WCCI 2022-24: Announcement

World Championship in Composing for Individuals (WCCI)
2022-24
Announcement

  1. The WFCC is inviting composers of all countries to participate in the 2022-24 WCCI. The tourney director is Narayan Shankar Ram (email: wccixx24@gmail.com). The competition will be held according to the General Rules as published on WFCC Web Site (https://www.wfcc.ch/competitions/composing/wcci_rules/). For the convenience of participants, the main rules are included in this Announcement, but the General Rules remain valid for anything not specifically defined herein.
  2. The WCCI includes the following sections: A) Twomovers, B) Threemovers, C) Moremovers, D) Endgame studies, E) Helpmates, F) Selfmates, G) Fairies, H) Retro problems.
  3. A composer may submit to each section no more than 6 and no less than 4 compositions published in 2022-24. For informal tourneys the date of publication of the issue containing the composition is decisive. If a composition has been published in a magazine which is labelled 2021 on the front but it appeared in 2022-24, the composition is eligible for the 2022-24 WCCI. If a composition has been published in a magazine which is labelled 2024 on the front but it appeared in 2025, the composition is eligible for the 2022-24 WCCI provided that the magazine was published before the deadline. If a composition has been published in a magazine which is labelled 2025 on the front but it appeared in 2024, the composition is not eligible for the 2022-24 WCCI. For formal tourneys the date of appearance of the award is decisive (NB: not the closing date of the tourney). Later corrections or versions could be accepted if they are submitted before the deadline. The entries to the 11th WCCT belong to the 2022-24 championship! If the date of publication is in doubt, the Director should ask the composer for evidence. Joint compositions and versions created in collaboration with other composer(s) are not allowed. It is not allowed to submit compositions on behalf of someone else without explicit statement of the other person’s consent.
  4. Entries must be sent to the Director by email and in PDF format only. In each section composers have to submit one PDF file, which will include all their entries to this section with one composition per page. Composers must have already marked their entries with No. 1 to 6. The compositions should be in diagrams of a uniform size, with the author’s name, publication data, any award, stipulation, full solution and a comment if desired. Algebraic notation is to be used. In section D (endgame studies) composers may alternatively submit a PGN file of their entries or both. In section G (Fairies) composers must provide the definitions for the less common fairy elements. The Director forwards the PDF/PGN files (one PDF/PGN file per composer) to the judges, as well as a spreadsheet where they will enter their scores.
  5. Using a scale of 0 to 4 including half-points, each judge will allocate points to all compositions in the section(s) which he has agreed to judge, except for his own entries and entries that were excluded from the competition on technicalities. Compositions which are sound and not anticipated should receive at least 0.5 points. The judges must explain their reason(s) for giving a score of 0 points to any composition. In section D, if a study arrives, during the solution, to a position of 7 pieces or less; and especially if it starts with 7 pieces or less, the judge is advised to base his score on his evaluation of the human  contribution  to  the  EGTB  position,  and  on  the  amount  of comprehensibility of the study to humans. After completing his work, each judge will send the spreadsheet with his scores to the Director, along with comments regarding errors, very close anticipations, thematic flaws, etc. The Director should distribute these comments to the other judges together with his own notes on anticipations, cooks, duals, etc. However, no comments regarding constructional weaknesses or possible technical improvements are to be sent to the judges. Judges may wish to change some of their scores as a result of discussion with their colleagues, but their individual scores should always reflect the true value of the compositions in the view of each judge. Until results will be published and made final, judges shall avoid any comments or discussions of the entries with the concerned composers as well as on any public forums.
  6. The Director will calculate the total points gained by each composition. If a composition has been judged by five judges, the Director discards the highest and the lowest marks and sums the remaining three. If a composition belongs to a judge, the Director sums the two middle marks and adds the average of these two marks (in other words, the score of such a composition is 1.5 times the sum of the two middle marks). If a composition has received zero points from at least one judge, the Director should inform the other judges about the reasons for such a decision. In such a case adjustment of points by all judges is necessary.
