Erich Brunner

Anselm Erich Brunner (born December 11, 1885 in Plauen ; † May 16, 1938 in Zurich ) was a German - Swiss chess composer .

Erich Brunner published his first chess problem at the age of 21 in 1906 in the Leipziger Tageblatt. In 1910 he met Walther von Holzhausen , Johannes Kohtz and other important chess composers in Leipzig . He was in constant correspondence with the former until his death.

A whole series of topics of the new German school that are still fruitful today go back to Brunner . He succeeded in the first representation of the Brunner- Turton named after him . Further topics originating from Brunner are the Brunner-Dresdner, the employment control , the inflection and the so-called Swiss idea .

Furthermore, Brunner wrote several essays on topics of chess composition and fairy tale chess . He published about 600 chess problems.

The Brunner Turton

The classic Turton consists of a weaker white piece (usually a rook or bishop) being pulled back on a line over an intersection so that the stronger one (usually the queen) can be put in front. As early as 1903, Johannes Kohtz and Carl Kockelkorn attempted to portray this idea with two identical white figures in their book “The Indian Problem ” - that usually means: with the two towers. But they did not succeed in realizing the idea purely for a purpose; this was reserved for Brunner:

Erich Brunner
Academic Monthly Books for Chess, 1910

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Checkmate in three moves

Solution:
The black king is on stalemate . White wants to move Rc4, after Kxc5 double the rooks on the fourth row and return to c4 with mate.

The audition 1.Td, e, f 4? but has a serious disadvantage, namely the adjustment of the bishop h3: 1.… Kxc5 2. Rgg4 Kc6 3. Rc4 + Kd7! That is why Rg4 has to be made the front tower, which is done by the characteristic crossover move:

1. Rc4 – h4! Kc6xc5

2. Rg1-g4 Kc5-c6

3. Rg4 – c4 mate.

The two towers are differentiated here by the motif of the rotor adjustment.

The diffraction

Brunner defined this topic as follows: “Black has two or more defenses against a threat; among them are good and bad. Through some kind of guidance, the good ones are taken from him. ”He developed this formulation on the basis of a simple chess problem:

Erich Brunner
Franconian Volksblatt, 1912

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Checkmate in three moves

Solution:
The audition first Tc2? covers Nc4 and threatens 2. Nb3 to checkmate. Black has three possibilities to cover the mating-square b3: Qb8, Qb7 and Qb6. Qb7 is obviously a bad defense as the queen can be taken by Sa5 with mate, but Qb8 and Qb6 are good. With a preliminary plan , Weiß sets the thematic steering in action, which prevents the good defenses:

1. Ta2 – g2! 2. Rg2 – g5 threatens mate.

1.… Qa7 – e7 routing; the good defenses are off. Now the main plan can be implemented without any obstacles.

2. Rg2 – c2 (threatens 2. Sa5 – b3 mate ) Qe7 – b7 (only remaining defense)

3. Sa5xb7 mate.

It is a selection key: 1. Rh2? or 1. Rf2? fail on 1.… Qh7 !. The move of the key is stimulated by the fact that it moves the bishop h1 and thus gives the black king an escape square. The flight from kings is done like this: 1.… Kc5 – d5 2. Rg2 – g6 + Kd5 – c5 3. Rg6 – g5 mate.

The Brunner-Dresdner

If there are problems with the Dresden circle of ideas, a black defender is eliminated by steering. At the same time, however, a new defender (substitute defender) is brought in. The substitute defense has a disadvantage for Black (damage), so that a new mate is possible. In contrast to inflection, Black not only loses something (good defenses), but also gains something (substitute defense).

Friedrich Palitzsch's original form of the Dresdner stipulated that the original defender had to pull (be steered) and thereby involve the substitute defender. With the Brunner type of Dresdner (Brunner-Dresdner), however, the substitute defender is directed himself: He switches off the original defender and switches himself on. Brunner dealt with both the Palitzsch type of Dresdner and the Brunner form named after him.

Erich Brunner
Dresdner Anzeiger , 1927

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Checkmate in three moves

Solution:
The audition first Txf6? 2. Rf5 threatens mate. The audition defender is the black queen: 1.… Qe4! covers sufficiently (not 1.… Qc8? 2. Qxc7 + Qxc7 3. Rf5 mate or 2.… Kxf6 3. Qe7 mate). White distracts the black queen with a preliminary plan:

1. Qb6 – b1! threatens 2. Qb1 – e1 + Ke5 – f4 3. Nf2 – h3 (or 3. Nf2xd3) mate.

1.… Qb7xb1 The queen is distracted (she kills herself). But it releases the diagonal for the black a8 bishop as substitute defender:

2. Rc6xf6 (threatens 2. Rf6 – f5 mate , main plan ) Ba8 – e4 (substitute defense in Dresden )

3. Nf2-g4 mate. On 2.… Ke5xf6, 3. Nf2 – g4 also mates.

Black's damage is that the black bishop is weaker than the queen (loss of value), he does not cover the square g4 from e4.

Further variants: 1.… Ke5 – f4 2. Rc6xf6 + Kf4 – e5 3. Rf6 – f5 mate, 2.… Kf4 – g3 3. Qb1 – g1 mate; 1.… Qb7xc6 2. Qb1 – e1 + Qc6 – e4 3. Nf2xd3 mate.

