Gone Too Soon: Exploring the Unfinished Chess Legacy of Dr S. Manikumar
In India’s flourishing chess landscape, problemists — those visionary architects and meticulous decoders of artistic chessboard enigmas — remain a rarefied, quietly luminous enclave of creativity. Yet fate, in its merciless arbitrariness, has dealt this already dwindling cohort a blow from which it may never fully recover. Dr Solaiappan Manikumar bridged two worlds that rarely meet: the fragile realm of life he safeguarded as a physician, and the intricate, quixotic universe of chess problems he illuminated as a composer and solver. His untimely passing has left both spheres irrevocably diminished. This article is a humble tribute to Dr Manikumar’s brilliance and an effort to preserve his memory through the creations he left behind. Taken from us at just 45, far too soon, it forms the opening chapter of a legacy left unfinished.
A Loss Beyond Measure...
The date was 18 August, a morning that began like any other. Dr Manikumar was making his way to Chengalpattu Government Medical College and Hospital, accompanied by a friend, a paediatric surgeon, along the familiar two-kilometre stretch from the railway station to the hospital — a journey he had undertaken countless times before. Yet on that ill-fated day, what had always been a routine passage to work was to become the setting of a shattering tragedy. Without warning, a Kalpakkam-bound government bus mounted the pavement, striking the two medics before crashing into a private bus. Dr Praveen Kumar, accompanied by twenty other pedestrians, sustained grievous injuries and was rushed to the ICU of Chengalpattu Government Hospital. Dr Manikumar, however, was denied even that fleeting chance; he succumbed on impact.
By all accounts, Dr Manikumar was a neonatologist of exceptional calibre, tending tirelessly to the sickest and most vulnerable infants, often from the poorest of families. Away from the wards, however, this soft-spoken man had, over the years, quietly cultivated another remarkable gift: the artful and subtle craft of composing chess problems. He was, without question, one of the brightest lights of India’s next generation of chess composers.
Manikumar began his journey as a solver in the 1990s, turning to serious composition only around 2015, after being introduced to the seniors of the field — C.G.S. Narayanan, Kalyan Seetharaman, N. Shankaram, S.K. Balasubramanian, and others. His special passion lay in the genre of helpmates — both orthodox and fairy — which became the hallmark of his oeuvre. In this realm, he revealed an imagination that was at once rigorous and playful, deftly balancing the technical precision the form demanded with a creative spark that made his work distinctive. Yet Manikumar was no specialist in the narrow sense: he explored other genres as well, approaching each with the same curiosity and dedication that marked all his endeavours.
While Dr Manikumar’s presence is no longer with us, his creativity endures on the chessboard. The problems he composed — fastidious, elegant and suffused with subtlety — live on as a lasting testament to a mind that balanced precision with imagination. To honour him, we now present three orthodox directmates created in collaboration with fellow problemists, gathered on a single sheet for download. Take a quiet hour to attempt each before turning to the solutions, for it is in the solving that you will find more of him than in the answers.
Detailed Solutions:
S. Manikumar, K. Seetharaman, K.R.Chandrasekaran; The Problemist, 2018
The B+P battery along a1–e5 naturally draws attention. To set it off, the bishop on c4 must give way. This points to the tempting try 1.Bd3?, carrying the threat of 2.Re4#. Black can defend only by moving the knight on d5, allowing the queen on c6 to control e4; however, a random move of the bN, such as 1...Nb6, runs into the battery-mate 2.c4#. The true refutation is 1...Nf6!, which not only guards e4 but also opens a flight (e6) for the bK, cutting off White’s rook on h6. Therefore, the bishop on c4 must stay put, maintaining its x-ray grip on e6.
Having seen why 1.Bd3 fails, we consider a second try: 1.Nh4?, threatening 2.Nf3#. Once again, Black can defend only by moving the knight on d5, allowing the queen on c6 to cover f3. Almost every knight move now is met with a precise answer: 1...Nc7 2.Nxc6#; 1...Nf6 2.Neg6# or 2.Nhg6#; 1...Nb6, 1...Nxe7, or 1...Ne3 2.Re6#; 1...Nb4+ 2.cxb4#; and 1...Nxc3+ 2.Bxc3#. The exception is 1...Nf4!, which not only guards against the threat but also grants the bK an escape square (e4), cutting off White’s rook on g4 — just as in the first try, where the rook on h6 was cut off.