  7. The Director is responsible for reviewing the scores received by the judges and if he feels it necessary he will point out and try to resolve any potential irregularities, e.g. the average score of any one judge is much higher or much lower than that of the other four, or cases where there is a wide disparity (e.g. more than 1.5) between the judges’ points allocated to a given composition (in such cases the Director should email the outliers with the average score of the other judges).The Director will then send the tables with the results to the 3 members of the Supervising Panel who cannot be participating or judging in any section. The members of the Supervising Panel should also point out irregularities and ask the Director for a resolution.
  8. The sum of a composer’s 4 best compositions is calculated for his final result. The champion in each section is the composer with the highest sum of his 4 best compositions. In a case of a tie, the highest-ranked composition decides. If they are still the same, the second-ranked composition decides, etc. If all compositions have the same scores, composers share places.
  9. Entries to the WCCI with a score of 8 points or higher will automatically qualify for the 2022-24 FIDE Album, however they must also be submitted by the composers to the album in order to be published in it and count for points. If a problem qualifying from the WCCI is claimed cooked or anticipated, it should be reviewed by the Album judges too and be excluded, if confirmed defective. Then any Album points gained by the problem are subtracted, however if the composer had already been awarded a title based on these points then the title should not be taken away.
  10. In his report, the Director includes a) tables with full results of all participants, b) the four highest-ranked compositions, with eventual comments, of the three winners in each section, c) the three compositions with the highest scores in each section, even if they do not belong to the three winners. The Director decides about remarks concerning complete anticipation, legitimate publication data, legality and soundness. The Director and the Supervising Panel decide about any claims and the results are declared final when approved by the WFCC president and published on the WFCC site. The compositions (the best four) with eventual comments should be published for at least three best composers in each section. The three compositions with the highest marks in a section should also be published if they not belong to the winners. The official documents (announcement and award) should be written in at least one of the official languages of the FIDE.
  11. The three winners in each section will be awarded a Certificate of Honor.
  12. Time Schedule:
    • December 1st, 2024: Announcement
    • January 20th, 2025: Deadline for Submission of entries to the Director
    • By February 1st, 2025: Entries and spreadsheets for the scores sent by email to the Judges
    • By June 1st, 2025 the latest: Judges’ marks sent to the Director
    • June 15th, 2025: Provisional results sent to the Supervising Panel and to the WFCC President
    • June 30th, 2025: Final results published on the WFCC site
  13. Judges:
    • Twomovers: Kabe Moen (USA); Mikhaïl Khramtsevich (BLR); Vasil Markovcij (CZE); David Shire (GBR); Givi Mosiashvili (GEO); Reserve Judge: Piotr Novitsky (UKR).
    • Threemovers: Abdelaziz Onkoud (FRA); C.G.S. Narayanan (IND); Zoran Gavrilovski (MKD); Dragan Stojnić (SRB); Kari Valtonen (FIN); Reserve Judge: James Quah (SGP)
    • Moremovers: Ralf Kraetschmer (GER); Oto Mihalčo (SVK); Mikhaïlo Marandyuk (UKR); Valery Shavyrin (RUS); Olivier Schmitt (FRA); Reserve Judge: –
    • Endgame studies: Jan Sprenger (GER); Michael Pasman (ISR); Geir Sune Ostmoe (NOR); Luis Miguel Gonzalez (ESP); Alekseï Gasparyan (ARM); Reserve Judge: Steffen Nielsen (DNK).
    • Helpmates: Francesco Simoni (ITA); Kenan Velikhanov (AZE); Marko Klasinc (SLO); Marcos Roland (BRA); Harry Fougiaxis (GRE); Reserve Judge: Ofer Comay (ISR).
    • Selfmates: Hartmut Laue (GER); Mark Erenburg (ISR); Aleksandr Azhushin (RUS); Jozef Havran (SVK); Sergey Borodavkin (UKR); Reserve Judge: –
    • Fairies: Kjell Widlert (SWE); Borislav Gadjanski (SRB); Paz Einat (ISR); Tadashi Wakashima (JPN); Emil Klemanič (SVK); Reserve Judge: Kalyan Seetharaman (IND)
    • Retros: Michel Caillaud (FRA); Vlaicu Crișan (ROU); Thierry Le Gleuher (CAN); Kostas Prentos (GRE); Thomas Brand (GER); Reserve Judge: Andrey Frolkin (UKR).
  1. Supervising Panel: Brian Cook (GBR), Gady Costeff (ISR), Neal Turner (FIN)

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