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MatPlus.Net Forum General Problemists distinguished in other fields?
 
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(21) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Wednesday, Sep 7, 2022 20:04]

As no timespan is given for when the problemist should have lived:

Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Yahya as-Suli - Poet, chronist (his "diamond" chess problem remained unsolved for over 1000 years)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_bin_Yahya_al-Suli

Firdusi / Ferdowsi / other spellings - Author of the Persian national poem "Shahnameh"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdowsi


Not really fitting, but interesting:
Aladdin - lawyer under Tamerlane, supposedly known as inspiration for the name of the fairy tale (heavily disputed by historians, likely untrue)
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaadin_al_Tabriz
Here is one article that writes about the fairy tale myth: https://www.thearticle.com/why-play-chess


en-Wikipedia seems to confuse the Shatranj composer ar-Razi with the medical scientist, philosopher, alchemist. They aren't the same person, as their life data shows.

Well, technically they are problemists of an earlier form of chess, but some of their mansuba are still applicable to modern chess.


No example is Karol Wojtyla, later known as Pope John Paul II., as the chess problems attributed to him have turned out to all not have been composed by him.
 
   
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(22) Posted by Joose Norri [Thursday, Sep 8, 2022 11:07]

Nadareishvili headed the neurology department of the Tbilisi hospital in his free time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gia_Nadareishvili
 
   
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(23) Posted by seetharaman kalyan [Wednesday, Sep 14, 2022 02:04]

Milan Vukcevic
Distinguished researcher in chemistry. Narrowly missed a nobel prize. Of course a professor too.
 
   
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(24) Posted by shankar ram [Wednesday, Sep 14, 2022 09:15]

Walter W. Jacobs, Mathematician, Cryptologist, Bletchley Park code breaker, Computer pioneer, USAF and NSA executive.
https://history.computer.org/pioneers/jacobs-ww.html
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4640515
https://docplayer.net/163351029-Jacobs-theme-redux-by-narayan-shankar-ram.html
 
   
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(25) Posted by Hauke Reddmann [Wednesday, Sep 14, 2022 09:38]

@Seetharaman: You mean, the fact that my doctor father had a doctor father
whose doctor father HAD a nobel prize doesn't qualify me?

Bother. Now that I also made a master in computer science and missed
proving Tarjan-Sleator by that >< much, I sadly declare that nothing
is left for me to achieve and I have to become a serial killer instead.
(I then rather have the problem so many people today offering themselves.
The decision, the decision :-)))
 
 
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(26) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Wednesday, Sep 14, 2022 10:35]

Sorry for the short off-topic, but I highly recommend visiting Bletchley Park, take a week for it.

The story is that the Buenos Aires 1939 Chess Olympiad had Germany and England in the final round. England withdrew from the field of 16 (final round was a 16 team round robin). Germany won the Chess Olympiad. The British team mostly went to Bletchley Park. So Germany won the tourney, England won the war.
(The German team stayed in Argentina afterwards. When they heard that WWII broke out, they didn't want to die in it.)

It is a very fascinating story, a huge conspiracy that involved thousands of people, most of them thinking they just do some boring job. Nobody knew what was really done there, except possibly the highest ranks. Thousands of people thought they just do a boring office job. In reality they won the war.

After the war, the operation was kept a secret, but one of those workers took inspiration. However, even the plots of his "James Bond" novels don't come close to the crazy plot Ian Fleming had invented in Operation Ruthless...
 
   
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(27) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Thursday, Sep 15, 2022 22:29]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jukka_Tapanim%C3%A4ki

Jukka Tapanimäki created not only chess problems but also video games - long before everyone could do that.
http://chesscomposers.blogspot.com/2012/08/august-11th.html

(found this because I looked up Karol Mlynka, who was a great contributor also to MatPlus, inspiring me to an own fairy problem back when Milan still printed the reinstated magazine)
 
   
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(28) Posted by shankar ram [Friday, Sep 16, 2022 00:42]

Tapanimäki was an early game creator. But not "before everyone". See: https://gamicus.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_gaming_pioneers
Sad that he passed away at a young age (40).
 
   
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(29) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Friday, Sep 16, 2022 03:30]

What I tried to convey is that today everyone has the tools to easily create games.
Back in those days, you had to learn programming, it was a very tedious and difficult process. Some games even a decade later were written in Assembler, which I imagine is really a pain to write in.
 
   
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(30) Posted by Hauke Reddmann [Friday, Sep 16, 2022 09:15]

Ah, spoiled youth of today :-) My first programming experience was the
pocket calculator TI-58, which does, so to say, programs in Assembler.
Make arrays with the IND(irect) button, only today I understand the sheer
brilliancy. I (to stay on-forum-topic) immediately programmed the
8 queen puzzle, and being a computer wizard even with 16, I optimized
the code to run in a day :-)))
 
 
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(31) Posted by Peter Wong [Thursday, Oct 27, 2022 06:01]

A blog based on the many suggestions given in this thread has been added to OzProblems.com:

Chess problem composers famous or distinguished in other fields
https://www.ozproblems.com/walkabout/walkabout2022/oct27

The thirty names selected are almost too many for one blog, but I decided not to split them up. Instead I omitted sample problems which I normally would include.
 
 
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(32) Posted by James Malcom [Thursday, Oct 27, 2022 07:25]

Wonderful work, Peter.
 
   
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(33) Posted by Peter Wong [Thursday, Oct 27, 2022 11:33]

Thanks, James!
 
   
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(34) Posted by Dejan Glisić [Thursday, Oct 27, 2022 21:44]

Nice, Peter!

Among Nabokov's works, the novella Luzhin's Defense should also be mentioned, based on which the film was made
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Luzhin_Defence
 
   
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(35) Posted by Kevin Begley [Thursday, Oct 27, 2022 22:39]

Impressive list.
Well done, Peter.

ps: We really must recruit some famous musicians, so they can have a category. Comedians and magicians would be nice. We could use a chef.
Then, maybe we can charter a respectable cruise.
 
   
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(36) Posted by Peter Wong [Friday, Oct 28, 2022 02:32]

Thanks, Dejan and Kevin!

The Luzhin Defence could definitely be mentioned; I kind of discussed it already in another blog on Nabokov.

Besides the late Smullyan, there's one magician on the list: Alexander George the philosopher. Check out this impressive trick by him found on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Cd6g76G91Oo
 
   
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(37) Posted by Kevin Begley [Friday, Oct 28, 2022 02:54]

Tricks like that will get magicians banned from OTB chess.
They really should be promoting rabbits in fairy chess problems.
 
 
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(38) Posted by seetharaman kalyan [Friday, Oct 28, 2022 09:45]

Actually Diyan Kostadinov, is also a mentalist and has given quite a few shows
 
   
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(39) Posted by Olivier [Monday, Nov 7, 2022 10:40]

Vasily Smyslov has recorded several arias as an opera singer, and composed endgame studies.

Emanuel Lasker was a talented mathematician, Mark Taimanov a great pianist, and Simen Agdestein an international football striker, but I cannot remember if any of them have composed chess studies or problems.
 
   
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(40) Posted by Hauke Reddmann [Monday, Nov 7, 2022 13:38]

Smyslov composed lots of studies. Lasker too. (As seen on e.g. the YACPDB database)
(BOTH Laskers, for that matter :-)
 
 
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MatPlus.Net Forum General Problemists distinguished in other fields?