Alexander Iossifowitsch Herbstman

Alexander Iossifowitsch Herbstman ( Russian Александр Иосифович Гербстман ; born April 10, 1900 in Rostov-on-Don ; † May 22, 1982 in Stockholm ), occasionally also transcribed as Gerbstman , was a Russian chess composer .

Life

Herbstman spent his youth in Weggis, Switzerland . There he also learned to play chess . After moving to Moscow , he studied at the Higher Institute for Literature and Art. During his studies he began to occupy himself with chess composition. When he went to the editorial office of Schachmaty w SSSR in 1924 , Nikolai Grekow introduced him to Vasily Platov , who taught him chess composition. In the same year Herbstman met Nikolai Grigoryev , with whom he was a close friend until he fell ill in 1938.

During a study trip to Leningrad in 1934, Herbstman made the acquaintance of Alexei Troitsky and Leonid Kubbel . He worked with Troitsky on his study book. At the beginning of the war in 1941, Herbstman tried to persuade Troitsky to leave Leningrad, but Troitsky stayed and starved to death during the Leningrad blockade . Herbstman's efforts to put Leonid Kubbel on the last train from Leningrad also failed because Kubbel did not want to leave his brother Yevgeny alone. The brothers Jewgeni and Leonid Kubbel also died during the Leningrad blockade; Arwid Kubbel, on the other hand, died in a Siberian gulag and was not rehabilitated until the thaw period .

The four friendships helped Herbstman in his chess composition development, so that in 1959 he was one of the first six people and, with André Chéron, the first two study composers to receive the title of International Master of Chess Composition . He was also the International Referee for Chess Composition .

In 1979 Herbstman emigrated to Sweden with his wife and daughter.

Herbstman was the last known chess composer who personally knew the brothers Vasily and Michail Platow , Nikolai Grigoryev, Alexei Troitski and the brothers Leonid, Arwid and Evgeni Kubbel.

Works

Herbstman wrote about 350 chess studies , 150 of which were awarded prizes. He wrote ten books in Russian, four of which were translated into Dutch and two into German.

In the GDR there was a German translation:

• The secret of the black king , Sportverlag Berlin 1960

Individual references and sources

1. ↑ Alexander Herbstman: Memories of famous composers . In: eg 65 (July 1981), pp. 429-433
2. ^ John Roycroft : + Alexander Ofifovich Herbstmann (10.iv.00 - 22.V.82) . In: eg 69 (July 1982), p. 87
3. ↑ Alexander Hildebrand: Professor Alexander Herbstman . Tidskrift för Schack 5/1982, pp. 156–157. Summarized and reprinted in: eg 71 (April 1983), pp. 121-122

Web link

• Some compositions by Alexander Herbstman on the PDB server