Josef Halumbirek (* 7 March 1891 in Vienna; † 23 June 1968) was an Austrian chess composer.

Halumbirek was a mathematics professor by profession and later headmaster at the Albertgasse grammar school in Vienna's 8th district from 1945 to 1956. He then retired.

Halumbirek was married; the marriage remained childless.

Chess composition

Halumbirek was friends with Ernst Krieger. Because of the latter's pseudonym P. A. Orlimont, some joint assignments appeared under the common pseudonym Halmont.

Halumbirek wrote columns in the Deutsche Schachzeitung from 1932 to 1945 and in the Wiener Schachzeitung. From 1957 he was an international adjudicator for chess composition and vice-president of the Standing Commission for Chess Composition at FIDE.

After initial attempts in the Bohemian direction, Halumbirek came to the New German school, in which he became one of the most important theorists. His speciality was multi-move minimals (tasks with only two white pieces).

Source: Wikipedia

Halumbirek was the editor of the Problems section of the "Deutsche Schachzeitung" from 1932 until 1944.

His problems must be carefully studied in order to get all the hidden treasures in deceptively simple settings.

The reader may be interested in the article about the focal theme ("Brennpunkt neuheiten") by W.F.von Holzhausen

Sources:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Halumbirek

https://www.arves.org/arves/index.php/en/endgamestudies/studies-by-composer/934-halumbirek-josef-1891-1968