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Lorenz Hansen 16 Feb 1912, Fri Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) Newspapers.com
Lorenz Hansen 28 May 1911, Sun Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com
LORENZ HANSEN.
Chess Problem Composer and Critic.
Those problematists who have been fortunate enough to win their way into the friendship of the subject of this sketch have an unfailing and entertaining correspondent. His remarks are pithy and humorous, as one would expect who prides himself as a judge of humanity, observes the merry twinkle in the photograph and appreciates the years of good nature that put it there.
Mr. Hansen was 60 years of age when this photo was taken, and that was years ago in Germany. There, you have his age as I received it. How he became interested in problems is entertainingly told:
About six years ago, in the solitude of the mountains, a two-mover attracted my attention, which was made conspicuous by the blazing remark: “Sevenfold” mate (in German, of course). To apply a mate in seven different ways was worth trying, and I did, but all I could get was a “three-fold” mate. A certain move of White and if Black did what he ought not to do I could mate with a Knight, or on two different squares with the Q. But as a “seven-fold” mate? No such thing. Neither solvers nor composers ever need try at it after my thorough investigation. I sent my result to the editor, calling him (in a neatly composed German rhyme) a seven-fold “Schaecher” (transl., chesser), but mainly designation for the thieve crucified with Christ). Modesty, you know, is a very convenient commodity when the other fellow has it, so is toothache, for that matter. I had neither. The editor may have had the toothache when he answered. In pity (not for him) I wished he had had the other thing. But he refrained from contradicting my conception of a seven-fold mate. Stimulated by this triumph and nettled by his caustic, “First learn to solve a twoer,” I stubbornly continued to send in my solutions. With increasing success his heart softened. We have shaken hands since and I have smoked one of his office cigars; he has even printed an unsound three-mover of mine. The few which have seen and solved some of my sound ones will kindly help me to bless the man who, as fate willed, introduced me to the charms of chess, of which I knew all but the e. p. trick, which I now thoroughly master, thanks to masters like Barry, Gamage, Dobbs, Marble and others.
Lorenz Hansen.
