Milu Milescu

Milu Milescu (also Milu Augutstein; * 11 November 1911 in Romania; † 6 November 1981 in Ramla) was a Romanian-born Israeli chess composer and author of chess literature.

Milescu's main merit was undoubtedly his decades-long activity as a chess publicist. In his articles, he mainly focussed on the similarities between practical play and chess composition. In his opinion, chess motifs such as fortresses, pawn breakthroughs, captures or move exchanges are relevant for followers of both styles of chess.

As a friend of Kurt Richter, he collaborated on his books and the Deutsche Schachblätter. From 1930 to 1949, he was publisher and main editor of the Romanian magazine Revista Română de Șah. From 1962, he worked on the editorial team of the magazine Shahmat. Milescu was also a member of the editorial board of the Deutsche Schachzeitung.

FIDE appointed Milescu as International Arbiter for Chess Composition in 1964

Milescu completed a degree in pharmacy at the University of Bucharest in 1936. He emigrated to Israel in 1961. Milu Milescu died a few days before his 70th birthday.

"Milu Milescu (1911 – 1981) was a highly respected chess author and editor. For several decades he had written interesting and instructive columns in which he demonstrated the close relation between games and compositions. A chess theme, like a fortress, breakthrough, pin or loss of a move – argued Milu – could arise in either a composed study, a problem, or a practical battle. By learning a theme from the artistic form of chess, one could implement it in his games, or vice versa. Publishing his pieces in the Romanian "Revista Română de Șah", The German "Deutsche Schachzeitung", the French "Europe Echecs" and in his last twenty years, also in the Israeli monthly "Shahmat", Milescu had become a great popularizer of chess art to generations of chess enthusiasts. His book, "Das 1x1 des Endspiels" (written jointly with Hans-Hilmar Staudte; published by De Gruyter, 1965) is occasionally cited by leading authors even today. In the passing years, there have been several attempts in Israel to renew the trend of his columns, for instance by the present author, by Yochanan Afek, Alon Greenfeld and Yaacov Peleg. This attests to the loss we all felt when he departed. "

Works
Hans-Hilmar Staudte and Milu Milescu: Das 1x1 des Endspiels, 3rd edition 2007; ISBN 3-88805-486-9 and ISBN 978-3-88805-486-0
Milu Milescu: Sigmund Herland: Problèmes Choisis. 1962

Source: de.wikipedia.org