Frank Healey

Frank Healey

Frank Healey (born November 19, 1828 in London , † February 17, 1906 in London) was a well-known English chess player, but above all a composer of chess problems . In 1866 he published a collection of 200 of his own chess compositions, which he decidedly regarded as aesthetic, even poetic achievements:

"Problems are indeed the poetry of chess. The same depth of imagination, the same quick perception of the beautiful, the same fecundity of invention, which we demand from the poet, are to be found, under a different form, in the humble labor of the problematist. Surely, without pressing the analogy too far, we may say that the thirty-two pieces form the alphabet of the composer, while the Chess board is the paper, and the positions finally resulting may be fairly likened to so many stanzas. "

“Problems are truly the poetry of chess. The same depth of imagination, the same quick apprehension of the beautiful, the same fertility of invention that we demand of the poet are to be found in a different form in the modest efforts of the problem composer. Certainly one can say, without exaggerating the analogy, that the 32 stones represent the composer's alphabet, while the chessboard is his paper, and the positions that ultimately emerge can be compared with just as many stanzas. "

- Frank Healey : A Collection of Two Hundred Chess Problems, Longmans, Green & Co., London 1866, p. 5

Healey's facilitation

His most famous chess task shows the advance path, also called Healey's path in his honor . Because of the place of publication, the Bristol theme is also common for this development, especially in the English-speaking world.

Frank Healey
Bristol Problem Tourney, 1861
1st Prize

	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

Solution:

1. Rd1 – h1! Zugzwang Bb5 – d7 / e8
2. Qg6 – b1! ( threatens 3. Qb1 – b4 mate) Bd7 / e8 – b5
3. Qb1 – g1 mate

or
1.… S any
2. Qg6 – d6 mate

In the key move, the white rook paves the way for his queen in advance to g1 (which determines the target square h1). That is the sole purpose of this move. It can therefore only be found when one has understood the whole idea of ​​the composition.

literature

• Eduard Mazel: Gallery of Problem Masters: II. Frank Healey. In: Wiener Schachzeitung , 1906, Issue 3/4, pp. 115-131. Online . Includes a short biography written by Percy Healey, Frank Healey's son, and a selection of Healey's compositions.
• Herbert Grasemann: Chess without a partner . Munich 1977 ISBN 3-581-66299-0 , corrected ISBN 3-581-66299-X
• Johannes Kohtz and Carl Kockelkorn: The Indian problem - a chess study , Potsdam 1903; Reprint Zurich 1982, ISBN 3-283-00074-3
• Fritz Hoffmann, Günter Schiller, Karl-Heinz Siehndel, Manfred Zucker: 407 tasks and studies . Sportverlag, Berlin, 1984. ISBN 3-88805-350-1

Web links

• Healey's book "A Collection of 200 Chess Problems" from 1866 as pdf, ed. As e-book. by Anders Thulin, Malmö, 2003
• Edition of "Schwalbe" (December 2003) with some notes on Healey's life and another problem, a Plachutta avant la lettre
• Compositions by Frank Healey on the PDB server