Willy Roscher

Willy Roscher (born December 17, 1900 in Eibau / Oberlausitz , † December 23, 1957 in Dresden ) was a German chess historian , chess composer and chess official.

chess

Roscher learned as a soldier in the First World War , the game of chess . In 1921 he joined the new workers' chess club in Zittau and was district manager of the Upper Lusatian chess clubs from 1923 to 1925. After moving to Dresden in 1925, where he worked in a commercial position, he became chairman of the Dresden Workers 'Chess Association and a member of the federal board of the German Workers' Chess Federation . As the successor to Arthur Klinke , he became editor of the Arbeiter-Schachzeitung in 1931 , having previously edited several chess columns. After the workers 'chess federation was banned , Roscher worked on the chess herald from 1934–1938 , which was to replace the banned German workers' chess newspaper . From 1937 until he was called up he was integrated into the KdF chess as a district chess warden.

After being a prisoner of war in World War II , Roscher was active in 1947 as a Dresden district section leader and then chairman of the relevant district technical committee. In the GDR Roscher was a member of several commissions in the presidium of the chess section. However, after suffering from a heart condition, a doctor ordered him to rest, which meant he had to stop his activities.

On November 25, 1957, Roscher gave a lecture at a Dresden problematic meeting, after which he suffered a relapse of his heart disease and was admitted to a hospital. After his release, he celebrated his 57th birthday on December 17th. On the evening of December 23rd, Roscher, now married for the second time, first helped his daughter decorate the Christmas tree. When he went to rest afterwards, he suffered a heart attack from which he died.

Roscher had a chess book collection and extensive knowledge of the history of chess literature and chess composition. Before his death he prepared a work on the "History of Problem Literature", of which more than a thousand manuscript pages were written. He had made several discoveries in the history of chess, such as the fact that Peter August d'Orville was a tenth generation German.

Roscher was a strong club player, but below the master level. By 1956 he had written over a hundred chess compositions.

Willy Roscher
Fleck themed tournament 1935–1936

	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 2 moves

Solution:

1. Ng2 – h4 (threatens 2. Ng4 – g6, 2. Nh4 – f3, 2. Ng6 – g4 and 2. Nh6 – f7 mate)

1.… f4 – f3 2. Nh4 – g6 mate

1.… c7 – c5 2. Nh4 – f3 mate

1.… c7xd6 2. Nh6 – g4 mate

1.… c7 – c6 2. Nh6 – f7 mate

Stain theme : White threatens matt in several ways with the key pull. According to thematic black answers, exactly one of these mating moves is successful and there is at least one variant for each mating move. The technical term for this is differentiation .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karl-Heinz Siehndel (ed.): Problem chess. 407 Exercises and Studies . 3rd unchanged edition. Sportverlag Berlin (then GDR), November 1, 1986 (editorial deadline). ISBN 3-328-00205-7 . P. 227
2. ↑ Profile at the German Chess Federation ( Memento from September 12, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
3. ^ Günter Schiller: Willy Roscher. in: Willy Roscher memorial tournament of the Saxon newspaper. Price report. Dresden, 1978, pp. 2-3
4. ↑ Krämer, Hans-Winfried: Willy Roscher. in: Chess in Saxony. Schachverband Sachsen, 2008, pp. 291–292
5. ^ Herbert Grasemann: Willy Roscher † . In: Schach 2/1958. P. 29
6. ↑ Herbert Grasemann : We introduce: Willy Roscher . In: Schach 17/1956. P. 267

Web links

• Compositions by Willy Roscher on the Schwalbe's PDB server