Boris Nikolayevich Sidorov

Борис Николаевич Сидоров (31-08-1937 - 06-08-2008) Russian chess composer (Boris Nikolayevich Sidorov)

He was a very talented endgame study composer.

A quick search fails to locate a photo of the well known fluent composer from Apsheronsk in the south of Russia. Over 200 of his endgame studies figure on the HvdH CD, but as three originals are in Zadachy i Etyudy 46 that carries a brief obituary he was composing right up to his sad and sudden departure. Most information about him is in an article in Shakhmatnaya kompozitsia 77 two years ago, by his fellow Apsheronskian Georgy Kochetov. From this we learn that Sidorov was born in Prokopievsk, had a secondary education, and gained a living repairing sewing machines. He was an active sportsman, what with cycling and keeping fit with dumb-bells and weights, while he also composed verses (many were published), and participated in five Odessa festivals – so there must be photos of him somewhere. We know nothing more of his private life. Sidorov’s versatility as a study composer – he also composed problems – is shown by the wide variety of associates he happily and successfully composed alongside. Many of his positions have a natural air, but he was never averse to bottling up a king of either colour with a barrier of pawns in order to set a piquant geometrical or underpromotion notion that bore no relation to the over-the-board game.

Endgame studies on Internet: On the Dutch Website arves.org 20 endgame studies composed by him can be replayed.

About the picture: made 1986

Source: arves.org