Břetislav Soukup Bardon (Czechoslovakia,* Tuesday 23.03.1909 -  † Tuesday 01.10.1985)

Chess composer and study composer of Prague and international referee for composition.

Life. He was born on a Tuesday and also died on a Tuesday.

Compositions

He composed in his life more than 140 chess studies and about 80 chess problems

He stood out as a theoretician in the clarification of certain singular endings, especially that of two horses against pawns.

He was International Judge of the FIDE for chess compositions since 1957

 Czech article from Zach 

"In 1982 I started to regularly solve chess problems – three-move problems, which were presented to the readers of the daily newspaper Lidová demokracie in the problem section of the chess section by master Břetislav Soukup-Bardon every week, the game part was managed by master František Pithart. These were often very difficult problems, which he presented in his “world selection”, and over which I spent many days before I successfully solved them. Sometimes, however, I overlooked a hidden defense in the problem and my solution was wrong.

During 1984, I visited master Soukup-Bardon by prior arrangement regarding some chess problem. He lived in Prague 3 at Sudoměřská No. 13, which was not far from my then residence at Lucemburská No. 22. I entered the house (at that time the houses did not lock) and took the elevator to the 4th floor. After ringing the bell, a tall man opened the door for me, whose figure at first glance filled the entire doorway. This momentary optical illusion was caused by two large wardrobes that filled about 2/3 of the entrance hall of the apartment. In order to enter further into the apartment, I had to turn my body axis by 90° and move sideways. I found myself in a single room – a studio apartment (the apartment had central heating and also included a bathroom with a toilet).

The studio apartment was overflowing with antique furniture and objects, so I sat down on the only free chair. The master offered me coffee, but I declined with gratitude. He prepared the coffee in a cezve. A cezve is a copper vessel with a tin lining inside that narrows from the bottom up and is used to prepare coffee. He had endured good, high-quality coffee, no “Turk” in Czech, where ground coffee beans are poured with boiling water. He made his cigarettes at home using a small machine (a so-called cigarette packer) in which there was cigarette paper, he spread tobacco on it, and by moving the lever of the machine, the cigarette was rolled.

Once he discussed with me the possibility of buying a refrigerator, but there was no room for it in the apartment. I suggested (it was tactless of me) to place the refrigerator instead of the human-sized suit of armor that stood in the corner of the room. However, he did not agree to this and as a result, he never bought a refrigerator.

I can still see the huge layer of putty on the window sill of the window that was on the west side, facing the courtyard, and with which he protected himself from leaks.

There were several such visits to the master, he often talked about certain periods of his life. He added the name Bardon to the name Soukup after his wife, who had that name when she was a maid. However, he had divorced her a long time ago, perhaps in the late 1950s or early 1960s. He even had me read the court verdict of their divorce. He was going back in his memories to his life, it was a kind of "retrograde analysis" of his, to use a term familiar from compositional chess. Another time he complained to me that Jiříček (his son) had not visited him for a long time, and his daughter had not visited him at all. An aging man who lived alone would be most pleased by the presence of his closest friends – his children.

I also once asked him which of our problem-solvers he considered to be the greatest phenomenon in compositional chess. The master's answer: "It was the work of Josef Moravec that made a deep impression on me."

Soukup-Bardon composed over 230 pieces, 150 of which were studies. In his studies, he dealt with the ending K + 2J against K + pawn. He is the author of several professional articles and has also written a book about chess, in which he introduces compositional chess in addition to practical chess. For 30 years he led the chess column in Lidová demokracia until his death.

The last farewell to master B. Soukup-Bardon took place in the crematorium in Prague-Strašnice. Only my mother was present for us, I was on vacation in the Soviet Union at the time.

I remember master Břetislav Soukup-Bardon as a kind and good person who was happy to advise and help. I keep a bright memory of this man in my heart." Tomáš Zach, Podbrdské noviny č. 23 / 13.12.2012

 Selection of his endgame studies

On the Dutch Website arves.org 12 endgame studies composed by master Břetislav Soukup-Bardon are selected by Mario Guido García

Source: schachstudienkomponisten.fandom.com