in Dutch)
Yochanan Afek and Horacio Volman, Ad Ha'ragli Ha'acharon ("Fighting to the Last Pawn"), about Moshe Czerniak (only in Hebrew)
Many books have been translated into multiple languages.
Chessable courses:
Extreme Chess Tactics: https://www.chessable.com/extreme-chess-tactics/course/5345
Invisible Chess Moves: https://www.chessable.com/invisible-chess-moves/course/17330
