Alexey Alexeyevich Troitsky (; March 14, 1866 – August 1942; also ''Alexei'', ''Troitzky'', ''Troitzki'') was a Russian chess theoretician. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

s of

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

endgame studies In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a type of chess problem that starts with a composed position—i.e. one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—where the goal is to find the essentially unique way for ...

.In the introduction to ''Collection of Chess Studies'',

Sam Sloan Samuel Howard Sloan (born September 7, 1944), also known as Mohammad Ismail Sloan, is an American perennial candidate and former broker-dealer. In 1978, he won a case ''pro se'' before the United States Supreme Court, becoming the last non-lawyer ...

writes "... Trotzky is considered to have been the greatest composer of chess endgame studies ever." He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern art of composing chess studies . Troitsky died of

starvation Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, de ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

at the

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

. During the war, many of his notes got destroyed or lost so some of the latest chess problems he composed were never published. One of his most famous works involves analyzing the endgame with two knights versus a pawn, see

Troitsky line The two knights endgame is a chess endgame with a king and two knights versus a king. In contrast to a king and two bishops (on opposite-colored squares), or a bishop and a knight, a king and two knights cannot checkmate against a lone king (how ...

John Nunn John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was form ...

analyzed this endgame with an

endgame tablebase In chess, the endgame tablebase, or simply the tablebase, is a computerised database containing precalculated evaluations of chess endgame, endgame positions. Tablebases are used to analyse finished games, as well as by chess engines to evaluate ...

and stated that "the analysis of Troitsky ... is astonishingly accurate" .

Compositions

Troitsky was a prolific composer of endgame studies.

Irving Chernev Irving Chernev (January 29, 1900 – September 29, 1981) was a chess player and prolific Ukrainian-born American chess author. He was born in Pryluky, Ukraine, then a part of the Russian Empire and emigrated to the United States in 1905. Cherne ...

included nine of them in . The diagram shows one of them. and White wins .

Books

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Notes

References

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External links

Troitzky Chess, invented by Paul Byway
a chess variant where checkmate by two knights can be forced. {{DEFAULTSORT:Troitsky, Alexey Alexeyevich 1866 births 1942 deaths Deaths by starvation Chess composers Chess theoreticians Soviet chess writers Writers from the Russian Empire Soviet writers Chess players from the Russian Empire Victims of the Siege of Leningrad

Compositions

Books

See also

Notes

References

External links