Barry Barnes memorial lecture - a lecture given by David Shire at the e-weekend on April 25th 2025.
What follows is a summary of the problems presented by David Shire in his lecture entitled Barry — Personal reflections. (As webmaster I take credit for any mis-transcriptions, if you notice any then please let me know.)
A – Barry Barnes
1st Prize ea Die Schwalbe 1957
Mate in 2
In 1959 Michael Lipton contributed an article to Problem entitled Perpetual Revolution – The British Two-mover. He wrote of A “In my opinion the finest example of threat correction ever made... it was composed in complete ignorance of the theme.” Barry was 19 years old at the time and we all concur that this was an extraordinary achievement for one “still serving his apprenticeship”. In 2015 Barry visited Canterbury to discuss the final details of his collected works. I suggested several trivial improvements to a number of his un-awarded problems and these he was very willing to adopt. I suggested that 1.Bc6? Qxf2! was a poor refutation to kick-start the solution of A and I asked for his thoughts about B.
B – Barry Barnes
Version of A.
Mate in 2
The bQ and a bP have been saved but 1.Bc6? d5 2.Qxd5 had been lost. This reconstruction was motivated by a desire to replace the rough refutation with the more subtle 1.Bc6? d5! Furthermore 1.Qc8?/1.Qd7? (>2.Sg4) 1...h5! fits in well with the thematic play and extracts extra value from wSh2. Barry certainly saw merit in this but he had a concern. A had been reproduced may times across the chess problem world and on that account he felt that he should not use B in his collected works.
C – Barry Barnes
1st Comm Die Schwalbe 1962
Mate in 2
D – Barry Barnes
Version of C.
Mate in 2
The solution is unchanged from that of C. The sole function of wSf2 in C was to guard e4 after the flight giving key and this is a huge clue to the solver. In D wSf2 necessarily guards both e4 and d3 and Barry considered this detail to be worth the extra bP. However, C had been heralded across the problem world as most possibly the first rendering of an ideal Dombrovskis. Given the well documented nature of C, Barry thought it best that D should be sidelined. He was fond of saying that “this was what he did at the time” (ie before easy computer checking of various versions).
E – Barry Barnes
1st Prize Bob Burger 70 JT
Mate in 2
F – Barry Barnes
3rd Prize Problemist of Ukraine
Mate in 2
G – Barry Barnes
Problemist Supplement 2013
Mate in 2
H – Barry Barnes
The Problemist 2003
Mate in 2
I – Barry Barnes
The Problemist 2003
Mate in 2
J – Barry Barnes
Zadachi i Etudi 2002 Sp. Prize Erokhin MT
Mate in 2
K – David Shire
The Problemist 2019
Mate in 2
This problem, K, was heavily criticised by a BCPS member who emailed 15 versions that purported to improve my setting. I was irritated by this and Barry, who was aware of what was going on, intervened with dramatic effect. He followed this up with a supportive comment that was selected for publication by our solutions editor. I recount this episode as a demonstration of Barry's authority and friendship!
L – Barry Barnes
Die Schwalbe 2023
Mate in 2
M – Alfreds Dombrovskis
Vecherny Leningrad
Mate in 2
Barry's last composing interest was to investigate the single and double jumps of a black pawn on the 7th rank. I sent him this diagram in the hope that it might trigger more thoughts. He enjoyed analysing this problem but, alas, by this time he had insufficient reserves of energy left to tempt him "to get his pieces out of the box" for a final effort.
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