Thomas Rayner Dawson
{{For|the American General|Thomas Dawson (disambiguation)}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Thomas Rayner Dawson
| image = DawsonThomasRayner.jpg
| birth_name = Thomas Rayner Dawson
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1889|11|28}}
| birth_place = Leeds, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1951|12|16|1889|11|28}}
| death_place = Surrey, England
| known_for = Chess problem compositions
Fairy chess
Dawson's Chess
}}
Thomas Rayner Dawson (28 November 1889 – 16 December 1951) was an English chess problemist and is acknowledged as "the father of Fairy Chess".{{cite book |last=Pritchard |first=D. B. |authorlink=David Pritchard (chess player) |editor-last=Beasley |editor-first=John |title=The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants |publisher=John Beasley |year=2007 |page=361 |isbn=978-0-9555168-0-1}} He invented many fairy pieces and new conditions. He introduced the popular fairy pieces grasshopper, nightrider, and many other fairy chess ideas.
Career
Dawson published his first problem, a two-mover, in 1907. His chess problem compositions include 5,320 fairies, 885 {{chessprobgloss|directmate|directmates}}, 97 selfmates, and 138 endings. 120 of his problems have been awarded prizes and 211 honourably mentioned or otherwise commended. He cooperated in chess composition with Charles Masson Fox.
Dawson was founder-editor (1922–1931) of The Problemist, the journal of the British Chess Problem Society. He subsequently produced The Fairy Chess Review (1930–1951), which began as The Problemist Fairy Chess Supplement. At the same time he edited the problem pages of The British Chess Magazine (1931–1951).
=Motivation and personality=
From The Oxford Companion to Chess:
His genius did not set him apart from his fellows; he could find time for casual visitors, and would explain his ideas to a tyro with patience, modesty, and kindness. Although he won many tourney prizes much of his work was designed to encourage others, to enlarge the small band of fairy problem devotees. He composed less for fame than to amuse himself, confessing to another composer "We do these things for ourselves alone."{{cite book |last1=Hooper |first1=David |authorlink1=David Vincent Hooper |last2=Whyld |first2=Kenneth |authorlink2=Kenneth Whyld |title=The Oxford Companion to Chess |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1987 |contribution=Dawson, Thomas Rayner |pages=85–86 |isbn=0-19-281986-0}}
Sample problems
{{algebraic notation|pos=secright}}
{{Chess diagram
|tleft
| Fairy Chess Review, 1947
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|Series-helpmate in 17 moves
Black makes 17 moves, then White makes a move, delivering checkmate.
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Solution: 1. Ka2 2. Ka3 3. Kb4 4. Kc3 5. Kd3 6. Ke2 7. Ke1 8. f1R 9. Rf2 10. Ke2 11. Kd3 12. Kc3 13. Kb4 14. Ka3 15. Ka2 16. Ka1 17. Ra2 Nb3#
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{{Chess diagram
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|Onitiu, Petrović, Dawson & Fox
1st Pr. Kniest TT. 1930, FIDE Album 1914–44/III
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|Mate in 8
Grasshoppers are on a8, f7, h2, and h1.
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This problem is a strange case of coincidence: thematic tourney prescript problems with grasshoppers without limiting number of the moves. The identical problem was sent independently by four composers.{{citation |last=Petrovič |first=Nenad |author-link=Nenad Petrović (chess) |year=1949 |title=Šahovski problem |publisher=Šahovska centrala |page=142}}
Solution: 1. Gh3 Gh4 2. Gh5 Gh6 3. Gh7 Gh8 4. Ge7 Gd7 5. Gc7 Gb7 6. Ga7+ Ga6 7. Ga5+ Ga4 8. Ga3#
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Publications
- Caissa's Playthings a series of articles in Cheltenham Examiner (1913)
- Retrograde Analysis, with Wolfgang Hundsdorfer (1915)
- Fata Morgana, with Birgfeld, Nanz, Massmann, Pauly (1922)
- Asymmetry, with W. Pauly (1928)
- Seventy Five Retros (1928)
- Caissa's Wild Roses (1935)
- C. M. Fox, His Problems (1936)
- Caissa's Wild Roses in Clusters (1937)
- Ultimate Themes (1938)
- Caissa's Fairy Tales (1947)
The last five titles were collected as Five Classics of Fairy Chess, Dover Publications (1973), {{ISBN|978-0-486-22910-2}}.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://archive.today/20130415231441/http://www.theproblemist.org/british-chess-composers/60-t-r-dawson/144-biographical-notes T. R. Dawson: Biography]
- [https://www.mayhematics.com/q/trd-early.htm The early work of T. R. Dawson] by G. P. Jelliss
- [https://www.mayhematics.com/q/trd-retop.htm Retro-opposition and other retro-analytical chess problems by T. R. Dawson] based on Seventy Five Retros; includes further 64 retro-analysis and 3 fairy retros by Dawson
- [https://archive.today/20130118133920/http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/art-19271 Retrograde analysis problem by Dawson] from Encyclopædia Britannica
- [https://pdb.dieschwalbe.de/search.jsp?expression=A='Dawson'%20and%20FIRSTNAME='Thomas%20R.' Dawson problems] on PDB Server
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Thomas Rayner}}
Category:English male non-fiction writers
Category:English non-fiction writers
Category:English chess players
Category:British chess writers
Category:Game players from Yorkshire