André Chéron was a French chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player, endgame theorist

Chess theory

The game of chess is commonly divided into three phases: the opening, middlegame, and endgame. As to each of these phases, especially the opening and endgame, there is a large body of theory as how the game should be played...

, and a composer

Chess composer

A chess composer is a person who creates endgame studies or chess problems. He usually specializes in a particular genre, e.g. endgame studies, twomovers, threemovers, moremovers, helpmates, selfmates, fairy problems...

 of endgame studies

Endgame study

An endgame study, or just study, is a composed chess position—that is, one that has been made up rather than one from an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find a way for one side to win or draw, as stipulated, against any moves the other side...

. He lived in Switzerland for many years. He was named a FIDE International Master of Chess Composition in 1959, the first year the title was awarded.

Chéron was the French champion

French Chess Championship

The French Chess Championship is the annual, national chess tournament of France. It was officially first played in 1923after the formation of the Fédération Française des Echecs in 1921. The first unofficial national tournament was played in 1880, in the Café de la Régence, where further edition...

 three times (1926, 1927, and 1929) and played on the French team at the 1927 Chess Olympiad. He is best known for his work in the theory of endgames, where he was most concerned with detailed proofs about theoretical endgame results. He composed hundreds of endgame studies. His life's work is the monumental four-volume Lehr- und Handbuch der Endspiele, which was first published in French in 1952 and published in German in 1952–58 (and a second revised edition in 1962-70). It studies basic endgames and endgame studies, with material drawn from many sources including his own contributions. He also wrote Traité complet d'échecs and an updated version Nouveau traité complet d'échecs, half of which was about the endgame.