Fernando Saavedra

Fernando Saavedra (born October 10, 1847 in Seville , † May 1, 1922 in Dublin ; full name Francisco de Borja Saavedra y Caro ) was a priest in the Order of the Passionists , who made a contribution to the Saavedra study , which was later named after him , a chess composition immortalized in chess history .

Life

Saavedra's parents moved to England when he was a child. In 1866 he entered the Order of the Passionists and was ordained a priest on November 30, 1871 at St. Patrick's College in Maynooth . He later worked in Scotland and Ireland and supported projects of his order in Spain; so he became the first passionate missionary in Spain.

Saavedra was a member of the Clontarf Chess Club in Dublin, according to James Alexander Porterfield Rynd , while David McAllister found no evidence of that. The Dublin Evening Mail reported in 1889 and 1890 about several tournaments in which Saavedra participated as a spectator, for the first time in a competition on November 7, 1889. Harrie Grondijs sees this as evidence of Saavedra's membership. Saavedra was a chess problem solver for the Dublin Evening Mail in 1890 as Fr. Fernando .

In 1891 Saavedra went to Glasgow, in a problem chess solving tournament of the Dublin Evening Herald he reached the shared third place. From 1892 to 1898 and from 1912 to 1915 he was a member of the Glasgow Chess Club , from 1897 to 1898 its vice-president. Saavedra worked as a prison chaplain at Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow from 1892 to 1898.

In 1895 he found the winning move in the supposed draw study, which later went down in chess history as the Saavedra study .

Around the turn of the year 1899/1900 he traveled to Australia to support the young community of Passionists there. In 1911 he returned to Spain due to illness and stayed in Europe from then on. For his 50th anniversary as a priest, Saavedra received a from Pope Benedict XV on May 31, 1921 . signed letter of congratulation. After his health had deteriorated for over a year, Saavedra died on the afternoon of May 1, 1922 as Vice Rector of Mount Argus and found his final resting place in Dublin. In memory of Saavedra, the Archbishop of Seville, Luis de la Lastra y Cuestra , held a special event.

literature

• Harrie Grondijs: No Rook Unturned. A Tour Around the Saavedra Study . 2nd edition 2004. ISBN 90-74827-52-7

Web links

• Life of Fernando Saavedra (English)