With the failures of 1.Bd3 and 1.Nh4 in mind, we finally arrive at the actual key: 1.Ng3!; threatening 2.Re4#, it forms a clever middle ground between the two tempting tries, blending their ideas while avoiding their pitfalls. What follows is a textbook demonstration of Black Correction:
Any random move of the bN allows Bc4 to assert control over e6 — what we may call the primary error — leading to 2.Re6#. The reply 1...Nc7 corrects this primary error by guarding e6, but in doing so it produces a secondary weakness: the queen on c6 is left unprotected, allowing 2.Nxc6#. Similarly, 1...Nf4 and 1...Nf6 are also correction moves, preventing Re6#, but both incur secondary self-block defects, resulting in 2.Rg5# and 2.Ng6#. Finally, the checks 1...Nb4+ and 1...Nxc3+, again acting as corrections, are countered by 2.cxb4# and 2.Bxc3#, respectively, with the a1-bishop coming into play to complete the picture.
A masterful problem, full of subtle points, by the trio of Indian composers!
S. Manikumar, C.G.S. Narayanan; Belgrade Internet Tourney 2017, 1st Prize
On g5, White’s queen is like a dam, restraining three black pieces at once — Rg7, Bh6, and Rh5. With the key 1.Qf6!, the barrier is lifted and all three are freed. The threat is 2.Qf3#, which Black seeks to parry by using the newly opened lines, producing the following variations:
1...Rxc5+ 2.Nxc5#
1...Bxd2+ 2.Nxd2#
1...Rf5 2.Qd4#
1...Rxg3 2.Nxg3#
1...Be3 2.Rxe3#
1...Bf4 2.Qxf4#
The Belgrade Internet Tourney 2017 required the key move to open lines for black pieces. This two-mover met the challenge with luminous clarity, letting Black exploit the opened lines in as many as six variations — enough to convince judge Marjan Kovačević to award it the top honour.
S. Manikumar, C.G.S. Narayanan; SuperProblem 2020, 1st Prize
Two tries quickly suggest themselves to the solver: 1.Ra8?, threatening to move the wK off the a-file and deliver mate, and 1.Qh4?, aiming for 2.Qh1#. Both are refuted by opening the h8-queen: 1...Bh7! neutralises the first, and 1...Nxf6! the second.
One may also consider moving the knight on d2, for instance 1.Nf3, to set up 2.Rd1#, but Black again replies 1...Nxf6, unpinning the bPb2, so that 2.Rd1+ can now be met with 2...b1=Q. This failure, however, hints at the key: if wBf6 retreats along the long diagonal, then a move of the knight on d2, clearing the way for Rd1#, becomes a genuine threat.
The halfway measures 1.Be5? and 1.Bd4? are dismissed at once, failing to 1...f6! and 1...e5! respectively. The solution, indeed, is to withdraw the bishop all the way: 1.Bc3!. As noted above, this threatens 2.Nf3 (alternatively, 2.Nde4 or 2.Nf1) followed by 3.Rd1#. Black can defend only by opening a line for the h8-queen — yet each such attempt simultaneously shuts another of her lines, handing White a new road to mate:
1...Ne8 opens the h8–c3 diagonal but closes h8–a8, allowing 2.Ra8! followed by mate with the wK stepping to b8 or b7.
1...Bh7 opens the h8–a8 diagonal but closes h8–h1, so 2.Qh4! with the threat of 3.Qh1# is decisive; 2...g2, intending to guard h1, runs into 3.Qe1#.
1...Nf6 opens the h8–h1 diagonal but closes h8–c3, enabling 2.Na4!, after which 3.Bxb2# is inevitable.
A move that opens one line while closing another for the same line-moving piece is known as a valve. Here, three black pieces operate like valves, their interplay weaving an exquisite cycle as the bQ’s lines open and close in turn.
About the genesis of this fine three-mover, IM N Shankar Ram relates:
The theme was for the 245th theme tourney of the Russian online magazine SuperProblem. CGSN found the initial matrix but was unable to complete the problem and invited all of us to attempt it. We all tried but were unsuccessful. It was Mani who succeeded in producing the final setting. The problem went on to win first prize and was later selected for the FIDE Album.
...And that concludes the first part of our tribute to Dr Manikumar; the next instalment will celebrate the form he held closest to his heart: the helpmate.