Selection of studies composed by

Philip Julius Van Zuylen Van Nyevelt

(The Netherlands, 5.2.1743-20.1.1826)

 

The foto is a painting of Graaf van Zuylen van Nijevelt,
wearing his uniform as Lieutenant - General and a powdered wig, in 1815 
 
 
He was born in Utrecht in 1743, studied mathematics from 1762 until 1767 in Leyden, entered the army, fought against the
English - Russian expredition in Northern - Holland in 1799, and became "stadhouder" of 2 provinces, marshall of Holand, count and French
senator. He died in Utrecht in 1826.
As a chess player, he defeated Stein and defended himself well against the French master Deschapelles. Unfortunatey, no scores were kept.
During a period of social inactivity lasting from 1787 - 1795 he wrote a chess book. 
His work had a strong influence on endgame theorists.  
 
 
  (infos taken: Endgame study composing in the Netherlands and Flanders by Jan van Reek and Henk van Donk).
 

 

 

Possibly also the first who suggested the idea of shuffling the startposition as mentioned, in 1792,

in the first original Dutch chess book by Philip Julius, Count Van Zuylen van Nijevelt,

He was a Dutch army general, senator of the French Empire, and one-time Napoleonic governor of Amsterdam.

He did not like the openings with their boring repetition of patterns, which enabled weaker players to memorize moves with which they could beat stronger ones.

He suggested determining the places of the pieces by lot, because the positions can then be changed infinitely,

and it will certainly not be possible anymore to study them beforehand.

 

More about him and his family can be found here on revolvy.com and on Wikipedia.

 

(All his studies, more exact dates, possible corrections or cooks and exact details about sources can be found in the

Harold van der Heijden database V (31-12-2015) ).