Philip Julius Count van Zuylen van Nyevelt (05.01.1743-20.02.1826)

Chess composer

A further look back takes us to Philip Julius Count van Zuylen van Nyevelt (05.01.1743-20.02.1826), born 275 years ago, who can probably be described as the founding father of Dutch problem composition. He lived around the same time as Elias Stein (1748-1812; see issue 257), who came from the French cultural sphere, while Zuylen van Nyevelt occupied an important position within the Napoleonic era as a general and later State Councillor and Commander-in-Chief of the Dutch troops. In addition to chess, he also turned his attention to other areas; an astronomical work by him was published in the year of his death. In his earlier (1792) chess book (the first original Dutch one) entitled La supériorité des échecs mise à la porté de tout le monde, et particulièrement des dames qui aiment cet amusement (titled “Het Schaak”-spel for short in Dutch), he published the first Dutch chess problems. As a tribute to the fairer sex, the General galant used a chessboard in which the pieces were depicted in a graceful manner. But despite the style of representation, the work contains a serious contribution to the development of the game, which William Lewis later took up and transferred from the Dutch count's work into his Elements of the Game of Chess (1822).

Source: Die Schwalbe