Henry Turton

Henry Turton (born April 16, 1832 in Shipston-on-Stour , Stratford-on-Avon district , † April 14, 1881 in Derby ) was a British chess composer .

Life

Turton's parents were William Turton (1804-1860), a lawyer ( solicitor ), and his wife Elizabeth (* 1803). He had two younger siblings, Roland Thomas (1834-1851) and Henrietta Mary (* 1837). The family first moved to Wolverhampton , later to Tunstall , now part of Stoke-on-Trent . In 1850 Turton began to compose and publish chess problems, and a number of chess games have come down from him. 1856 appointed Johann Jacob Löwenthal Turton to the committee for the implementation of the chess composition tournament of the magazine The Era . He was elected to the judges panel. His verdict on the first and second prize can be read in the German translation of Löwenthal's tournament report; Turton initially voted for Frank Healey's submission, but revised this assessment when an incorrectness was found in one of Healey's compositions. At this point Turton was living in Burton-upon-Trent , and later moved to Bath . Almost all of his published chess problems were created between 1850 and 1860.

After that he devoted himself mainly to his profession as an engineer . He married Rolinda Osborne (1841-1880) in 1864. In November 1872, Turton published an article in The English Mechanic and World of Science on a technical improvement of the Holtzian influenza machine , which was also included in the New York yearbook The Science Record published by Alfred Ely Beach . No further traces of his professional activity have been preserved. In addition, he took part in a chess battle between Bath and Bristol in 1871 as part of the Bath team. His last place of residence was Derby, where he worked at Haslam Engineering, a company specializing in refrigeration. He died of a heart attack after going to bed on April 14, 1881.

It is quite possible that Henry Turton was the first patient in the UK to have a tooth extracted under nitrous oxide anesthesia. According to a letter from dentist William Lloyd Poundall to the British Journal of Dental Science in 1870, he was asked in 1856 or 1857 by an engineer Henry Turton, residing in Burton-upon-Trent, to perform a tooth extraction with nitrous oxide. Turton is said to have brought the gas himself, apparently made by a friend ("Hallam") who was a pharmacist at the same place. The treatment is said to have been successful, as was another tooth extraction a little later. In an article for the British Journal of Anesthesia , the anesthetist WDA Smith researched the circumstances of this story and found it plausible.

plant

The Turton theme

Henry Turton was the first to play a theme in chess composition that was named by Johannes Kohtz and Carl Kockelkorn in their book The Indian Problem . Kohtz and Kockelkorn spoke of the "average point of Turton", today the name Turton is common. It is a doubling of long strides on a line, row or diagonal, which is initiated by a critical move. The original Turton is shown below. Here the weaker figure is pushed back over the intersection so that the stronger figure can stand in front. Variations of this idea are the Loyd-Turton (the stronger figure is pushed back so that the weaker one can stand in front), the Brunner-Turton (the two figures are the same, i.e. usually two towers) and the Zepler-Turton (named after Erich Zepler ; doubling is achieved by pushing forward rather than pushing back past the critical point).

In Turton's problem, the white bishop critically crosses the intersection g7 so that the queen can place herself in front of him and the two white pieces are doubled in the correct order.

Henry Turton
The Illustrated London News
September 6th 1856

	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:
1. Bc3 – h8! 2. Qg3 – a3 threatens mate. 1.… b5 – b4
2. Qg3 – g7! threatens 3. Qg7xb2 mate 2.… c4 – c3
3. Qg7 – a7 mate
If 1.… Rc8 – a8 then
2. Qg3 – c3 Re8 – a2
3. Qc3 – c1 mate
If 1.… Ka1-a2 , so
2. Qg3-c3 b2-b1D
3. Qc3-a5 mate .

The original version shown here is incorrect because it has secondary solutions that were already known to Kohtz and Kockelkorn in 1903:

1. Bb4! cxb4 2. Qg1 + b1D 3. Qxb1 mate or 2.… Ka2 3. Qa7 mate. It is also possible to change moves: 1. Qg1 + Ka2 2. Bb4!

There have been several attempts to correct this incorrectness. In 1912 the Wiener Schachzeitung published a correct version with an additional white pawn on b6, which blocks the diagonal from g1 to a7 and thus eliminates the secondary solution. The correction was probably made by Eduard Mazel .

