Solvers’ ratings as of April 1st 2025 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal.
11 tournaments of the 1st quarter 2025 are included: 48th International Polish Championship 2025, 21st International Solving Contest 2025 Cat 1, 21st International Solving Contest 2025 Cat 2, Winton British Chess Solving Championship 2025, Winton British Chess Solving Championship 2025 Minor, 46th Finnish Chess Solving Championship 2025, Romanian Solving Championship 2025, 30th Dutch Open Chess Solving Championship 2025, 33rd Branko Atanackovic Memorial 2025, 39th Ukrainian Championship 2025, 23rd Greek Chess Solving Championship 2025.
Ranking of the top 10 solvers: 1. Danila Pavlov (FID) 2835.28, 2. Kacper Piorun (POL) 2759.81, 3. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 2680.47, 4. Ural Khasanov (FID) 2653.87, 5. John Nunn (GBR) 2639.31, 6. Nikos Sidiropoulos (GRE) 2592.12, 7. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 2589.02, 8. Bojan Vučković (SRB) 2581.32, 9. Ilija Serafimović (SRB) 2569.87, 10. Aleksey Popov (FID) 2560.30.
Largest five gains: junior female Nika Riabenko (UKR) +66.24, junior Szymon Boryna (POL) +61.65, Robert Włodarczyk (POL) +56.27, Piotr Kejna (POL) +54.36, Kacper Piorun, (POL) +42.53
Category: Other
12th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2025: Announcement

Composers from all around the world are welcome to take part in the
12th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2025!
The sections are:
- Twomovers (Marco Guida)
- Threemovers (Frank Reinhold)
- Moremovers (Kjell Widlert)
- Endgame studies (Michal Hlinka)
- Helpmates (Dmitri Turevski)
- Selfmates (Ivan Soroka)
- Heterodox problems (Vlaicu Crisan)
- Fairies (Thomas Maeder)
- Retros and proof games (Richard Dunn)

The closing date for submitting the entries is: 31 May 2025
The Director of the tournament is Torsten Linß (worldcupcomposing2025@gmail.com)
Happy Valentine’s Day
Dylan Schenker
Chess Problems and Studies Discord
February 14, 2023

#6 9+1
White to play and mate in 6 moves!
Barry Peter Barnes (01-VIII-1937 14-I-2025)

Barry Peter Barnes (1937-2025) was a tireless promoter of the best in chess composition art for 70 years, since his first published problem in 1954. With his contemporaries Michael Lipton and John Rice, in the late 1950s and early 1960s he revolutionised the British two-mover, moving from the single phase fashion to modern multiphase contents. Their joint book “The Two-Move Chess Problem: Tradition and Development” (1966) was a glorious monument to their revolution, and a brilliant gift for future generations.
Barry’s open mind and readiness for novelties never changed, up to the last problems he composed, and his final award, completed quite recently for The Hopper. Whatever the state of his health or private obligations, he was always there to help chess composers and promote the growth of chess composition.
The late 1960s were full of rewards and new engagements for Barry. In 1966 he was invited by the FIDE PCCC President Comins Mansfield to act as the PCCC Secretary. He was later to fulfil a promise to Mansfield to publish his complete output. Barry became a long-lasting British Delegate, PCCC Vice-President, and an Honorary Member. In 1967, only 30 years old, he earned the titles of lnternational Master of the FIDE for Chess Composition and lnternational Judge of the FIDE for Chess Composition.
Happy International Day of Chess Composition!
Solvers’ ratings January 1st 2025
Solvers’ ratings as of January 1st 2025 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal.
8 tournaments of the 4th quarter 2024 are included: 33rd Kedainiai Cup 2024, Open of Hamlet Amiryan Memorial Tournament, Hamlet Amiryan Memorial Tournament 2024, 39th Open Swiss Solving Championship 2024, 6th Pavle Orlov Memorial 2024, Solving Championship of Romania 2024, 29th Belgian Championship 2024, 9th Greek Chess Solving Cup 2024.

