Erich Zepler

Erich Zepler (around 1923)

Erich Ernst Zepler , later Eric Ernest Zepler (born January 27, 1898 in Herford , † May 13, 1980 in Southampton ) was a German-English physicist and chess composer .

Erich Zepler
Olympic Tournament 1936, 1st prize

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
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2									2
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Mate in 3 moves

Life

Zepler studied physics in Berlin and Bonn and did his doctorate in Würzburg. He continued his research in Würzburg and in 1925 went to the Telefunken company in Berlin. He became head of the Institute for Radio Receivers , but as a Jew was forced to flee Germany with his family because of anti-Semitic discrimination. He came to England and got a job with the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company . From 1941 to 1943 he taught at University College, Southampton (from 1952 University of Southampton ), and then moved to the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge . In 1947 he established one of the world's first electronics departments at University College Southampton , and in 1949 a chair was created for him there. The department is now located in the Zepler Building named after him . He contributed to establishing electronics as an independent branch of engineering . After his first retirement in 1963, he began researching hearing problems and was able to contribute to understanding the response of hearing to impulses. In 1977 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science.

As an important representative of the New German School of the Chess Problem, Zepler mainly created three-move and multi-move and some endgame studies . In 1957 he became international referee for chess compositions and in 1973 international master for chess composition . The combination Zepler-Turton is named after him (see Henry Turton # Das Turton-Thema ).

Together with the German Ado Kraemer , Zepler composed chess problems and published books for decades. The “close personal ties” persisted during the National Socialist era despite Zepler's emigration and Kraemer's membership in the SA, NSDAP and SS. In 1952 both became honorary members of the problem chess association Die Schwalbe . Wolfgang Dittmann later wrote about the double honors that they were "generally regarded as the two greatest living composers of the New German School [... and] passionate advocates of the conception of the artistic character of the chess problem".

literature

• Erich E. Zepler: The Technique of Radio Design. Wiley, New York NY 1943.
• Ado Kraemer , Erich Zepler: Under the spell of the chess problem. Selected chess compositions. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1951 (3rd edition, ibid. 1982, ISBN 3-11-008104-0 ).
• Ado Kraemer, Erich Zepler: Problem art in the 20th century. Selected chess problems. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1957.
• David Hooper, Kenneth Whyld : Erich Ernest Zepler. In: David Hooper, Kenneth Whyld: The Oxford Companion to Chess. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1996, ISBN 0-19-280049-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Erich Zepler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Zepler.net from the University of Southampton, Department of Electronics and Computer Science
• Tim Krabbé : Open Chess Diary No. 89, January 20, 2001: Friends
• Compositions by Zepler on the PDB server (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Introduction from autumn 1951 to Im Banne des Schach Problem , page 6 by Erich Zepler and Ado Kraemer
2. ↑ Wolfgang Dittmann: The flight of the swallow . Published by Die Schwalbe , Wegberg 1988. p. 47

solution

	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

H

Solution: The audition 1. Kg6? fails on 1.… Bxf4 because 2. Nd6 now stumbles. Hence the blocking move 1. Ke4! . Now the bishop is steered away from d6 by a forced draft : 1.… L arbitrarily 2. Nd6 . Or 1.… Kb3 2. Qe2 , 1.… Kb5 2. Qxd7 + .