Ladislav Prokeš (* 8 June 1884 in Prague; † 9 January 1966 in Prague) was a Czech chess player and significant composer of endgame studies

Life

Ladislav Prokeš was a grammar school professor in Prague.

Chess composing

Prokeš began composing in 1906 and had published 1258 studies. (Website of ARVES)

This makes him the fourth most prolific study composer in the world. (Source: Dutch Website ARVES.org)

23 of his compositions can be found in the FIDE albums.

About his chess studies;

His works are characterised by the influence of the Bohemian School and emphasise the strict economy of means, many of them in miniature form. His compositions often consisted directly of the main idea, which meant that the solution was usually very short.

Prokeš maneuver

The Prokeš maneuver is a tactic in chess that enables a rook to draw against two advanced pawns in a chess endgame. Prokeš composed an endgame study in 1939 which illustrated the Prokeš maneuver for the first time.

Editor

From 1909 to 1927, Prokeš was editor of the chess composition column in Československý Šach.

Successes as chessplayer

Prokeš won the championship title in the Prague International Tournament in 1908. He played as a member of the Czechoslovak national team at the Chess Olympiads in London in 1927, The Hague in 1928 and Hamburg in 1930. His greatest tournament successes were 2nd-4th place in Brno in 1907, 3rd place in Prague in 1909 and Plzeň in 1911, 1st-2nd place in Brno in 1921, 6th place in Debrecen in 1925 and 1st place in Prague in 1928.

Source: Germain Wikipedia (partly)

Others: On Dutch Website ARVES.org are 6 endgame studies selected. All 6 chess studies selected by Prokeš are no longer than 6 moves in the solution.

His 1,159 endgame studies, as listed in Harold van der Heijden's database, rank fourth among all composers