Prof. Pietro Rossi (* 26.05.1924 in Treviso - †18.11.2020 Matera)

Famous Italian​ chess composer of chess problems and many endgame studies 

Life

Prof. Pietro Rossi was born in Treviso and lived for many years in Matera, where he worked as a professor of social sciences at the Tommaso Stigliani Teacher Training Institute. He wrote essays on Maria Montessori, the Agazzi sisters and Fröbel.

In recent years he has turned to poetry and published eight volumes of poetry with the Centrostampa typography of Matera.

Composing chess studies

Pietro Rossi published about 300 studies, 240 of which are contained in Harold van der Heijden's study database. He received over 120 honours and prizes at composition competitions.

 The Italian Chess Federation (Italian: Federazione Scacchistica Italiana (FSI)) awarded him a gold medal in May 2007 for "high achievements in the field of endgame-study composition". He is regarded as the best endgame study composer in chess in Italy.

Collaboration with other composers

Prof. Pietro Rossi also composed a lot with Marco Campioli from Sassuolo. Together they created some perfectly formed, high-quality works of chess art.

His compositional style
Pietro Rossi composed in the style of the old masters. Underpromotion, positional draws, a strong passed pawn and stalemate were themes that Rossi realised in an entertaining way in the most economical starting position possible. He avoided mostly extreme positions in his works. His achievement as a chess composer must be valued all the more highly because he composed many chess studies at a time when there were no good chess engines. He therefore had to carry out time-consuming, complicated analyses of the chess studies himself and without the help of the computer in order to prove their correctness.

Others

             On Website "Yet another chess problem database"  yacpdb.org 79 chess problems by P. Rossi can be found.

             On Website ARVES 24 endgame studies with solution composed by Pietro Rossi are selected.

             On Website pdb.dieschwalbe.de 38 works by him can be found.

             Website chesscomposers.blogspot wrote about him.

             In addition to the chess studies, he also composed a series of auxiliary mating problems.