Leopold Adamowitsch Mitrofanow

Leopold Adamowitsch Mitrofanow ( Russian Леопольд Адамович Митрофанов ; born July 2, 1932 in Leningrad , † November 26, 1992 in Moscow ) was a Russian student composer in chess .

He was introduced to chess composition by Vladimir Korolkow (1907–1987), with whom he published many studies together. In total, he created several hundred chess compositions (including about 300 studies), 40 of which were awarded first prizes. He became a Soviet master of chess composition. His most famous and most controversial chess composition is the Qg5 study . On Rustaveli -800 Memorial 230 pieces attended by 170 composers. The judges Alexander Herbstman and Gia Nadareishvili praised the piece in the price report, which appeared on February 3, 1967 in Bulletin 14 of the 34th USSR Championship, as a “real masterpiece”. In 1971 Mitrofanov was named as the international referee for chess composition . In 1980 he received the title of International Master of Chess Composition .

John Roycroft compared Mitrofanov's loss to chess studies with Rudolf Nureyev's loss to ballet.

The Dg5 Study

The original study

Leopold Mitrofanow
Rustaveli 800 Memorial, 1967
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

White to move wins

That is the position submitted by Mitrofanow for the tournament. According to the main line
1. b6 + Ka8
2. Re1 Nxe1
3. g7 h1D
4. g8D + Bb8
5. a7 Nc6 +
on 5.… Nd7 decides 6. Qe6 because of 6.… Bxa7 7. Qc6 + Kb8 8. Qc7 + or 6.… Nxb6 7 .Qc6 + Ka7 8.Qxb6 + Ka8 9.Qc6 + Ka7 10.Qa6 # 6.dxc6 Qxh5
+ the following position arises:

	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

First of all, it cannot be seen how White can avoid perpetual check. This is done by the queen sacrifice
7. Qg5! After Qxg5 +
8. Ka6 Bxa7
9. c7 threatens c8D + and b7 mate. After Qa5 +
10. Kxa5 Kb7
11. bxa7 White wins.

Michail Tal was one of the judges of the tournament . Over the years, however, doubts arose about the composition's raison d'etre.

predecessor

Harold van der Heijden later found a predecessor. The Romanian Pál Faragó had already composed a study in 1936 which represented the same idea. Here, too, the white queen sacrificed herself on g5. Farago had first published his study in the Romanian chess magazine Revista Română de Şah and again in 1956 in his book Idei noi in Sahul Artistic . Apparently Mitrofanov did not know this predecessor.

Refutations

In 1970, the Russian Alexander Kuindzhi found a refutation of Mitrofanov's solution. Subsequently, attempts were made to correct the starting position in order to save the solution.

In 1999, the Dutchman Rini Kuijf Kuindzhi's refutation and apparently saved Mitrofanov's original study. However, a little later Harold van der Heijden showed that this rescue attempt still had a hole.

As far as we know today, Mitrofanov's study is defective.

Works

• Deceptive Simplicity , 1992 (with Vladimir Fyodorov)

Private

Mitrofanov grew up in Leningrad and experienced the siege of Leningrad as a child . He became a teacher and later worked as a chemist in a Leningrad research institute. He died of stomach cancer .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Diagrams and Solutions , in: EG 9. p. 258
2. ↑ International referees for chess compositions
3. ↑ International masters for chess compositions
4. ↑ ^{a b} EG 108, p. 198–199 ( EG archive ( Memento of the original dated December 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note. ) 

Web links

• Compositions by Leopold Mitrofanow on the PDB server
• http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/mitrofanov.htm - Detailed description of the variants and refutations