150 Endgame Studies

Leonid Kubbel (1891, St.Petersburg – 1942, Leningrad) was one of those who founded modern artistic study and, perhaps, the most prominent composer of the 1st third of 20th century. He produced 2784 works altogether, both studies and problems, in all styles and genres. The most characteristic for his creative work was his deep feeling of culmination in his studies. Therefore his compositions are always attractive and often are used as bright methodical examples. L. Kubbel discovered many original ideas, the most important are discovered attack, favorable exchange, queen sacrifice for enticing purposes. He was first in decoy in fighting with one piece against three, opportunities for combinations in the middlegame, echo-motives. White or black queen is often the main hero of his studies. A particular place in his legacy belongs to stalemate combinations, in which he is still incomparable with other composers. He discovered many stalemate positions and tricks, like a stalemate after moving away from the attacked black piece, or a stalemate with a pin after Black’s zugzwang. His main preoccupation was the investigation and discover the principles that govern the beauty in studies, combinational sense of single moves that form a logical consequence on the background of impressive and dramatically fight.