30 Member Countries took part in the WFCC online Meeting that was mostly devoted to discussion about the future WFCC events and the host of the 66th WCCC and 47th WCSC 2024.
At the beginning, the FIDE Album Committee spokesman Harry Fougiaxis announced the new title-holders in chess composition:
Grandmaster: Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen (DEN)
International Master: Karen Sumbatyan (RUS)
FIDE Masters: Sergiy Didukh (UKR), Daniel Keith (FRA), Jan Sprenger (GER), Aleksandr Stavrietsky (RUS)
Congratulations!!
These norms were fulfilled according to the results of the Section D (endgames) of the FIDE Album 2019-2021, published on 4th November.
Assembly was informed about the new sentence in the Rules for the World Solving Cup, Point 4, proposed by Roland Ott:
“Organisers should try to avoid holding their tournament on the same weekend as another WSC tournament that has already been published”.
During a short discussion, Neal Turner was against this kind of restriction for the WSC organizers, claiming it has already been rejected in Batumi, and should be rejected again. Other delegates, including Georgy Evseev, Kjell Widlert and Harry Fougiaxis, thought differently, that new formulation isn’t mandatory at all, that it’s only a good reminder. At the end, this additional sentence was accepted.
Marjan Kovačević presented the latest version of Calendar of composing tournaments, prepared and compiled by Kenneth Solja. He urged delegates to contribute to it, in order to complete the final goal, an official WFCC Calendar on the WFCC website.
The main discussion, about the situation in each country, and about the future WFCC events, took a long time and the whole Meeting lasted around two and half hours. The first ones to talk were delegates who presented bids to organize the WCCC & WCSC 2024.
Marcos Roland (the Rio de Janeiro bid) described his attempts to popularize chess composition in Rio and Brasilia trough the series of online lectures and solving competitions. He stressed the problem of presenting helpmates and selfmates to newcomers, and suggested these genres should be omitted in the competitions for beginners – a topic left for future meetings to be discussed.
Harry Fougiaxis, who offered the bid for Rhodes, informed about the Solving Cup to be simultaneously happening in several cities in Greece. He expressed opinion that tradition of ECSC, WCCC and WCSC each year shouldn’t be broken. In order to assure having hosts for ECSC, Harry suggested that some countries from the Central Europe should step forward and say they are ready to organize it. He thinks the suitable location and short weekend program would allow this competition to keep going and attract many participants.
Julia Vysotska explained she wanted to organize in Jurmala a Congress she would like: a kind of summer festival in an enjoyable and friendly atmosphere. Another important reason was to give a chance to young solvers she has been gathering during the last seven years, having in mind a lack of support from local chess federation. For the same reason, she supported organizing ECSC in easy to get destinations in Central Europe.
This long-lasting session was interrupted after speeches of some other delegates, to execute secret voting while all participants were still present. Out of 30 delegates in the Zoom Meeting 21 gave vote to Jurmala, four to Rhodes and three to Rio de Janeiro. One delegate didn’t vote and one was abstained. After adding two more votes sent by email, Jurmala convincingly won straight majority with 23 votes from 32 delegates.
With such a wide support, we will be preparing for a memorable Congress in Latvia, from 27th July to 3rd August 2024!
After the voting some delegates had to leave, while others continued the review by countries.
When it comes to difficulties chess composition faces, many delegates regretted not having better connections with their chess federations. A sense of general agreement was felt in the hopes that FIDE would accept official solving competitions in the context of the World Youth Chess Championship. Although Polish solvers have a relatively good position in their chess federation, Piotr Górski was also insisting on the same goal, as a good way to increase interest of the national chess federations.
Opinions about having both ECSC and WCSC each year were divided, with majority supporting it. As some of the reasons to keep the tradition, Harry Fougiaxis named chances to gain the highest solving norms, and possibility of having 4th solver in the ECSC team.
Marjan Kovačević thought two competitions per year increase organizing and financial burden, while the lack of interested hosts leaves WFCC no real possibility to control the standard of events. He insisted there should be a competition of at least two bids for each event.
Marko Klasinc suggested having WCSC and ECSC every second year, with additional competitions, such as Fairy solving. From his point of view, both competitions had a higher importance at the times before the World Solving Cup where solving norms could be gained now.
Other options to reduce costs of both events were mentioned too. Pavel Kamenik suggested ECSC to be organized simultaneously in several countries, while Dinu-Ioan Nicula strictly opposed this idea, putting under question the regularity of such events. From his side, Dinu-Ioan suggested reducing number of solvers in ECSC teams to three. He gladly announced the strong intention to organize WCCC 2025 in the year of centenary of Romanian chess federation.
17 delegates took part in this review by countries. Many of them shared the same list of difficulties: chess composition societies are getting older and smaller; the numbers of magazines and publications are reducing, and there is no adequate support from chess federations.
For a difference, Bjørn Enemark reported about the first youth solving championship in Dеnmark and continuation of the Thema Danicum magazine in PDF form; Shankar Ram explained Indian chess composers activities in other countries (The Problemist, Julia’s Fairies …);. Yochanan Afek told good news the Variantim has been published in both PDF and paper form, and endgame study has been flourishing in Israel (including Yehuda Hoch coming back after 25 years).
