The Composer of the Puzzle

 

The mate-in-64 puzzle was composed by Gustavus Charles Reichhelm.  He named the puzzle "The Amazon", because it shows the power of the Queen. 

Neil Brennen is currently working on a book about Reichhelm; here is a summary of some of the information that Mr. Brennen has assembled.

 

Reichhelm lived from 1839 to 1905.  He was a prolific writer on chess, and was also a strong player.  He was twice runner-up for the United States chess championship.  

 

For an account of his 1867 match with Mackenzie for the U. S. championship, go to http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/000D_mack_reic/1867mare.shtml.  

 

For a drawing of Reichhelm, go to http://www.chessarch.com/museum/draw/01_reichhelm.shtml.

 

Reichhelm was a chess columnist for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin from 1860 to 1870, and published about 2000 games in that column.   Some of his other writing positions can be summarized as follows:

 

The Chess Weekly (editor) 1871-1872

Columnist, The Intelligencer 1872-1877

Brentano's Chess Monthly, (editor)1881

Columnist, Philadelphia Times 1880-1900

American Chess Magazine (frequent contributor) 1897-1899

Columnist, North American 1900-1905

 

In 1898, he published the book Chess in Philadelphia (co-written with Walter Penn Shipley).   To see information about this book, go to http://www.chessmate.com/gallery.html, and then use Edit, Find for Reichhelm.

 

Some further games by Reichhelm can be found in the article "A Note on Notation",  by Neil Brennen, at http://www.ccn.correspondencechess.com/.  (Here, go to archive, issue 30.)