166
SELECTED CHESS COMPOSITIONS BY
FREDERICK T. HAWES (1886–1963)
FOREWORD The eminent Australian problemist Frederick Thomas Hawes was born at Ryde, a suburb of Sydney, on 29 March 1886, and died in Lithgow NSW on 19 April 1963. The following facsimile reproduction of an undated typed manuscript comprises sundry preliminary materials that precede 166 of Frederick Hawes’s chess compositions chosen from an estimated total of around 1000. Hawes selected the problems and assembled the document himself some time during the late 1950s (I deduce – this assumption being based upon the publication date [12 December 1955] of the newspaperclipping herein taken from the Lithgow Mercury, and the fact that none of the positions apparently made their début in print after 1945). It is an interesting tale regarding just how Fred Hawes’s hitherto-unknown manuscript came to light (as recently as February 2009!): Geoff Foster, who is currently preparing an article about Hawes, contacted Bob Meadley for assistance in tracking down Hawes’s problems; Bob, in turn, telephoned Mrs Amy Ellerington – Fred Hawes’s youngest daughter, now aged 87, and still residing in Lithgow – who unearthed an old manilla folder from her garage and posted its precious contents to Bob. A digital scan of it was then made by Bob; my only rôle has been to ‘crop’ each of the images and compile this PDF e-book from them which, for the sake of posterity, Mrs Ellerington has graciously given me permission to disseminate freely on the Internet. Now a brief word about this e-book’s contents, which are introduced by an explanatory letter from Mrs Ellerington to Bob Meadley (note that a second Hawes manuscript, of joint compositions with Frank Ravenscroft – another giant from Australia’s chess-problemistic past – is mentioned therein). I have taken the liberty of inserting, straight after the Lithgow Mercury article and letter from Buckingham House, the relevant pages scanned from the April 1954 issue of Chess World which feature Hawes’s and Ravenscroft’s ‘royal problems’. Hawes’s manuscript also contained an incomplete carbon copy of a typed text originating from Chess World, August 1951: I have replaced this with a scan direct from the source itself – an envoi (somewhat premature, as it turned out!) written by Dr J. J. O’Keefe celebrating Fred Hawes’s many decades of wonderful editorial service. As for the bulk of this e-book, the compositions themselves, Hawes has segregated them into four sections: (i) 88 ≠2s; (ii) 44 ≠3s; (iii) 20 longer direct-mates (up to ≠6); and (iv) 14 “fantasias” – direct-mate ‘eccentricities’, selfmates and studies, together with a solitary helpmate-in-2. I shall leave the reader to saviour and evaluate Fred Hawes’s efforts for himself, without further commentary. Dr Ian Shanahan, Sydney, 29 March 2009. (Frederick Thomas Hawes’s 123rd birthday!)
