Despite America's less than stellar performance, I've watched a reasonable chunk of the World Cup the past few weeks (congrats to Italy!). The game certainly has its own artistry (here I'm referring to both individual athleticism and the beauty of seeing a team functioning well
as a team, not to the thespians incessantly taking dives and faking injuries), but this post will only superficially address soccer/football.
The extent to which I'll mention is that I saw two player names of interest while watching the World Cup: Nakamura (Japan) and Nowotny (Germany). I won't say anything about the soccer players, but only about their chess-related namesakes. It's likely that all or nearly all of my readers are familiar with American GM Hikaru Nakamura, but I suspect that few of you have heard of Nowotny (or "Novotny", as it is often spelled in English-language sources).
Anton Nowotny (1829-1871) doesn't even show up in the Mega2006 database (under either spelling), but he has made an important contribution to the aesthetics of our game by inventing - or rather, discovering - the problem theme now named for him. The
Nowotny is a form of Grimshaw (that helps, right?), and a Grimshaw (named for Walter Grimshaw (1832-1890)) refers to a particular interference motif. The basic idea with a
Grimshaw is that if the defender moves piece x to a certain square, in blocks the line of piece y, while if piece y moves to that square, it blocks the line of piece x. What the Nowotny adds to this is that the interference square is occupied by a White piece (in the typical problem case), so that the Black capture generates the interference.
Some examples might help, but I'll offer them in the form of problems to be solved. The solutions will come in a day or two, and by then all will be clear.
White to move, mate in two.
White to move, mate in three.
Black to move, mate in four.
