Dedicated to the
Committee, Judges & Umpire
of the Era Problem Tournament
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Mate in four moves
by Conrad Bayer, Vienna
J. LÖWENTHAL
SELECTED PROBLEMS FROM THE
ERA PROBLEM TOURNAMENT
[857]
An Electronic Edition
Anders Thulin, Malmö · 2005-05-6
Dedicated to the
Committee, Judges, and Umpire
of the Era Problem Tournament
by their obliged servant,
J. Löwenthal
3
PREFACE
At the end of the year 855, the idea presented itself to my mind of get-
ting up a Problem Tournament in connection with the Era newspaper,
of which I had become the Chess Editor; and on the 30th of December,
in that year, I published the conditions under which problem compos-
ers might enter into competition for the prize of an ivory set of Staun-
ton Chessmen, to be given by me. It was part of the plan I had formed
to leave the competitors as free and unembarrassed as possible, and
therefore the conditions laid down were very few and simple. They pro-
vided only that each competitor should send in six problems, bearing
some mark or motto corresponding to that on a sealed envelope, con-
taining copies of the problems and the name of the composer, and that
none of the compositions should be either conditional or suicidal. By
this limitation of regulations I proposed to effect two objects—the one
to allow each composer to follow the bent of his peculiar genius, and
thus to insure the greatest chance of obtaining the best productions;
the other to ascertain the direction taken by those minds which at the
present day occupy themselves with the problem branch of Chess.
As I am by habit and inclination a Chess-player rather than a com-
poser or solver of problems, it was necessary for me to obtain assist-
ance in order to carry out my design, and the obvious step was to form
a Committee for the management of the Tournament. It was essential
that that Committee should possess two requisites—first, reputation
for such an amount of ski