The above task is a Palitzsch-Dresdner. The theme pieces are the black queen b7 and the black bishop a8. The lady turns herself off and turns on the runner. The following task is different:

Erich Brunner
Münchner Zeitung, 1934 (version)

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Checkmate in three moves

Solution:
The audition 1. Be4? 2. Bf3 threatens mate. The audition defender is the black rook: 1.… Rf7! parried. Now, with his preliminary plan, White does not control the rook, but the bishop:

1. Bb8 – f4! covers the knight e3 and therefore threatens both 2. Bh5 – d3 mate and 2. Nb1 – c3 + Ke2 – d2 / d3 3. Rf1 – d1 mate.

1.… Bh2xf4 The bishop blocks the defender's cover line in advance, Rf7 would now be useless. He knocked out the tower but established himself as a substitute defender:

2. Bh7 – e4 (threatens 3. Be4 – f3 mate , main plan ) Bf4xe3 (Dresden substitute defense )

3. Be4 – d3 mate.

The black damage here consists in a block: The bishop takes an escape square from the king.

The final position shows a pattern matt .

This is a Brunner-Dresdner. Theme figures are the black tower and the black bishop. The runner switches off the tower and switches himself on.

Brunner free chess and pointer chess

As early as 1921, Brunner proposed a chess variant with alternating starting positions in the Swiss Chess Newspaper , a forerunner of Fischer Random Chess , but the pieces are not drawn. In Brunner-Freischach the pieces are placed alternately (behind the pawn row) by the players. White begins and places the first stone; Black can then choose axis or point symmetry , which remains binding for the subsequent setting acts. Then Black can place the next piece. (Example: wKc1 - sKf8; sLa8 - wLh1 etc. for point symmetry; or axially symmetrical wKc1 - sKc8; sLa8 - wLa1). There are no restrictions on bishop or tower positions. The Swiss chess newspaper even organized a remote free chess tournament. However, this variant of chess could not last long.

In 1924 Brunner designed another chess variant, the pointer chess. Here the gaits of the stones are limited by drawing lots or rolling the dice, which then applies to both players. For example, depending on the drawing of lots, the queens can draw in all straight and diagonal directions or only in part of these directions (e.g. one line and two diagonals). The permitted directions of pull are indicated by pointers (hence the name) or flags. The pull can be completed by turning the stone by 90 degrees or a multiple thereof, so that the pulling directions permitted in the following pull change. This chess variant enables a multitude of completely new positions, especially since the basic line-up should be chosen either by alternating betting, as in free chess, or even by free agreement between the opponents. Brunner even composed at least one chess problem for pointer chess. Long after his death, in 1954, it was published in a book on "New Non-Orthodox Chess Games", which also contained a chapter on Brunner's pointer chess.

Life

Brunner's grandfather came from Switzerland as an actor at the Braunschweiger Hoftheater. His father ran a curtain factory in Plauen. The family retained Swiss citizenship. In 1901, after the death of his father, Brunner left the humanistic grammar school prematurely in order to devote himself to studying music at the Leipzig Conservatory. In playing the piano he was about to be ready for concert. It was not until 1910 that he subsequently passed the Abitur. He broke off his subsequent medical studies after three semesters. In 1915 he moved to Chemnitz because his later first wife, an Englishwoman and thus hostile foreigner during wartime , was not allowed to live in Leipzig during wartime, ie "near the Monument to the Battle of the Nations ".

In autumn 1918, Brunner went to Switzerland on medical advice, as the food situation was better there, and lived in Ascona . In 1919 he married. His business ventures in Ascona, including a café on Lake Maggiore , were unsuccessful and ultimately led to an "economic collapse". In 1928 he separated from his wife and moved to Zurich. 1929 to the autumn of 1937 he lived in Munich and looked at his game, "Delta", which he in Selbstverlag produced and sold. His second wife Frieda Bernstein, with whom he had been connected since 1929, but whom he could not marry until 1937, because the divorce from his first wife dragged on for so long, helped him with this. In the last year of his life, the Brunners moved to Zurich, where Erich Brunner died of a stroke a few months after moving . In his final years he was working on a book that he could no longer complete. Moriz Henneberger and Hans Klüver completed the project as he intended.

literature

• Hans Klüver: Erich Brunner - an artist and interpreter of the chess problem. Siegfried Engelhardt Verlag, Berlin-Frohnau 1958

Web links

• Compositions by Erich Brunner on the Schwalbe's PDB server
• 90 years of chess composition in Chemnitz (with picture) (PDF; 1.9 MB)
• Moriz Henneberger: Keeping lines and areas clear with Erich Brunner . In: Schweizerische Schachzeitung , vol. 41 (1941), no. 7, pp. 101-105. On-line

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Klüver: Erich Brunner - an artist and interpreter of the chess problem , p. 123.
2. ↑ Compositions and sources according to Hans Klüver: Erich Brunner - An artist and interpreter of the chess problem , p. 151 and 152.
3. ^ Hans Klüver: Erich Brunner - an artist and interpreter of the chess problem , p. 193 f .; Joseph Boyer is referring to: Nouveaux jeux d'échecs non orthodoxes , self-published, Paris 1954.
4. ↑ The Swallow , Issue 246, December 2010
5. ↑ Hans Klüver: Erich Brunner - an artist and interpreter of the chess problem , p. 11.
6. ↑ Hans Klüver: Erich Brunner - an artist and interpreter of the chess problem , p. 11.
7. ↑ "Delta" was taken over by Otto Maier Verlag Ravensburg much later, namely in 1975, and developed into "Neo-Delta". Instructions for the no longer produced game are available online.
8. ↑ Deutsche Schachblätter 12/1938, p. 191