Italian composers are not many but Marco Guida reported they have regular weekly Skype meetings and prepare two magazines in PDF form: Sinfonie Scacchistiche and Best Problems. As Vidmantas Satkus explained, apart from keeping their magazine Šachmatija in both PDF and paper form, Lithuanian solvers have an excellent position. They have a separate sports organization out of the chess federation, with a direct support from their government. Romania is another example of good position in national Sport organization, thanks to personal involvement of Dinu-Ioan Nicula in national chess federation.
This Zoom Meeting was excellently organized by the secretary Mohammad Alhallak. He also replaced the UAE delegate Abdulla Ali Aal Barket in presenting optimistic plans about development of solving in the UAE, in neighboring countries and in the whole Asia.
A reasonably high number of 1015 studies (not counting 13 duplicates) were received. 873 compositions scored at least 4,5 points (86% of the total entries, a very good percentage). 179 studies out of them scored at least 8 points, which represents a good ratio of 20,5% selected compositions. It is a great pity that we present the results with such delay: one of the appointed judges failed repeatedly to meet the schedule requirements, so at the end of September it was decided that another judge should complete the rest of the work (1/3 of the entries). Our compliments to the substitute judge: he managed to finish his part in slightly less than a month!
Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!
We shall update and issue the overall list of the title points in the coming days.
Update (6.11.2023): A few hours after the results were announced, the director realised that he had accidentally misplaced the PDF file submitted by a composer. The judges reviewed these 8 studies swiftly: 2 of them (joint compositions) are selected in the album! Numbers in the above post and in the page of the results have been properly updated.
We decided to release the latest version of the composing title points list even if the studies section is not finished yet. Points from the album fairies section have been added and the recent small changes in the helpmates section have been included. A lot of information has been also integrated from the Chess composers’ names in various alphabets database and the current lists of titles in the site: country names, dates of birth/death, title, year the title was granted, name in native form (the latter piece of information is available only in the Excel spreadsheet itself). The migration/integration was done by Bjørn Enemark and checked by Harry Fougiaxis in just two weeks; we trust we have compiled all the information properly, but please let us know in case you have found some mistake!
A high number of 1479 fairies (not counting 19 duplicates) were received and, as in the previous album, they were split in two groups: G1 for problems without fairy conditions (729) and G2 for those with fairy conditions (750). In each group there were three judges with each team of judges working independently. 1274 entries scored at least 4,5 points (86,14% of the total entries, a very good percentage). 383 compositions out of them scored at least 8 points, which represents a high ratio of 30% selected problems. Of course the respective ratio varies in the two groups. Full statistics are given in the page of the results.
Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!
We updated the list of WFCC composing points in line with the results of the FIDE Album 2019-21 six finalized sections. The next issue is scheduled after the results of studies and fairies are known. Congratulations to the new title holders! Distribution of the diplomas will take place in the Batumi congress.
An impressive number of 2380 helpmates (not counting 67 duplicates, withdrawn, unpublished problems) were received and they were split in three groups: E1 for h#<=2, E2 for h#2,5 and h#3, and E3 for h#>3. As usual, the h#2s dominated once more. In each group there were three judges with each team of judges working independently. 2053 entries scored at least 4,5 points (86,3% of the total entries, a very good ratio for such a popular genre). 362 compositions out of them (nearly 10% less compared to the previous album) scored at least 8 points, which represents a reasonable ratio of 17,9% selected problems (same percentage as in the previous album!). Of course the respective ratio varies in the three groups. Full statistics are given in the page of the results.
Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!
Update (20.08.2023): Five h#2s were downgraded by the judges due to poor originality (Krätschmer/Wiehagen, Jorge Karpos, Novomeský, Vasyuchko) or weak economy (Mosiashvili). The compositions were removed from the list and the results were updated.
1029 twomovers scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 1250 entries), a very good percentage of 82,3%. Out of this lot, 233 compositions are selected with 8+ points (including 41 qualifying from WCCI), a reasonable percentage of 22,6%.
Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!
962 selfmates scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 994 entries), a pleasantly very high percentage of 96,8%. Out of this lot, 270 compositions are selected with 8+ points (including 65 qualifying from WCCI), a high percentage of 28,1%. The recent development and quality increase of selfmates is evident: 55 more compositions are selected compared to the previous album.
Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!
352 retros/proofgames scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 375 entries), a pleasantly very high percentage of 93,8%. Out of this lot, 77 compositions are selected with 8+ points (including 24 qualifying from WCCI), a reasonable percentage of 21,9%.
Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!
Update 28.06.2023: A version of a cooked length-record PG by the late Unto Heinonen was added.
797 threemovers scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 950 entries), a very good percentage of 83,9%. Out of this lot, 169 compositions are selected with 8+ points (including 65 qualifying from WCCI), a reasonable percentage of 21,2%.
Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!
