Edwin David Grivans (*  06.04.1931  –   † 31.10.2008)

Chess composer

Memoris

"On 31 October 2008 last year, the ‘Latvian Die Schwalbe’ Edwin David Grivans died in Jurmala. The Grivans family lived in Riga until the turmoil of the Second World War and then fled to
Germany to a small town near the Swiss border, ‘where the war passed us by almost unnoticed’ (E. D. G. in a letter addressed to Edgar [Holladay] in March 1997, to which I also added further biographical data of the deceased).
further biographical details of the deceased). From here, Edwin attended the Latvian grammar school about 35 kilometres away. After the war, he worked for some time for the US Army
US Army stationed in Germany before moving to Chicago in 1957, where he worked for a German company until the end of his career.
of his professional life for a German company. In 2003, he moved with his wife Hilda
to his home country, near Riga.

Edwin learnt to play chess at home and cultivated it a little during his time at grammar school. It was here that he first came into contact with chess problems. He remembers how
a three-move chess problem, the solution of which fascinated him deeply (W. Greenwood, Ill. London
News, 1859, Kf6 Te2 e4 Lf3 Sd5-Kd3,Bd7, 1.Lh1! 2.Tg2) and which triggered in him a lifelong interest
interest in the chess problem. With a classmate who, like him, had spent a long time in a sanatorium with a mild case of tuberculosis
tuberculosis, he solved the chess problems in a chess magazine and then began to solve them himself
himself - without any knowledge of theory - to construct problems just for his own amusement
and as solving fodder for his friend. He soon came across an anthology of chess puzzles from
year 1898 (presumably the: Sammlung von Schachaufgaben. Vierter Teil, Hg. Von Hermann v. Gottschall, Leipzig 1898. G. M.), so that he could study the compositions of well-known authors.
authors. Much later, in the course of time, he built up his own large chess library (in addition to his extensive library in many other fields).
areas) and carefully compiled and analysed many chess problems according to various criteria.

His preference was for the traditional
(three-move) problems with a good key and surprising play close to the game, also the (Bohemian) miniatures. Recently, he has been working on auxiliary mates and the question of whether these can also be
‘Logical’ (in the sense of this school) can be structured. From 1970 to 1973 he edited the
problem section of the Latvian chess magazine Šacha Pasaule (SchachWelt) (published in the USA?), in which his cute two-mover (1) appeared. According to Edwin's own estimation, he has only
two dozen ‘presentable’ exercises - he saw himself ‘only’ as an ‘enthusiast for all
times’.

I had been in contact with Edwin by letter for a long time and after his return to Latvia we planned to finally visit each other. In the summer of 2007, my girlfriend and I were able
a wonderful time in the extremely hospitable house of the Grivans, and a year later (during the
51st World Congress of Chess Composition in Jurmala in 2008) I was their guest again. I will never forget the ¯
visit to the Latvian problem composer Imants Dulbergs, who had just published the anthology They left
their mark - Prominent Latvian chess composers, and at the end of the congress
the meeting with Sally and Tony Lewis, the treasurer of the British Problem Chess Association, and the English problem composer Christopher Jones.

A return visit to Germany was planned, and it was with great anticipation that Edwin
studied tourist brochures and many specialised maps of his ‘rescue country’ with his usual thoroughness. However, Edwin wanted to undergo a necessary heart operation in Riga first. On the morning
31 October, he suffered a fatal heart attack during a walk. At the funeral service
on 7 November in Sloka was attended by the well-known Latvian problem composer Andris Virtmanis."

by Godehard Murkisch (Göttingen) FEBRUAR 2009, HEFT 235; Die Schwalbe