We remember Harold Lommer who passed away on December 17th, 1980.

Harold Maurice Lommer was born on Friday, November 18th 1904 in Islington, London to German parents. Curiously his birth entry was missing from the original record and has been inserted manually as an after-thought. Anyone know the reason for this?

He left England aged 4 in 1908 to live in Switzerland and returned to England in 1926.

In the 1939 Census Harold was a resident at 16a Gwendwr Road, Barons Court, Hammersmith, London.

According to the census record HML was living in a household of three persons and his occupation was that of Foreign Correspondent.

In 1949 Harold married Valija S Linkuns in Fulham.

He died in Valencia, Provincia de València, Valenciana, Spain.

From The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld :

“International Judge of Chess Compositions (1958), International Arbiter (1962), International Master for Chess Compositions (1974), the greatest British study composer. Born in Islington of German parentage, he moved to Switzerland when he was four and returned to England 18 years later.

Inspired in his youth by the Saavedra study, he became the leading specialist on promotion tasks, and in 1933 was the first to show allumwandlung in a study, which Rinck had declared was impossible. Lommer also showed in studies six consecutive promotions to rooks (1935) and a minimal with concurrent promotions to queen, bishop, and knight.

After the Second World War he became proprietor of a Soho club, where players and composers often met; in 1949 the club organized a small international tournament, won by Bernstein, Lommer retired in 1961 and went to live in Valencia, where he died.

In 1939 Lommer and the English player Maurice A. Sutherland (d.1954), who backed the project, published 1,234 Modern End-game Studies. In 1975 Lommer compiled a sequel, 1,357 End-game Studies. These two collections, catholic in taste, made by a composer who was above all an artist, have become standard works. Besides his studies, the best of which are in these books, he composed fairy problems.”

From The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale 1970&1976), Anne Sunnucks :

“FIDE Judge of Endgame Studies since 1958. Born on 18th November 1904 in London, Harold Lommer’s parents were German and he was educated mainly in Switzerland. Since the late 1950s he has lived in Spain. He has composed about 1000 endgame studies and is joint author with MA Sutherland, of the anthology 1234 Modern End-Game Studies, published in 1938. He is particularly well-known for his under-promotion tasks, but would prefer to be known for his other work as well.

For some 10 years up to 1957, he was joint owner and manager of the Mandrake Club in Soho, London, used by many well-known chess players, journalists and theatre personalities.”

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjcv9XGJGJI[/embedyt]

From British Chess Magazine, Volume CI (101, 1981), Number 3 (March), pp. 86-88 we have this obituary from CM Bent :

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWZVnZ801a4[/embedyt]

[pgn]
[Event “Geneva : Blindfold simul”]
[Site “Geneve”]
[Date “1925.10.01”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Alekhine, Alexander”]
[Black “Lommer, Harold”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “D13”]
[Annotator “Edward Winter”]
[PlyCount “89”]
[EventDate “1925.??.??”]
[EventType “simul”]
[EventRounds “1”]
[EventCountry “SUI”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,89,19,31,19,-16,26,36,27,16,24,28,46,37,31,22,50,37,53,50,47,54,56,24,
45,43,43,29,60,27,64,42,35,35,58,27,34,58,96,101,101,-11,-13,-44,53,54,130,160,
141,41,41,-193,-191,-373,-189,-357,-174,-206,-289,-265,-261,-133,-160,-172,
-155,-155,4,582,29995,0,0,0,75,45,45,0,16,0,0,29,26,0,0,0,0,0,0,-145,0,0,0,
-178]} {This game is discussed by Edward Winter in Kings, Commoners and Knaves
: Further Chess Explorations, Russell Enterprises, Inc. pp.72-3.} 1. d4 d5 2.
c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 cxd5 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. e3 e6 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Bd3 Bd7 9. h3
Rc8 10. O-O O-O 11. Ne5 Nxe5 12. dxe5 Ne8 13. Qb3 b6 14. Rad1 Bc5 15. Ne2 Qe7
16. Nd4 Nc7 17. Qc2 h6 18. Qe2 f5 19. exf6 Qxf6 20. Bg3 e5 21. Nb3 Rfe8 22. e4
Bc6 23. Nxc5 bxc5 24. f4 c4 25. fxe5 cxd3 26. Rxd3 Qe7 27. Rc3 Bb7 28. Qh5 dxe4
29. Bh4 Qd7 30. Rg3 Re6 31. Bf6 Ne8 32. Qxh6 Rc7 33. Bxg7 Nxg7 {[#]} 34. Rxg7+
({Alekhine failed to find} 34. Rf8+ Kxf8 35. Qh8+ Ke7 36. Rxg7#) 34… Qxg7 35.
Qxe6+ Rf7 36. Rf6 Qf8 37. Rg6+ Kh7 38. Rg4 Kh8 39. Rh4+ Rh7 40. Rxh7+ Kxh7 41.
Qd7+ Qg7 42. e6 e3 43. Qd3+ Kh8 44. Qd8+ Kh7 45. Qd3+ 1/2-1/2
[/pgn]

Harold Maurice Lommer (18-XI-1904, 17-XII-1980)