Georges Emile Barbier * Saturday, February 24, 1844 in L'Isle-sur-le-Doubs  -  † Monday, December 17, 1895 in Ecrosville)

He was a chess composer from France. He composed numerous chess problems, but he became world famous for the Saavedra Study.

Chess
Barbier was a master-level amateur player who ran a chess column in the Weekly Citizen in Glasgow from 1886 until his death. He also won the Scottish Chess Championship in 1886.

In chess composition, Barbier primarily created chess problems. By coincidence, due to Barbier's memory impairment, he published an incorrect draw study in the Weekly Citizen in 1895, just a few months before his death. However, a reader named Fernando Saavedra discovered a winning move, which is why the composition is now known as the Saavedra Study.

Life
Barbier was born in France and worked as a French teacher in Yorkshire and London. He later taught at the Athenaeum in Glasgow. In 1893, he suffered a severe bout of influenza and, in early October 1895, cerebral palsy. He returned to France a few weeks before his death.

Barbier's birthplace was listed as Besançon by Henri Weenink in The Chess Problem, but research by John Selman revealed that no such record exists with the local authorities. Instead, the authorities in l'Isle-sur-le-Doubs confirmed that Barbier was born there, but gave only Emile as his first name. Selman stated that Barbier's father's first name was Georges, but that this did not explain why Barbier became known by the first name Georges Emile.

"THE DISCOVERY OF THE SAAVEDRA
In a legendary article in the Dutch national chess magazine for November 1940, the endgame composer and writer John Selman unearthed how the famous Saavedra position came into being, in 1895, in the chess column of a Glasgow paper, the 'Weekly Citizen'.
 When the well-known London player Potter died in March of that year, chess editor Georges Emile Barbier wrote to obituary. A few weeks later, on April 27, he published a position from one of Potter's games - remembering it wrongly, as Selman demonstrated. But precisely that was the first step to the masterpiece in study composing.
 Below, I will reproduce (for the first time as far as I know), exactly what then happened on 5 consecutive Saturdays in Barbier's chess column in the Weekly Citizen. It was a sizable column, and what you will find here are small sections of it. I've tried to make them look like the original as much as possible. I have copied the mistakes; on May 4 'the diagram above' should have read 'the diagram below', and on May 18, 'White' and 'Black' are mixed up, as Barbier himself explains a week later.

The above ending occurred in a  game played between Messrs. Potter and Fenton some years ago. In this position, the board was crowded round with spectators, and one might have overheard the words: "Draw, draw," exchanged among them. Mr. Potter asked Mr. Fenton if he would take a draw, and the latter replied in the affirmative, as he had come to the conclusion that the Pawn must be exchanged for the Rook. For example, if Black checks at Queens's third, and if White King goes to Bishop's 5, then Rook goes to Queen's 8 and the Pawn falls for the Rook; if White King moved to Knight 7, then Rook would go to Queen's second, drawing at once. After Mr. Fenton had accepted a draw, Mr. Potter asked leave to show him the way in which he could have won. We will give the solution next week.

WEEKLY CITIZEN, SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1895.

    Solution of Mr. Potter's End Game.
    Black checks at Queen's third, White King moves to Knight's fifth, being the only move to win, as if it moves to Bishop fifth, attacking the Rook, Black plays Rook to Queen's eight, occupying Queen's Bishop's eighth next move, thus drawing.
    Now Black's only chance is in keeping up his checks, at Queen's fourth, fifth, and sixth, and the White King will move homeward on the same Knight's file, avoiding the Bishop's file, till it is checked at Black's Queen's sixth, when it moves to Bishop's second, and as there are limits to the board, the Black Rook is no longer able to attack White's rear, and resigns. From this position we have formed the one on the diagram above, which exemplifies an interesting manner of drawing a game in similar positions.

WEEKLY CITIZEN, SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1895.

Solution of End Game No. 414
    Black checks at Queen's 3, 4, 5, and 6, according to White's play, who, to delay the draw, should move his King on the knight's file, reaching his Queen's Bishop's 2, attacking the Rook. Now the position is the same as that in Mr. Potter's end game, with the exception of the Black King, which, by its proximity to the White King, is enable to secure a stalemate. The White King now is at Bishop's 7. The attacked Black Rook moves to Queen's 5, and, on White queening, checks at Bishop's 5, this leaving Black no square to move on."