Walter Bähr

Walter Bähr (Germany, 1905 - 1986).

was a theorist of chess endgames, chess composer and chess player. Little is known about the dates of his life; he was living in Gottenheim in 1932.

Endgame theorist

Walter Bähr is one of the few chess players whose name has found its way into endgame theory.

In chess magazines and textbooks on endgames (see for example Juri Awerbach or Karsten Müller and Frank Lamprecht), the so-called Bähr's rule is explained for positions with blocked marginal pawns, whose namesake is Walter Bähr.

In his monograph Opposition and Critical Squares in the Pawn Endgame, published in 1936, Bähr gave a very comprehensive description of the fundamentals of the method of opposite squares in the pawn endgame as a result of his research carried out between 1930 and 1935.

Chess composition
In the 1930s, Bähr published some of his studies in local newspapers and magazines, mainly in the Freiburg area. The publication of his chess compositions extends to the years between 1932 and 1940.

He composed two-move, three-move and multi-move pieces, some of which appeared in the Freiburger Zeitung.

The famous Albrecht collection of two-move chess problems contains four entries by Walter Bähr. Three appeared in the Mainfränkische Zeitung on 22 August 1936. There is even a self-mate miniature by him.

Chess player

In the commemorative publication of the Baden Chess Association, Bähr's name can be found in the table of the chess tournament held on the occasion of the 14th (1st) congress of the now Baden Chess Association, which took place in Heidelberg from 7-10 September 1933. Bähr, Freiburg, had finished 2nd-5th in the main tournament.

Bähr apparently played in the Freiburg chess club. The Freiburger Zeitung reported on a spectacular blindfold chess game and published one of his games as well as an analysed pawn ending from one of his games.

Bähr was one of the six winners in Bogoljubow's simultaneous presentation on 15 January 1935 in the Kopf coffee house in Freiburg.

Works
Walter Bähr:

Opposition and critical squares in the pawn ending. Self-published, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1936

Individual references
 Sinar, Michail: Peschetschny endschpil "dwe protiw odnoj" . in: Schachmatny, Bulletin, 1982, pages 8-11 and 17 (Russian)
 Awerbach, Juri: Pawn endgames. Sportverlag, Berlin, 1988, page 113 ff. ISBN 3-328-00236-7.
 Müller, Karsten; Lamprecht, Frank: Secrets of Pawn Endings. Everyman Chess, London, 2000, ISBN 1-85744-255-5 (English)
 See for example Juri Awerbach: Lehrbuch der Schachendspiele. Sportverlag Berlin, 4th edition 1979 - Awerbach writes there: "The analyst W. Bähr formulated a rule as early as 1936 which makes it easier to judge such positions." The "Bähr's rule" is then explained.
 Lauterbach, Werner: All about chess in Baden (documents, facts and memories on the anniversary 1910-1985). Page 21
 Freiburger Zeitung, 17 September 1933, page 20.
 Freiburger Zeitung, 20 January 1935, page 15.

Weblinks;
Compositions by Walter Bähr on the Schwalbe PDB server

Source: Germain Wikipedia

Others: On the Dutch Website ARVES by Peter Boll are 32 endgame studies (all are pawn endgames) with solution by Bär selected.