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MatPlus.Net Forum General Problems by Vladimir Nabokov ?
 
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(1) Posted by Axel Gilbert [Monday, Apr 27, 2009 21:50]

Problems by Vladimir Nabokov ?


Hello everybody,

It is well-known that genius writer Vladimir Nabokov was a chess composer.
A chapter of "Speak, memory" is devoted to chess composition, with a diagram, too.
There are 18 problems of his in "Poems and problems" (plus poems in english and russian, but that's not the point).

Winchloe and D Tureski's databases have 17 problems by Nabokov (mostly the same and the same as in "poems and problems", too). So that's hardly 20 problems.
But we know that he has composed many more, especially when he lived in Berlin and published his early works under the name "V Sirin".

So you guess what my question is : have those problems (probably no masterpieces) ever been recollected, either by chess problem enthusiasts or by bookworms ?

If so, I'll be glad to discover some of this stuff.

Thanks.
 
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(2) Posted by Vladimir Tyapkin [Saturday, Jun 5, 2010 08:09]

This week auction house Chriesties sold a set of handwritten leaflets with Nabokov's chess problems for £7,500. More details and images in my Russian blog at http://community.livejournal.com/ru_chess_art/27947.html.

Also, nice story from Bob Burger, answering my question on a connection of US chess problemists with Nabokov:

The answer is, yes, there was one connection, that I know of, with Nabokov and U.S. composers. It happened to be me.

As you know, Nabokov taught for a few years at Stanford (in my bailiwick). He played a lot of chess with friends of mine there. When the late Bill Addison, a good friend of mine and excellent player (third in U.S. Championsip) was helping on a computer chess program at Stanford in the late 1970s, I think, he got an inquiry from Nabokov about chess problems. Bill referred this to me. I told him to get in touch with Edgar Holladay. Nothing further happened.

Then, in 1972 I did the TV commentary on the Fischer-Spassky match for KQED in San Francisco. This resulted in a book I wrote called "The Chess of Bobby Fischer" (Chilton, 1973). A year or so later this was printed in paperback by McGraw-Hill, New York. My editor there asked me if I knew anything about a book they were doing, "Poems and Problems," by Nabokov. (He forced this book on them as part of a trilogy.) The editor asked me to do a foreword for the book, which I wrote (and also the back cover). It was a small book, consisting of some good poems and some very forgettable problems. (It's funny how intelligence doesn't seem to transfer across genres....)

Nabokov had an ego that transcended good writing. He listed, underneath every problem, the exact place and date at which the problem was composed.

I called him (he was in Zurich then) to ask if he would return the favor and do a squib for my Fischer book. He said he would think about it, but never answered.

Oh well.

----
Does anybody has a paperback edition of Poems and Problems with Bob's foreword? If so, can you post it here? Mine is hardcover first edition without it.
 
 
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(3) Posted by Axel Gilbert [Monday, Jun 7, 2010 19:32]

Thank you for the informations.

I only have a french (but bilingual) version of Poems and Problems. There is a foreword by Nabokov himself.
He assesses that modern chessproblems are like "socialist realism" to him (!?) and that he willingly made old-fashioned problems. Well...
 
   
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(4) Posted by Vladimir Tyapkin [Monday, Jun 7, 2010 20:42]

First edition has just Nabokov's introduction as well.
 
 
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MatPlus.Net Forum General Problems by Vladimir Nabokov ?