Walter Bähr

Walter Bähr (before 1930 - after 1935) was a theoretician of chess endings, chess composer and chess player. Little is known about his life data, he lived in Gottenheim in 1932 .

Endgame theorist

Walter Bähr is one of the few chess players whose name has found its way into endgame theory .

In chess magazines and textbooks for endgames (see for example Juri Awerbach or Karsten Müller and Frank Lamprecht ), the so-called Bähr rule , named after Walter Bähr, is explained about positions with blocked marginal pawns .

In his monograph Opposition and Critical Fields in the Pawn Endgame , published in 1936, Bähr described the basics of the method of counterfields in the pawn endgame very comprehensively as the result of his studies from 1930 to 1935 .

Chess composition

In the 1930s Bähr published some of his studies in local newspapers and magazines, mainly in the Freiburg area.

Walter Bähr
Reichspost, February 24, 1935 Dedicated to
Hans Müller ( Vienna )

	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

Profit

Solution:

1. Kd2 – c3! Kd7 – c7
2. Kc3 – d3 Kc7 – d7
3. Kd3 – e4 Kd7 – e7
4. Ke4 – e5 Ke7 – f7
5. f4 – f5! e6xf5
6. Ke5xf5 Kf7 – e7
7. Kf5 – e5! Ke7 – f7
8. Ke5 – d5 Kf7 – f6
9. Kd5 – c5 Kf6 – g5
10. Kc5 – b5 Kg5xh5
11. Kb5xa5 Kh5 – g4
12. Ka5 – b5 h6 – h5
13. a4 – a5 and White wins

The publication of his chess compositions extends to the years between 1932 and 1940. He composed two, three and multi-moves, some of which appeared in the Freiburg newspaper . The famous Albrecht collection for two-move chess problems has three entries by Walter Bähr. Two appeared in the Mainfränkische Zeitung on August 22, 1936 , the third comes from Schwalbe in 1932 . There is even a self-matt miniature of him.

Chess player

In the Festschrift of the Baden Chess Association, the name Bähr can be found in the table of the chess tournament held on the occasion of the 14th (1st) Congress of the now Baden Chess Association . September 1933 took place in Heidelberg. Bähr, Freiburg, was split 2nd – 5th in the main tournament. become.

Bähr obviously played in the Freiburg chess club. The Freiburger Zeitung reported on a spectacular blind chess game and published one of his games, as well as an analyzed pawn endgame from one of his games.

Bähr was one of the six winners in the simultaneous performance of Bogoljubow on January 15, 1935 in the head coffee house in Freiburg.

Works

• Walter Bähr: Opposition and critical areas in the pawn endgame . Self-published, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1936

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sinar, Michail: Peschetschny endschpil "dwe protiw odnoj" . in: Schachmatny, Bulletin, 1982, pages 8–11 and 17. (Russian)
2. ↑ Awerbach, Juri: Pawn endgames . Sportverlag, Berlin, 1988, page 113 ff. ISBN 3-328-00236-7 .
3. ↑ Müller, Karsten; Lamprecht, Frank: Secrets of Pawn Endings . Everyman Chess, London, 2000, ISBN 1-85744-255-5 (English)
4. ↑ See for example Juri Awerbach: Textbook of Chess Endgames . Sportverlag Berlin, 4th edition 1979. - Awerbach writes there: "The analyst W. Bähr formulated a rule as early as 1936 that makes it easier to assess such positions." Then the "Bähr rule" is explained.
5. ^ Lauterbach, Werner: Everything about chess in Baden (documents, facts and memories for the anniversary 1910-1985). Page 21
6. ^ Freiburger Zeitung, September 17, 1933 , page 20.
7. ↑ Freiburg newspaper, January 20, 1935 , page 15.

Web links

• Compositions by Walter Bähr on the PDB server
• Compositions by Walter Bähr on the Schwalbe's PDB server