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MatPlus.Net Forum General composing process: how much of a problem is composed in advance of going to the board?
 
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(1) Posted by Eugene Rosner [Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 21:40]

composing process: how much of a problem is composed in advance of going to the board?


The late and very-much missed Dan Meinking composed several problems without the use of a board. This might be akin to those that can play blindfold. Surely, not me! But I've been doing this to some extent lately, working out a main theme of a problem in my head, and only then going to the board. To what extent do composers do this? It seems that playing with some men in hand hoping for inspiration when they are loosely placed on the board at random is NOT the way to go!
 
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(2) Posted by Geir Sune Tallaksen Østmoe [Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 22:31]

Speaking as a study composer with limited experience, my answer is: somewhere in the range 5%-100%! Most of my compsitions started off as an inspiration on the bus before or after work, without a board available, and I usually end up with some kind of position before I set it up on a board. In some cases, the position turns out to be sound, and in one single case thus far, I ended up publishing that first position since I didn't find any improvements. In other cases, I need a lot of time to make it sound, or I find significant room for improvement.
 
 
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(3) Posted by Hauke Reddmann [Sunday, Jun 15, 2014 23:04]

I'm a lousy blind OTB player, so this only applies when I lie awake
at night fighting with an idea that won't go out of my head.
Only two outcomes are possible:
a) Get miffed, lights on, fetch the chessboard (at 2 o'clock I won't
get any sleep anymore,
b) Ignore, it won't work in broad daylight anyway :-)

Hauke
 
   
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(4) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Monday, Jun 16, 2014 00:39]; edited by Sarah Hornecker [14-06-16]

A lot has been lost with Dan. His generosity showed when he gifted me a copy of his Alpha Sleuth program with database, and I think there were plans to make something available for free, although I don't remember exactly what (from my recollection, it even was that program). He also encouraged me in writing a book, it was published a year and a month after he left us. Indeed he is very much missed.

But this is not regarding your question. Yours was different, so let me reply there. In my early stages I just set up a position and it somehow worked. But some of the better studies started with the idea being to a big part in my head. Sometimes you are lucky - or as I think, someone in the spiritual realm just has you set up the pieces so it works already or almost - and sometimes an idea just comes as you're about to sleep - the same state in that Frank Elstner created the TV show "Wetten, dass...?", by the way.

Inspiration, transpiration, luck, work, whatever.
In the end, a mix of a good set up, a nice idea, talent and skill, you know the drill.
Or you might have an immediate one hit wonder or already start great.

It is different for everyone, I think.

Also: Accidental recomposing happens a lot, and it is hard to catch it when the position is sufficiently different - or not yet published. I had it recently with an Afek study. I had a similar idea, but I didn't expand on it. He somehow also had the idea, and did the work and won a prize. There is no way either knew about the other. His study was published two years or so prior to my scheme, so he completely anticipates it.
Or Richard Becker in a blatant example where the positions were almost fully identical and the solutions slightly different. I still think my study should have been named "after Becker". But then with some themes there is only so much you can do with it.
Maybe today it is more difficult to get original ideas simply for this reason. And if you do, sooner or later someone else does. Publish it, or they do soon enough.

I think the Sheldrake morphogenetic fields apply to chess composition as well. The thesis is, when anything is discovered, the information will spread even with nonphysical means. That is important for animals - a dog that knows when its holder comes home, etc. - but also for chess composition.
 
   
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(5) Posted by Kevin Begley [Monday, Jun 16, 2014 09:57]; edited by Kevin Begley [14-06-16]

I have surrendered all hope to control the chess pieces, and seek only to discover them at play.
I wait for inspiration to strike, and hope it will arrive in a memorable dream.
I don't go to the chessboard to engineer a chess problem -- I go either hoping to discover inspiration, or (better yet) to change the focus of my dreams.
I'm reluctant to subscribe to the "sans voir" composing process, because I do not believe that a composer consciously controls anything more than what they will allow themselves to discover (and appreciate).

I'm sure this sounds rather hokey -- almost bordering the new age nonsense previously mentioned (in my defense, at least I don't abuse science in the process) -- there are obvious exceptions, where I have intended to realize some specific theme, which was only achieved by work at the board (e.g., once you have the idea for a PG which brings 8 pawns to their first rank, the mechanism requires work at the board) -- but generally, I prefer what comes about from a process of simply allowing for discovery... even if such problems tend to be undervalued. And, even in instances where you might want to force some specific thematic event, I find the composing process still requires mostly listening, to discover what the pieces will allow.

Have I realized sound problems away from the chess board? Yes, but not as often as Dan (who seemed to actively delight in thinking about problem construction, in daylight, while away from the board). I suppose I prefer to limit myself to "sans voir" inspiration (particularly when derived from the subconscious); the pieces will either talk me through the construction, or send me back to sleep... I want to spend my daylight hours elsewhere (e.g., debunking Deepak Chopra).
 
   
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(6) Posted by Ganapathi Ramaswami [Friday, Jun 20, 2014 07:25]

I am not much of a composer but in my case I have to work with the chessboard first and then as mentioned by Hauke Reddmann the position will haunt me in the nights sometimes leading to good lines of play!
 
 
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MatPlus.Net Forum General composing process: how much of a problem is composed in advance of going to the board?