Three studies by Kyriakos Fragoulis

Kyriakos Fragoulis (1935 - 1997), from Leykada island in Greece, became well known in composing circles with his studies. There were other Greeks also creating chess problems of various types, but Kyriakos Fragoulis was composing exclusively studies.

Study is a position with stipulation "White plays and wins" or "White plays and draws" without specifying in how many moves we must achieve it. The study is like an endgame, but it is a composition, it is not coming from a game.

The players of over the board chess are solving studies as an exercice.

These studies were sent to me by Panagiotis Konidaris from Meganissi (an island near Leykada), who had actually met Kyriakos Fragoulis. Panagiotis says that he found them in some old and turned yellow pieces of paper (thanks Panagiotis!), and they are unpublished, as far as I know.
Their solutions are visible only if you select the text between the square brackets [...].

Problem-744 Kyriakos Fragoulis, Greece original

8/6Pb/P1K5/7k/8/8/5P1r/8 (4 + 3) = White plays and draws

Solution : [1.g8=Q! (1.a7? Be4+! 2.K~ Rg2 -+) Bxg8 2.a7! Bh7 3.Kd5! Rh4 (3...Bg8+ 4.Kc6 Bh7 5.Kd5) 4.f4! Rxf4 5.a8=Q! Be4+ 6.Ke5 Bxa8 7.Kxf4=]

Problem-745 Kyriakos Fragoulis, Greece original

8/8/1r3p2/7K/6P1/6Pk/1S6/4R3 (5 + 3) + White plays and wins

Solution : [1.Sc4! Rb5+ (1…Rb4 2.Se3! Kxg3 3.Sd5! Rxg4 4.Rg1+, +-), (1…Rb7 2. Sd6 Rh7+ 3.Kg6 Rd7 4. Se4! Kxg4 5.Sxf6+, +-) 2.Kg6 Rg5+ (2…Kxg3 3.Se3 Rg5+ 4.Kxf6 Rg8 5.Rg1+ Kf3 6.g5 +-) 3.Kxf6 Rxg4 4.Se3! Rxg3 (4…R~ 5.g4 +-) (4…Rg8 5.Rh1+ Kxg3 6.Rg1+ K~ 7.Rxg8 +-) 5.Rh1# The chess program Fritz prefers other continuation, without surprises and with many moves 1.Sd3 Rb5+ 2.Kh6 Kxg4 3.Re3 Rf5 4.Sf4 Re5 5.Rd3 f5 6.Sd5 Re6+ 7.Kg7 +- ]

Problem-746 Kyriakos Fragoulis, Greece original

8/S7/7p/1p5k/6p1/6KP/8/8  (3 + 4) + White plays and wins

Solution : [1.h4! b4 2.Sc6! (2.Sb5? b3 3.Sd4 b2 4.Se2 Kg6 5.Sc3 h5 =) b3 3.Se5! b2 4.Sd3 b1=Q 5.Sf4#]