Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Award for Nikos Dampassis

An honourable award was given today to Nikos Dampassis (he is 91 years old) for his devotion to chess.

He was a graduate of the Military School of Evelpidon and he was a supporter of chess during the difficult years of WW2.

He gave to us details about his friend Vassilios Lyris and an old photo of them. You may see there the editors of the chess magazine "To Skaki" (owner : Zorbas), which was circulating during (Italian-German) occupation and was discontinued after liberation.

I hope that more biographical data will be published soon.

Below you see two frontpages of the magazine "Skakistis" (January 1972 and May 1972) presenting two of Nikos Dampassis' compositions (4# and 3#)
Problem-495

Try : {1.Rxe4? fxe4!}

Key : 1.Ra4! [2.Rxa5#]
1...Rxa4
2.Be8 [3.Bc6#]
2...Rb4 3.Bc6+ Rb7 4.Bxb7#
2...Sb4 3.gxf5 zz S~ 4.Bc6#
2...Sb6+ 3.cxb6 [4.Bc6# / b7#]
1...Rxe6 2.Rxa5+ Ra6 3.Rxa6#
1...Sb4 2.Rxa5+ Sa6 3.Rxa6#
1...Sxc7 2.Rxa5+ Sa6 3.Rxa6#
1...Sb6+ 2.cxb6 [3.b7# / Rxa5#]
Problem-496

Tries : {1.Rf6+? Sxf6!},
{1.Rd7? Sf6!},
{1.Re7+? Sxe7!},
{1.Rc7? Sxc7!},
{1.Kc5? Kxe5!},
{1.Rf8? / Rb7? / g6? / Bh2? / Bg3? / Bf4? / Bh8? / Bg7? / Bd6? Sc7!}.

Key : 1.Bb8! zz
1...Sc7 2.Rxc7 [3.Rf6# / Re7#] Kd6 3.Rf6#
1...S~ 2.R(x)f6# / (2.R(x)e7#)

No comments: