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)…
The same as for the Brazilian event, the problems were selected by WFCC Vice-Presidnet Dinu-Ioan Nicula who was also the director at the place. His helper, the WFCC Secretary Mohammad Alhallak, took part in several organizational activities, including presentation of the competition in the new WFCC account in the Chess-Results server. The fact that they were present in Montesilvano during two weeks, as the selected International Chess Arbiters for the World Cadet Chess Championship, made the whole solving project smoother and less expensive.
For many cadets 60 minutes were too short a time to handle six problems. In the U8 category there were five twomovers and one endgame. As presented in the Results and Problems’ Difficulty page, some twomovers were more difficult for them than the study. Even the starter among twomovers caused some upsets, most notably to Rayna Yan from USA. The girl spent only 35 minutes, and with the best time among top ten contenders she missed to become the absolute winner among boys and girls.
The U10 group of 91 solvers was the largest and the only one with a perfect result, achieved by Anand Tsogtbileg from Mongolia. The problems for U12 group were too difficult for more than a half of the participants. One of the reasons was failure to write correctly solution of the easiest #2, where both white Knights may go to square d4, and only one of them is the correct key-piece. This problem shows that either many of the U12 players have issues with chess notation, or they didn’t read the official Regulations, where exactly such a case was clearly explained. The WFCC Solving Calendar shows all details about FIDE & WFCC solving championships 2024, including results, problems, and solutions.
The WFCC Vice-President Abdulla Ali Aal Barket came to the closing ceremony in Montesilvano to mark this inaugural event with a special WFCC plaque presented to the main chess organizers Roberto Mogranzini and Nadia Ottavi.
We hope the new tradition of joint FIDE & WFCC solving events will be growing in quantity and quality from 2025 on.
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.
The first solving events in the context of main FIDE championships dated back in 2006, thanks to Georgian Grandmaster of Chess Composition David Gurgenidze and his compatriot Akaki Iashvili, currently at the position of the FIDE Special Tasks Director and Events Commission Chairman. Since then, there were five such competitions, all of them directed by Mr. Gurgenidze, and mostly happening when the big FIDE events were organized in Georgia. This year, for the first time, the solving championships were an official part of a joint project of FIDE and WFCC. Also, for the first time FIDE separated Youth competitions (U14, U16 & U18), from Cadets events (U8, U10 & U12).
From the WFCC side, the solving event in Brazil was realization of a long lasting project, starting year ago and involving many contributors. In the first steps to it, Dinu-Ioan Nicula made proposal for the rules, while Ilija Serafimović and Marcos Roland prepared instructions for writing with illustrative examples. Mohammad Alhallak has done a huge work in preparing registration forms; organizing presentation on the Chess-Results server, and manually adding all participants into it. Anirudh Daga and Marjan Kovačević organized free online solving lessons for all interested.
420 participants from over 50 countries, including many trainers, registered for these online lessons. At the end of his amazing project, Anirudh sent the recorded video materials from all five sessions to all 420 registered participants. It is important to notice that more than a half of them came from Asia (India 106, China 80…), and only 67 from European countries. At the moment, Anirudh is continuing promotion of these online sessions, posting them in the form of series of articles in the well-known ChessBase website.
The media promotion of FIDE & WFCC solving events was as wide and intensive as possible. Several articles were published on the FIDE website and FIDE & WFCC social media; the famous Indian chess promoter Sagar Shah volunteered to create a promo video and the Fujairah team has created another promo video. Posted in the FIDE Facebook channel, their video attracted over 10000 views, more than any WFCC post ever before.
First steps are usually the hardest, and the Brazilian event was far from being an exception. As experience has showed, the older age categories of chess players (and their trainers!) are much more oriented toward the OTB chess results, and less ready to experiment in the field of chess composition during an important tourney. The decreasing of numbers of participants with their age (14-16-18) has proved it once again.
Another obstacle was communication with the main chess organizers away from Europe. Even the Brazilian team of three WFCC engaged organizers was almost 900 km away, coming from Rio in the eve of event. Ricardo Vieira was the director of the solving competition, with Bruno Perez as his assistant. Marcos Roland took many different roles before and during competition, including a series of solving events and free online lessons across Brazil. Dinu-Ioan Nicula selected the three sets of problems and endgames, while Axel Steinbrink and Miodrag Mladenović were giving important technical help in the use of STM and posting results in WFCC Solving Portal.
At the end, 63 out of 87 registered participants took part. This number didn’t reflect all preparatory efforts, but the quality was better than quantity. With 8 tasks to solve in 90 minutes it was good no participant ended with zero in the final standings. The most impressive results were achieved by the girls, especially in the youngest age category, where they completely overshadowed boys of the same age.
Unofficial results were sent by email to the participants the same night, and the protests were replied by sending the scanned solving sheets. So, in the morning of 5th November the winners of the 1st WYCSC were crowned.
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:
I experienced one of the greatest expectations of my life in the days leading up to the first world chess solving championship for the youth (WYCSC; U-14, U-16 and U-18 categories), in the very friendly and welcoming city of Florianópolis, in the south of my country. The holding of this event represented the culmination of almost two decades of efforts to bring together chess problemists and chess players, represented by their respective federations, the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC) and the Fédération internationale d’échecs (FIDE).
The event took place on a free day in the context of the World Youth Chess Championship, U-14, U-16 and U-18 categories, and the solving competition was divided into the same categories. Girls could choose to be classified in their own group (G) or in the open group (O), together with the boys. None of the girls opted for the open group, all preferred to compete in their own group. Interestingly, they missed a good opportunity to make it explicitly clear that, possibly, gender differences in chess are counting less, because, in the end of the day, the girls practically dominated the U-14 category, in which they placed three of the four best scorers, shared the honors in the U-16 category, in which they placed three of the five best scorers, and only came behind the boys, but with some excellent performances, in the U-18 category!
My country was given the honor and also the great responsibility of hosting this historic event, and I confess that I was nervous and worried when I arrived in Floripa, a few days before the solving event. Local organizers had no experience in this type of side event, and difficulties were expected. The director of the main event, the well-known Brazilian chess organizer and promoter Kaiser Luiz Mafra, whom I thank here, did everything in his power to provide us with suitable conditions. However, the venue for the event, which had been chosen long before the agreement between the WFCC and FIDE was signed, had certain physical limitations. I encountered some difficulties in carrying out my duties, one of them being the confirmation of the registrations for the event.
However, I believe that, in the end of the day, everything worked out. Although the number of participants was lower than we had hoped, this was probably due more to a change in expectations of parents or coaches regarding the level of difficulty of the problems that would be proposed to the participants. One coach of a national team even told me that he would not enter his young players in the competition because there was too little time for adequate preparation, but that he would like to have some technical support in the future to instruct young chess players from his country in the field of chess solving.
The closing – prize giving ceremony was like a synthesis of the ups and downs that characterized the holding of this first WYCSC. It was held in the cramped lobby next to the playing hall. In this sense it was a modest and poor ceremony, but at the same time it was a meeting of organizers and young people and their coaches and relatives, all very pleased to have participated in an event of high technical level. Therefore, I believe that the medals, distributed in such a simple and improvised way, with the help of an 8-year-old boy, Gabriel Henry, will be pleasant memories for those who received them. At least, that was the feeling I had when shaking hands with those people and taking pictures with them. A memorable moment in my life.
Solvers’ ratings as of October 1st 2024 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal. Only 3 tournaments of the 3rd quarter 2024 are included: 6th Ukrainian Cup 2024, Open Solving Tournament of WCCC 2024, 47th World Chess Solving Championship 2024. Ranking of the top 10 solvers: 1. Danila Pavlov (FID) 2818.95, 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) 2585.61, 8. Aleksey Popov (FID) 2577.85, 9. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 2577.04, 10. Ilija Serafimović (SRB) 2560.25. Nikos Sidiropoulos and Ilija Serafimović among the top 10 solvers for the first time! Largest five gains: women junior Anna Ličková (CZE) +123.52, junior Chinguun Sumiya (MGL) +91.88, junior Alexandru Mihalcescu (ROU) +83.16, Modris Rāviņš (LAT) +73.54, Lev Glanzspiegel (ISR) +64.06
The most deserving pioneers of the FIDE solving events Akaki Iashvili and David Gurgenidze at the closing ceremony of the Batumi WCCC 2023
The celebration of the FIDE Centenary 1924-2024 will include a new and promising project in cooperation with the WFCC. During November the two biggest FIDE events for cadets (U8, U10, U12) and juniors (U14, U16, U18) will include World Solving Championships for girls and boys, forming the biggest ever youth solving event.
Juniors will be solving problems and endgames on November 4th, during the free day of the World Youth Chess Championships in Florianópolis, the capital of southern Brazil’s Santa Catarina state. Cadets will have their solving championships on November 21st, the rest day of the World Cadet Chess Championships in Montesilvano, the city in the Abruzzo region of Italy.
While celebrating this historical breakthrough in promotion of chess composition among new generations, it’s time to recall the prehistory that allowed one more step to be made. More than 30 years ago different countries started applying the model of national solving championships in the context of youth chess championships. On European level it was applied in 2002, with the first event organized in Serbia, in the context of European Youth Blitz and Rapid Championship, and in the age categories U10, U14, and U18. The more or less same format has been accepted by majority of the future hosts of the same European chess competitions, but some of the countries were not ready to organize it. In other words, all those competitions kept depending on the activity of the local chess composers and their relations with the national chess federations.
The longer lasting chess competitions with classical tempo were more suitable to organize solving during the mandatory free day. Chess composition was brought to the widest platform of global FIDE events in Batumi 2006, when the director of the World Youth Chess Championships 2006 Akaki Iashvili initiated World Youth Solving Cup in the age categories U10, U14 and U18. For that we step we owe to his long lasting cooperation with the Grandmaster of Chess Composition David Gurgenidze, a chess writer, historian and trainer, in short – Georgian chess legend. These two prominent Georgian chess personalities opened the doors for future solving events in the context of FIDE youth events.
However, after Batumi 2006 and Antalya 2007, the next such competition had to wait till 2016, when the FIDE championships was again organized in Georgia. These three initial competitions used the name World Youth Solving Cup U10, U14 and U18. In 2022, as the FIDE Special Tasks Director, Akaki Iashvili recommended solving competitions to become a part of all FIDE youth events. In Batumi 2022 (221 participants), and again in Batumi 2023, these events used the name World Youth Solving Championships U10, U14 and U18. A month ago Batumi hosted a newly invented chess competition Cadets World Cup (U8, U10 & U12), and approximately half of the players (132) took part in the solving competition called the Cadets World Solving Cup.
All FIDE solving events since 2006 have been directed by David Gurgenidze (in the photo gallery with 2024 solvers), with only one out of the six competitions (Antalya 2007) being out of Georgia. To have them or not was depending on the good will of the organizers, their personal affinities and relations with local chess problemists.
The next step to make was to assure regularity of solving championships and to avoid improvisation, whatever country gets the role of the organizer of the FIDE championships. That’s where a fruitful cooperation between WFCC and the FIDE officers has helped. As the Chair of the FIDE Events Commission, Akaki Iashvili convinced the organizers in Brazil and Italy to enrich the program of their chess championships with solving events, under rules, conditions and guidance of the WFCC. The FIDE Executive Officer Victor Bologan has shown a great interest in promotion of solving competitions and suggested to include them into the FIDE special projects in 2024.
The future of this big joint project will largely depend on the success and overall effects of the November competitions. Our preparations have started more than year ago, with the working group headed by the vice-president Dinu-Ioan Nicula. Being an International Chess Arbiter with more than 20 years of experience in directing solving competition in the context of chess events, he prepared all the relevant documents and accepted the role of selector for the November competitions.
Some other members of our society have shown a great enthusiasm in joining the project. Instructions for writing solutions with illustrative examples were prepared by Ilija Serafimović and translated by Marcos Maldonado Roland, who also contributed to logistics in Brazil, where Ricardo de Mattos Vieira gladly accepted the role of main judge.
All documents prepared by WFCC were agreed with FIDE Events commission first, and then with the local organizers. These documents found their places in the official invitations sent to all national chess federations, and later in the official website of the whole event. Our secretary Mohammad Alhallak has prepared the registration forms for both coming events, and has done all the work on activating the newly open WFCC page on the Chess-Results server, purchased according to the decision of Presidium.
With a kind support of Heinz Herzog, the creator of the Chess-Results server, WFCC now has a permanent license to use the most popular server for announcements and results of the chess events. You may find the WFCC page (abbreviation WFC) on the Federation Selection List, with announcement of the WYCSC in Brazil. It contains link to the official homepage of the organizer with the Registration form, as well as the detailed regulations and instructions in pdf.
The youngest volunteer to join the project, the Indian prodigy Anirudh Daga (16), came with a highly commendable initiative to organize free online preparations in September and October for everybody who intends to go to Brazil and Italy! And that wasn’t just an idea; he took all the work on himself, from Invitation, Schedule and Registration form to the final realization!
All these preparatory actions, controlled and coordinated by WFCC, make a difference to the FIDE competitions of the Georgian team, who has handed in the organization to WFCC and helped so much in this transition. Another reason to mark the coming world championships with number 1 is the technical difference. It is the first time to have world solving championships in all six age categories: U8, U10, U12, U14, U16, and U18.
Solvers’ ratings as of July 1st 2024 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal. 13 tournaments of the 2nd quarter 2024 are included: Open Solving Tournament Lithuania 2024, 45th Lithuanian Championship 2024, 43rd Azerbaijan Chess Solving Championship 2024, 32nd Chess Solving Championship of Slovakia 2024, Open Solving Tournament of ECSC 2024, 17th European Chess Solving Championship 2024, 50th Latvian Chess Solving Championship 2024, 45th French Chess Solving Championship 2024, Open Solving Championship of Serbia 2024, 46th German Solving Championship 2024, 32nd Czech Chess Solving Championship 2024, 9th Israel Open Solving Championship 2024, 9th Israel Open Solving Championship 2024 Category 2. Ranking of the top ten solvers: 1. Danila Pavlov (FID) 2818.95, 2. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 2698.54, 3. Kacper Piorun (POL) 2678.52, 4. Ural Khasanov (FID) 2653.87, 5. John Nunn (GBR) 2638.24, 6. Bojan Vučković (SRB) 2585.61, 7. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 2582.58, 8. Aleksey Popov (FID) 2577.85, 9. Marko Filipović (CRO) 2555.24 ahead of 10. Danila Moiseev (FID) 2555.00. Largest five gains: junior Alexandru Mihalcescu (ROU) +158.62, Dmitrijus Chocenka (LTU) +110.56, Panagiotis Konidaris (GRE) +84.11, Jakob Leck (GER) +75.90, Jakub Marciniszyn (POL) +73.38
Solvers’ ratings as of April 1st 2024 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal. 8 tournaments of the 1st quarter 2024 are included: 20th International Solving Contest 2024 Cat 1, 20th International Solving Contest 2024 Cat 2, Winton British Chess Solving Championship 2024, 45th Finnish Chess Solving Championship 2024, 47th International Polish Championship 2024, 29th Dutch Open Chess Solving Championship 2024, 32nd Branko Atanackovic Memorial 2024, 20th Attica Region Chess Solving Tournament 2024. Ranking of the top ten solvers: 1. Danila Pavlov (FID) 2818.95, 2. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 2708.04, 3. Kacper Piorun (POL) 2654.08, 4. Ural Khasanov (FID) 2653.87, 5. John Nunn (GBR) 2638.24, 6. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 2630.22, 7. Aleksey Popov (FID) 2577.85, 8. Marko Filipović (CRO) 2564.95, 9. Ulrich Voigt (GER) 2555.87, 10. Bojan Vučković (SRB) 2555.86. Largest five gains: Jakub Marciniszyn (POL) +54.54, Robert Włodarczyk (POL) +52.26, junior Alexandru Mihalcescu (ROU) +46.67, Valery Kopyl (UKR) +36.51, Andrey Selivanov (FID) +31.80
Highlights of Challenge 1 were the success of the Kharitonov family (which featured three 100% scores) and the most welcome presence of World Champion Danila Pavlov who, in the Blitz round, rattled off 20 correct solutions in 7 minutes. Africa were well represented by solvers from Morocco and Nigeria; with Youssef Kozizi achieving a great score in the Blitz and Lovelyn Agbo so determined to complete the Blitz round that she went to the trouble of downloading a replacement browser in place of her mischievous Chrome version.
Technically, nearly everything went according to plan, with almost all obstacles overcome. The Blitz scoring system worked particularly well. The strength of the strongest was much higher than expected (with many at WCSC level), so problems in future challenges could be made a little tougher.
OSCY Challenge 2 will be held on Sunday 10/3/2024 at 12:30 (your Local time).
Since 2007, our community has been marking January 4th as the International Day of Chess Composition, inspired by an article from 155 years ago, where chess composition was declared a kind of art. Today we are doing it in the contemporary spirit, launching the 1st WFCC Online Solving Challenge for Youth (OSCY).
The 1st OSCY unites efforts of very different generations. You may see here the OSCY video promotion made by the young Anirudh Daga, who also contributed to some elements of design.
And here is the Press Release text by our senior member Brian Cook, the heart and soul of the whole project:
As the WFCC announce their new bi-monthly Online Solving Challenge for Youth (OSCY), never has there been a better time for young chess players from 5 to 21 years old to test their skills at chess problem solving. It isn’t unusual to find that those who have taken the plunge converting their modest FIDE ratings into much higher solver ratings, earning norms and titles in the process. Free of the need for detailed knowledge of openings and strategy, their exceptional tactical skills have flourished with astonishing results. Rather than solving/composing a fast evolving web of typical threats & traps set by/for their opponents, solvers are generally confronted with a few won positions (often composed by GMs of Chess Composition) of greater complexity and/or featuring an unusual concept. Greatest of the many success stories in this regard are GMs of Solving:
Danila Pavlov – 21 year-old 3 x World Champion and No.1 (rated 2820 for solving, 2361 by FIDE), Ural Khasanov – 17 year-old World No.5 (solving at around 1000 rating points higher than he plays), not to mention 14 year old Anna Shukhman, World No.1 for women.
Full OSCY details are provided at the tournament website along with much of what needs to be known by beginners PLUS World Champion coaching and, except for <€10 for coaching, it’s all FREE. See the WFCC Announcement.
As Online and @Home solving has become more popular (at both grass-roots and elite levels), a smooth pathway is emerging from informal to the many rated/physical tournaments at which titles are earned. So, please give OSCY a try and avoid missing out on what may be your personal chess paradise.
NOTES:
Unusual pieces such as ‘nightriders’, ‘grasshoppers’, etc are not indulged in OSCY. They remain strictly for the ‘fairies’
Solvers’ ratings as of January 1st 2024 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal. 8 tournaments of the 4th quarter 2023 are included: 21st Greek Chess Solving Championship 2023, 32nd Kedainiai Cup 2023, 38th Open Swiss Solving Championship 2023, 4th Branko Babic Memorial 2023, 28th Belgian Solving Championship 2023, 32nd Henk Hagedoorn Memorial 2023, Solving Championship of Romania 2023, 8th Greek Chess Solving Cup 2023. Ranking of the top ten solvers (unchanged): 1. Danila Pavlov (FID) 2820.30, 2. Georgy Evseev (FID) 2747.29, 3. Kacper Piorun (POL) 2715.44, 4. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 2678.75, 5. Ural Khasanov (FID) 2649.49, 6. John Nunn (GBR) 2629.68, 7. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 2616.38, 8. Aleksey Popov (FID) 2575.00, 9. Kevinas Kuznecovas (LTU) 2574.54, 10. Marko Filipović (CRO) 2564.95. Largest five gains: junior Alexandru Mihalcescu, ROU (+29.23), Wouter van Rijn, NED (+21.86), junior Ioannis Kollias, GRE (+13.70), Martynas Limontas, LTU (+12.42), Jakub Marciniszyn, POL (+12.34).
The winners of the WFCC Christmas Gallery Contest 2023
Group A
M. Witztum & E. Navon 1. Place CGC 2023/A (133 points)
Živan Šušulić 2. Place CGC 2023-A (125 points)
Andrey Frolkin 3. Place CGC 2023-A (113 points)
Group B
Udo Degener 1. Place CGC 2023-B (114 points)
Jorma Paavilainen 2. Place CGC 2023-B (104.5 points)
Alexey Gasparyan 3. Place CGC 2023-B (103.5 points)
Group C
Zlatko Mihajloski 1. Place CGC 2023-C (124 points)
Janos Koczian 2. Place CGC 2023-C (121 points)
Henry Tanner 3. Place CGC 2023-C (116 points)
Happy New Year 2024 to all friends of chess composition!
There will be many challenges for chess composers, and some of those you may find in the online WFCC Composing Calendar, established at the beginning of this month. It is still in the process of completing, and you can contribute to it by sending links to the announcements and awards to the given address.
The last tournament of 2023 was the friendly WFCC Christmas Gallery Contest, announced on 09.12. In less than 2 weeks it attracted 34 authors from 17 countries, with 43 compositions. They were all published in our Christmas post, and the solutions with comments followed there on 27.12.
Till 29.12 we got 37 awards in Sections: A (14 awards), B (9), and C (14). The suggested system of collective judging worked well thanks to CGC director Kenneth Solja, WFCC webmaster Julia Vysotska and the next 23 judges from 15 countries:
Hauke Reddmann (Section A), Vlaicu Crisan (A&C), Ralf Kraetschmer (C), Andrey Frolkin (B&C), Udo Degener (A), Kenneth Solja (A), Mario Parrinello (B&C), Srećko Radović (B&C), Wilfried Neef (A&C), Mikhail Shalashov (B&C), Aleksandr Feoktistov (A&C), Bela Majoros (B&C), Nikola Petković (A), Janos Csak (C), Živan Šušulić (B), Alexey Gasparyan (A&C), Piotr Gorski (A, B & C), Zlatko Mihajloski (A), Jorma Paavilainen (A&C), Henry Tanner (A&B), Menachem Witztum (C), Brennan Price (A), and Viktoras Paliulionis (A&B).
Altogether, the CGC 2023 engaged 36 contributors (composers + judges) from 19 countries, and inspired 43 Christmas compositions. We hope you will like the winners of all 3 sections published here, as well as many of the remaining entries in the Final placements (PDF).