Valerian Oniţiu (also Valeriu Oniţiu) (April 8, 1872,

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

– 31 December 1948,

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

) was a

chess problem A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle created by the composer using chess pieces on a chessboard, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is t ...

ist. Oniţiu composed all types of problems particularly

fairy chess Fairy chess is the area of chess composition in which there are some changes to the rules of chess. It may involve changes to the board, pieces, or rules to express an idea or theme impossible in orthodox chess. An altered piece used in fairy ...

problems. Oniţiu has ten chess problems in

FIDE Album The FIDE Albums are publications of the world chess governing body, FIDE, via the Permanent Commission of the FIDE for Chess Compositions (PCCC), containing the best chess problems and studies of a certain period (usually three years in length). ...

s. Onitiu also did significant work on

knight's tour A knight's tour is a sequence of moves of a knight on a chessboard such that the knight visits every square exactly once. If the knight ends on a square that is one knight's move from the beginning square (so that it could tour the board again im ...

s. First in Problemist Fairy Chess Supplement (vol.1 no.12 Jun 1932 p.74) problems 452-455 he gives tours with ten three-unit lines. The editor T. R. Dawson states: "V. Onitiu writes to me that he has examined all possible cases, some 1330 in all, and is convinced that only six of them admit tours, namely Dr Hogrefe's , mine, and the following four new ones. Second in Fairy Chess Review (vol.4 no.3 Dec 1939 p.43 problem 4135, with solution in no.6 Jun 1940 p.93.) he gives a symmetric tour with squares in a knight chain. The editor states: "VO notes that he examined 144 dispositions of the squares, all that are possible for diametral symmetry, and this is the only case leading to a tour. Moreover every move of the tour is determined, so that the tour is UNIQUE in all the millions possible."

Problem

The solution of this problem is: 1.Gh3 Gh4 2.Gh5 Gh6 3.Gh7 Gh8 4.Ge7 Gd7 5.Gc7 Gb7 6.Ga7+ Ga6 7.Ga5+ Ga4 8.Ga3# This problem is a case of incidence of thematic tourney prescript problems with

grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

without limiting the number of the moves. Identical problems were sent independently by four composers at about the same time.

References

External links

Oniţiu problems
on

PDB Server This article covers computer software designed to solve, or assist people in creating or solving, chess problems – puzzles in which pieces are laid out as in a game of chess, and may at times be based upon real games of chess that have been pl ...

2005 Encyclopædia Universalis France S.A.
* Hannu Harkola (2007
Handbook of chess composition
{{DEFAULTSORT:Onitiu, Valerian Chess composers 1872 births 1948 deaths Romanian chess players People from Sibiu

Problem

References

Further reading

External links