Ogoniek (Botvinnik)

[SBD]

In Cheron, and other sources, the following study by Botvinnik is
given:

8/8/4kpp1/8/2KPP3/8/6P1/n7 w - - 0 1

White to play and draw

It is a very nice study, a very nice addition to the "knight in the
corner" groups of studies of N+P(s) vs. Ps. It is well worth taking
the time to try to solve it, and if you can't, just about any computer
(except GETCLUB and IVAN, of course) will find the continuation -
although my Fritz9 takes a bit.

My question is about the magazine Ogoniek, which is the original
source for the study, having been published in 1952. In one place, it
is listed as an "avant-garde" magazine, not a place where you would
expect to find a Botvinnik study (let alone a Russian magazine of that
type being in existence at all at that time).

Can anyone supply brief details?

Thanks!

SBD

[ttk...@gmail.com]

Steve, you might have better luck posting this in a Russian-oriented
newsgroup. I'll tell you what (very) little I know, which comes from a
caption to a cartoon reprinted in a 1954 BCM. There it was
transliterated as Ogonyok. It seems to have a been a weekly, and it
may have been more chess-oriented than you think. I say this because
the 1954 cartoon depicted the Russian chess team returning in triumph
from the 1954 Olympiad.
Whether the magazine was at all "avant-garde" I can't say. The
cartoon (which I used in the 2004 International Chess Calendar) just
seems a straightforward "Hooray for our guys!" celebration of national
triumph, quite in keeping with mainstream Soviet culture at the time.
But one can hardly generalize from such a small sample.

[SBD]

Thanks again Taylor. Your help in factual matters is always
appreciated. Having that name the way you spelled it revealed the
following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogonyok

It may not have that much chess content. You would be surprised how
many Russian newspapers and magazines still run little chess columns
with original problems.

You're a big help, and if I ever write that book.....