Pogosyants Ernest Levonovich (04.06.1935-16.08.1990)

Soviet Grandmaster for Chess Composition (1988). Worked a lot in the sphere of popular composition. Since 1959 has published more than 4.000 studies and 800 problems of different genres. participated in numerous contests and was marked with 550 distinctions including 230 prizes-70 of them first. Six times was the winner of Moscow championships in the period of 1961-85. He might well be the most prolific composer ever, with 6500 studies and problems, of which 4500 were published. Apart from that, he “penned some 4000 assorted poems and aphorisms, largely unpublished.” According to Roycroft, Pogosyants was a rather naive man who, as a young and idealistic communist, criticized KGB-chief Shelepin and was subsequently arrested, sentenced, and treated in a psychiatric hospital. The substances administered to him there left him an insomniac for the rest of his life, which did not deter him from wearing his party insignias afterwards, and which was a blessing to the chess world. The quality of his work equals its quantity. Here are three early studies that occurred to him during his sleepless nights. His best works are collected in the book of Vladimirov and Lunjkova “I create when I am inspired” (Moscow, 2001).