According to the principle of economy, it would be desirable to do without additional white stones. That was also tried, but was unsuccessful. In 1928 Walther Freiherr von Holzhausen suggested moving the white king to h1 and adding a black pawn h2. But this version turned out to be after 1. Bh8 Ka2! 2. Qc3 b1D +! as unsolvable.

Holzhausen then said that there was probably nothing left but to add a white piece, preferably a white pawn on g2, which blocks the queen's line of movement to g1. He published this correction in 1929 in the Schwalbe . It has been reprinted many times.

André Chéron also attempted a correction in 1931 without adding a white stone. He suggested adding a black pawn to b6. However, this is also incorrect because it is unsolvable after 1. Bh8 Ka2 2. Qc3 b1D !, because the white queen does not come to a5.

Turton, ILN 1856 Version of the Wiener Schachzeitung 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

Turton, ILN 1856 Version Holzhausen 1928   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 three moves (unsolvable)

Turton, ILN 1856 Version Holzhausen 1929   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

Turton, ILN 1856 Version Chéron 1931   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 three moves (unsolvable)

More problems and games of Turtons

A comprehensive collection of Turton's chess compositions did not exist for a long time. As recently as 2015, Fabrizio Zavatarelli compiled and commented on 92 compositions by Turton. 87 of them date from the years 1850 to 1860, most of them are three to five trains. In addition, seven games of Turton from the years 1853 to 1855 are documented there, five of them against Charles Ranken.

literature

• Fabrizio Zavatarelli: Henry Turton's Poems on the Boards . 2015, online on The Problemist website
• Johannes Kohtz , Carl Kockelkorn : The intersection point of Turton's. In: dies .: The Indian problem. A chess study. Stein, Potsdam 1903, pp. 131-143. Online at www.arves.org

Web links

• First publication of the original Turton in the Illustrated London News , September 6, 1856, p. 261 (problem no. 655). On-line
• Compositions by Henry Turton on the PDB server

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Die Schwalbe , No. 223, February 2007, online ; Fabrizio Zavatarelli: Henry Turton's Poems on the Boards . 2015, online on The Problemist website .
2. ^ Johann Jacob Löwenthal : A selection from the problems of the era problem tournament. T. Day, London 1857, pp. 6-8. Online .
3. ^ Johann Jakob Löwenthal: Era chess problem tournament book . Weber, Leipzig 1857, appendix: Judges' verdicts, p. 111 there. Online .
4. ↑ See: New Holtz Electrical Machine . In: The Science Record for 1873. A Compendium of Scientific Progress and Discovery during the past year. New York, pp. 91-92. Online .
5. ↑ Biographical information according to Fabrizio Zavatarelli: Henry Turton's Poems on the Boards . 2015, online on The Problemist website .
6. ^ WDA Smith: A History of Nitrous Oxide and Oxygene Anesthesia. Part VI: Henry Turton, William Lloyd Poundall and Hallam. In: British Journal of Anesthesia 38 (1966), pp. 212-218. Online .
7. ↑ Johannes Kohtz, Carl Kockelkorn: The Indian problem. A chess study. Schachverlag Hans Hedewigs Nachf. Curt Ronniger, Leipzig 1903, pp. 131–143.
8. ↑ Wiener Schachzeitung , 1912, p. 28, diagram no. 3076, online , with the comment: “The original appeared without a white pawn b6. I added it in order to eradicate the secondary solutions. ”The author is not named, but since Mazel was the problem editor of the Wiener Schachzeitung , it should be him. Alternatively, Georg Marco could be the editor-in-chief.
9. ↑ Walther Freiherr von Holzhausen: Logic and purity of purpose in the new German chess problem . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and Leipzig 1928, p. 70 (diagram no.94).
10. ↑ Fabrizio Zavatarelli: Henry Turton's Poems on the boards . 2015, online at The Problemist , p. 33; W. Frhr. von Holzhausen: Reply to the article Turton and the Critical Train in issue 16 . In: Die Schwalbe , New Series, Issue 19, July 1929, pp. 250–252, here: p. 252. Online .
11. ↑ W. Frhr. von Holzhausen: Reply to the article Turton and the Critical Train in issue 16 . In: Die Schwalbe , New Series, Issue 19, July 1929, pp. 250–252, here: p. 252. Online .
12. ^ André Chéron: Les Échecs , in: Le Temps of February 8, 1931, p. 4. Online .