Last week the second team of the Hamburg Chess Club HSK organized an endgame studies solving contest as a team building activity. The contest consisted of twelve studies composed by Yochanan Afek, and was won by special guest GM Jan Gustafsson. On this Sunday we present you these twelve studies and their solutions.
By IM Merijn van DelftIt's an interesting idea for club teams that want to do a bit more than just play their nine league games a year: to include a player-trainer in their line-up. Usually this is a significantly stronger player defending board one, who combines playing league games with training/analysing with the team. This year the second team of HSK (Hamburg), Germany's oldest and biggest chess club, has included the well-known endgame study composer IM Yochanan Afek in its line-up. The team is relatively young and certainly not one of the Elo favourites of the 2nd Bundesliga Nord, but is currently on
a proud second place after seven rounds.
On Saturday, February 5th, we had a nice team building activity: an endgame study solving contest. Often preparation for chess games only consists of opening preparation, but just as important may be to train calculation of variations, to become tactically sharp and to be inspired.The solving contest consisted of twelve endgame studies that had to be solved in two hours time. The positions were all miniatures (with a maximum of seven pieces) and were all composed by Yochanan over the years. Solutions had to be written down and each completely correct solution was worth five points. Below are the twelve studies. If you're interested in organizing a similar event,
you can contact Yochanan Afek here.
| |
| 1. White to play and draw | 2. White to play and draw |
| |
| 3. White to play and win | 4. White to play and win |
| |
| 5. White to play and draw | 6. White to play and win |
| |
| 7. White to play and draw | 8. White to play and win |
| |
| 9. White to play and win | 10. White to play and win |
| |
| 11. White to play and draw | 12. White to play and draw |
The contest was won by special guest GM Jan Gustafsson. A compliment should go to Wolfgang Schellhorn, who had a really tough time solving the positions, but was the only one of his team that won the next day. Hard work and inspiration seem to be the key to success.
| Final standings |
Elo |
Born |
Team |
Points (from 60) |
Result next day |
| 1. GM Jan Gustafsson |
2652 |
1979 |
Baden Baden |
48 |
|
| 2. IM Merijn van Delft |
2387 |
1979 |
HSK 2 |
35 |
1 |
| 3. Frank Bracker |
2313 |
1989 |
HSK 2 |
31 |
1 |
| 4. Sven Bakker |
2214 |
1978 |
HSK 2 |
29 |
0 |
| 5. Michael Faika |
2114 |
1977 |
HSK 4 |
23 |
0 |
| 6. Kevin Högy |
2117 |
1989 |
HSK 4 |
22 |
½ |
| 7. FM Stefan Sievers |
2371 |
1971 |
HSK 2 |
21 |
+ |
| 8. Felix Meißner |
2223 |
1992 |
HSK 2 |
16 |
1 |
| 9. FM Matthias Bach |
2290 |
1963 |
HSK 2 |
15 |
1 |
| 10. Wolfgang Schellhorn |
2194 |
1948 |
HSK 5 |
4 |
1 |
Solutions
Game viewer by ChessTempoLast week's solution
S. Gasparjan
2009
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Last week the second team of the Hamburg Chess Club HSK organized an endgame studies solving contest as a team building activity. The contest consisted of twelve studies composed by Yochanan Afek, and was won by special guest GM Jan Gustafsson. On this Sunday we present you these twelve studies and their solutions.By IM Merijn van DelftIt's an interesting idea for club teams that want to do a bit more than just play their nine league games a year: to include a player-trainer in their line-up. Usually this is a significantly stronger player defending board one, who combines playing league games with training/analysing with the team. This year the second team of HSK (Hamburg), Germany's oldest and biggest chess club, has included the well-known endgame study composer IM Yochanan Afek in its line-up. The team is relatively young and certainly not one of the Elo favourites of the 2nd Bundesliga Nord, but is currently on a proud second place after seven rounds.
On Saturday, February 5th, we had a nice team building activity: an endgame study solving contest. Often preparation for chess games only consists of opening preparation, but just as important may be to train calculation of variations, to become tactically sharp and to be inspired.The solving contest consisted of twelve endgame studies that had to be solved in two hours time. The positions were all miniatures (with a maximum of seven pieces) and were all composed by Yochanan over the years. Solutions had to be written down and each completely correct solution was worth five points. Below are the twelve studies. If you're interested in organizing a similar event, you can contact Yochanan Afek here.
