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Guidelines for solving tournaments

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wfcc-logo-transparentLast year, the solving committee worked on a set of guidelines for the directors of rated solving tournaments. The preliminary text was accepted at the last WCCC in Vilnius. Julia Vysotska wrote a Russian translation, for which we are very grateful.

Guidelines for solving tournaments: English | Russian

We hope that tournament directors take a look at this text before they start to prepare their next solving tournament. They should pay specific attention to the selection of the problems and studies, and to the points’ distribution (in particular of moremovers and studies). These guidelines give the necessary instructions and recommendations.

After each tournament the director will receive feedback from the solving committee with a quality check document. We hope that the directors will take notice. The ultimate goal is that in the future all rated tournaments will be organised in a consistent manner, no matter who is the director. This will be to the benefit of the solvers. After all, their rating is based on the results in these tournaments.

Solvers’ ratings January 1st 2020

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Solvers’ ratings as of January 1st 2020 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published! 9 tournaments of the 4th quarter 2019 are included: 26th Belgian Championship 2019, 28th Kedainiai chess solving cup tourney 2019, Open Solving Championship of Tula region 2019, 2nd Pavle Orlov Memorial 2019, 12th Albino Cup 2019, 30th Henk Hagedoorn Memorial 2019, New Year’s Tournament 2020, 18th Warsaw Grand Prix 2019 – Open, 18th Warsaw Grand Prix 2019

The only mentionable change within the ranking of the top ten solvers is the move of Piotr Murdzia (POL) from 3rd to 2nd place. The largest three gains have been achieved by junior solver Boris Chervonenkis (RUS / +68.95) ahead of junior solver Maksim Romanov (RUS / +63.32) and Evgeny Kopylov (RUS / +60.36).

World Solving Cup 2019/2020 – Sękocin Stary 14./15.12.2019

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18th Warsaw Solving Grand Prix 2019  | 4th tournament of World Solving Cup 2019/2020: 
Participants: 16 | Winner: Piotr Murdzia (POL) ahead of Kacper Piorun (POL) and Aleksey Popov (RUS)
Junior solver Maksim Romanov with first FM norm.
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2463.01 | WSC category: 4
Top 5 World Solving Cup: 1. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 62 points (+31), 2. Aleksey Popov (RUS) 50 points (+23), 3. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 42 points (+13), 4. Michel Caillaud (FRA) 27 points, 5. Kacper Piorun (POL) 27 points (+27)

More details are published in Competitions → Solving → World Solving Cup (WSC) → 2019/20 Calendar.

FIDE Album Index 1914-2015 by Hannu Harkola

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fide album 2013-2015 photoHannu Harkola has updated the FIDE Album Index by adding the last three Albums. The booklet (A4, 210 pages, PDF) contains the combined registers of all 24 published FIDE Albums 1914-2015. It is in the same location as the previous version:
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~stniekat/books/FIDE_Album_Index.pdf.

On WFCC website the Album Index can be found on the bottom of FIDE Albums page: 

FIDE ALBUM INDEX 1914-2015

Booklet (A4, 210 pages, PDF) contains the combined registers of all 24 published FIDE Albums 1914-2015.

 

World Solving Cup 2019/2020 – Minsk 02./03.11.2019

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12th Albino Cup 2019  | 3rd tournament of World Solving Cup 2019/2020: 
Participants: 28 | Winner: Aleksey Popov (RUS) ahead of Evgeny Viktorov (RUS) and Abdelaziz Onkoud (MAR)
Aleksandr Bulavka Belarus champion with 4th place.
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2434.77 | WSC category: 5
Top 5 World Solving Cup: 1. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 31 points, 2. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 29 points (+6), 3. Michel Caillaud (FRA) 27 points, 4. Aleksey Popov (RUS) 27 points (+27), 5. Evgeny Viktorov (RUS) 23 points (23)

More details are published in Competitions → Solving → World Solving Cup (WSC) → 2019/20 Calendar.

Invitation to the 16th ISC

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The International Solving Contest – ISC – next year will take place on Sunday January 26th 2020. The event is happening simultaneously in all participating countries. The name of the locally appointed controller must reach the central controllers Axel Steinbrink and Luc Palmans by e-mail no later than December 31st 2019:  axel.steinbrink@gmx.de  / palmans.luc@skynet.be

There are two changes of the rules compared with ISC 2019:

1. The rating limit of Cat-2 is now 2000 (1700 in 2019) and cat-2 will be rated. Of course the birthday limit of cat-3 is now 31.12.2006.

2. The results will be automatically transfered to the MatPlus-website where they can be seen by all solvers. This means that there is no need anymore to enter results manually into MatPlus.
But top 3 results of Cat. 1 must still be sent by email to central controllers on Sunday evening!

I hope that even more local controllers will use the official WFCC Solving Tournament Manager (STM) for their results.

Until 31.12.2019 please send the following information: 

1. Name of local controller
2. E-Mail address of local controller
3. Location of local tournament
4. Use of STM: yes/no

Axel Steinbrink, 16th ISC Controller

World Solving Cup 2019/2020 – Geel 05.10.2019

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26th Open Belgian Solving Championship 2019  | 2nd tournament of World Solving Cup 2019/2020: 
Participants: 12 | Winner: Eddy Van Beers (BEL – Belgian champion) ahead of Dolf Wissmann (NED) and Andrey Selivanov (RUS)
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2272.49 | WSC category: 8
Top 5 World Solving Cup: 1. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 31 points, 2. Michel Caillaud (FRA) 27 points, 3. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 23 points, 4. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 22 points, 5. Arno Zude (GER) 19 points

More details are published in Competitions → Solving → World Solving Cup (WSC) → 2019/20 Calendar.

Solvers’ ratings October 1st 2019

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Solvers’ ratings as of October 1st 2019 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published – including the first solving tournament with rating calculations according the new rating system! 9 tournaments of the 3rd quarter 2019 are included: Open Solving Tournament Yaroslavl 2019, Open Tournament to Launch Chess Compositions in Memory of Leo Kapusty (1919-1990), 2nd Ukrainian Cup 2019, 27th Czech Chess Solving Championship 2019, 3rd Russian Women Chess Solving Cup 2019, GPNTB Solving Cup 2019, Open Solving Tournament of WCCC 2019, 43rd World Chess Solving Championship 2019, 35th Open Swiss Solving Championship 2019.

The ranking of the top ten solvers had only a few changes within the group. The largest five gains have been achieved by women junior solver Aleksandra Safronova (RUS / +236.47!) ahead of junior solvers Ivan Novikov (RUS / +125.5!), Roy Ehrlich (ISR / +80.84) and Maksim Romanov (RUS / +79.67) and GM Martynas Limontas (LTU / +78.98).