Ferdinand Metzenauer

Ferdinand Metzenauer (born March 24, 1908 in Lonka ; † March 5, 1968 in Silbersbach near Lam ) was a well-known German composer and author in chess .

Chess composition

Metzenauer learned to play chess at the age of 17. Although he achieved a reasonable skill level in tournament chess, he preferred to deal with chess problems. He published his first in 1928 and composed more than 500 altogether, mostly two and more moves. He often won first prize at tournaments, and five three-men were included in the FIDE album 1914–1944 / II. In 1938 he became the Bavarian problem master .

The Munich idea

In January 1934, Metzenauer published his so-called Munich idea in the magazine Die Schwalbe . Werner Sidler defined this topic as follows: In the main plan, Black has a harmful defensive parade against a white threat. However, as a result of self-handicap, white is unable to take advantage of this damage. By means of a corresponding pre-plan maneuver, the black defense is switched off so that White's original damage can be used. (Swiss chess newspaper, 2002, issue 6, page 33).

Ferdinand Metzenauer
The Swallow, 1934

	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

Mate in 3 moves

This is the Munich idea :

It fails both 1. c3? (threatens Nc2 mate) on Rf1! as well as 1. c4? (threatens Nc2 mate) on Rg1!

Solution:

1. Qf8! (threatens Da8 mate) Re3 (or Rh3)
2. c3! Rg1
3.Ra4 mate .

If 1.… Rfg3
2. c4! Tg1
3. T a3 matt

Another presentation of this topic can be found in Siegfried Brehmer .

Life

Born in Hungary, Metzenauer moved to Munich with his German mother in 1913 . Here he worked as a commercial clerk. He was taken prisoner during World War II . After his return he lived until the end of his life in Silbersbach near Lam in the Bavarian Forest . He ran his own gardening business with his wife.

Web links

• Some compositions by Ferdinand Metzenauer on the PDB server