Ranking of the top 10 solvers: 1. Danila Pavlov (FID) 2835.28, 2. Kacper Piorun (POL) 2717.28, 3. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 2700.12, 4. John Nunn (GBR) 2654.46, 5. Ural Khasanov (FID) 2653.87, 6. Nikos Sidiropoulos (GRE) 2590.25, 7. Bojan Vučković (SRB) 2581.04, 8. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 2568.75, 9. Ilija Serafinović (SRB) 2563.07, 10. Aleksey Popov (FID) 2560.30.
Largest five gains: Roland Baier (SUI) +25.92, junior Anton Nasyrov (FID) +19.76, Evgenios Ioannidis (GRE) +18.81, David Saioc (ROU) +17.81, Thomas Maeder (SUI) +17.47
Happy New Year 2025!
“One Endgame Study in a Thousand”
“One Endgame Study in a Thousand”:
From a collection celebrating each year of FIDE to the composing tourney for beginners and more
The collaboration between FIDE and the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC) reached new heights in 2024, marked by several joint projects. Following the FIDE & WFCC World Cadet & Youth Chess Solving Championships in Italy and Brazil this November, a unique collection of 101 outstanding endgame studies was published to celebrate the art of chess over each year of the FIDE Centenary (1924–2024).
The project was spearheaded by Gady Costeff, an acclaimed endgame study composer and advocate for chess artistry. Inspired by a suggestion from FIDE Executive Director Victor Bologan, Costeff undertook the formidable task of picking out a single remarkable chess study for each year of FIDE’s history. Selecting one composer per year, without repetition, highlighted FIDE’s motto, “Gens Una Sumus” (We Are One Family). The result, One Endgame Study in a Thousand, draws from the annual production of roughly a thousand high-quality endgame studies on average.
In the words of the editor: “The 101 studies in this book are extraordinary, each in their own way. Incredible mate, stunning sacrifice, astonishing foresight, shocking capture avoidance, mind-boggling depth, humorous maneuvers, and many more delightful surprises await you. Taken together, these studies show the development of the endgame study over the period 1924–2024.
The studies are presented with up to six sequential diagrams. Each highlight gets its own diagram, so the reader can follow the action from start to finish, much like they would follow a chess game. The commentary includes insights on the studies, their history, and the composers whose work is presented.”
The full article, published on the FIDE website: https://fide.com/news/3367






WFCC Fujairah Grand Prix 2025-26

WFCC Presidium has the pleasure of presenting an important project to popularize chess composition and assure better conditions for our most important solving competitions.
Upon a personal initiative of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, our UAE members, WFCC Vice-President Abdulla Ali Aal Barket, and WFCC Secretary Mohammad Alhallak, have realized the project of the WFCC Fujairah Grand Prix cycle 2025-26, the first cycle of what is planned to be a traditional competition.
See the detailed WFCC Fujairah Grand Prix Regulations
The Grand Prix 2025-26 consists of (at least) four qualifying solving competitions, leading to the final competition in Fujairah, at the end of 2026. →read more (show/hide)…
The Grand Prix budget isn’t related to the WFCC budget. The competitions using the Grand Prix budget are obliged to promote the official logo of the Grand Prix in official presentations, such as websites, banners and rolls up:

WFCC Presidium welcomes this generous initiative of the UAE members to assure continuation of our most important competitions and to lift them to a higher level. We trust the WFCC Fujairah Grand Prix 2025-26 will be a great success and the beginning of a long lasting tradition.
Merry Christmas to all lovers of chess composition!
1st World Cadet Chess Solving Championship
The youngest players are more interested in chess composition
Two weeks after the 1st FIDE & WFCC World Youth Chess Solving Championships in Brazil (U14, U16, and U18 years), we were hoping that younger categories of players (U8, U10 and U12), participants of the World Chess Championships in Italy (Montesilvano, November 14-27), will be less pressed with OTB ambitions and more curious to try themselves in solving. In Brazil, the numbers of solvers per group were inversely proportional to their age, and the same tendency was shown in Italy, where each age category had more solvers than all three groups in Florianópolis together!
The 1st World Cadet Chess Solving Championship took place on 21st November, with 228 solvers, including 87 girls. →read more (show/hide)…
We hope the new tradition of joint FIDE & WFCC solving events will be growing in quantity and quality from 2025 on.
Marjan Kovačević, WFCC president
(See a wider FIDE report: https://www.fide.com/news/3326)
1st World Youth Chess Solving Championship
Girls outsmarted boys in Brazil
Florianópolis, the capital of southern Brazil’s Santa Catarina state, was the venue of the 1st FIDE & WFCC World Youth Chess Solving Championships in the Open and Girls categories for participants up to 14, 16 & 18 years. The solving competitions in these six categories were held in the context of the World OTB Championships in the same age and gender categories, during the free day in the OTB events, on 4th November 2024.







- Open and Girls up to 14: Final standings, Problems, Solutions
- Open and Girls up to 16: Final standings, Problems, Solutions
- Open and Girls up to 18: Final standings, Problems, Solutions
Before turning thoughts to 21st November and the 1st World Cadets Chess Solving Championships (U8, U10 & U12) in Montesilvano (Italy), you may read the report from Florianópolis, by Marcos Roland, one of the main organizers of the 1st WYCSC:
⇨ Solving in Floripa: 1st WYCSC reapproximates chess composition and OTB chess