Vitaly Halberstadt

Vitaly Halberstadt

Vitaly Halberstadt (20 March 1903, Odessa - 25 October 1967, Paris) was a French chess player, problemist and, above all, a noted endgame study composer.

Born in Odessa, Russian Empire (currently Ukraine), he emigrated to France. In 1925, he shared 1st with Abraham Baratz in the 1st Paris City Chess Championship, tied for 5-6th in the 2nd Paris-ch 1926 (Leon Schwartzmann won), tied for 5-6th at Hyères 1926 (Baratz won), shared 1st with Peter Potemkine at Paris 1926, tied for 5-7th in the 3rd Paris-ch 1927 (Baratz won), tied for 10-11th in the 4th Paris-ch 1928 (Baratz won), tied for 1st-3rd with Marcel Duchamp and J.J. O'Hanlon at Hyères 1928, took 8th in the 6th Paris-ch 1930 (Josef Cukierman won), took 6th in the 7th Paris-ch 1931 (Eugene Znosko-Borovsky won), took 3rd in the 8th Paris-ch 1932 (Oscar Blum won), and took 9th at Paris 1938 (L'Echiquier, Baldur Hoenlinger won).

In 1932, he published with Marcel Duchamp "L'Opposition et les cases conjugées sont réconciliées", a chess manual dedicated to several special end-game problems, for which Duchamp designed the layout and cover. Halberstadt is also an author of "Curiosités tactiques des finales" (1954).