WSC – Page 2

Krakow 24./25.02.2024 – World Solving Cup 2023/2024

By admin 26/02/2024 26/02/2024 WSC

47^th International Polish Championship 2024 | 6^th tournament of World Solving Cup 2023/2024:
Participants: 23 | Winner: Piotr Murdzia (POL – Polish champion!) ahead of Jakub Marciniszyn (POL) and Martynas Limontas (LTU).
Jakub Marciniszyn with 1^st GM and 3^rd IM norm – the first ever GM norm not achieved at ECSC/WCSC or any of their Open solving tournaments!
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2425.90 | WSC category: 5
Top 5 WSC Standings: 1. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 69 points (unchanged), 2. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 46 points (+19), 3. Vidmantas Satkus (LTU) 39 points (unchanged), 4. Roland Ott (SUI) 29 points (unchanged), 5. David Hodge (GBR) 29 points (unchanged).
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

Helsinki 17.02.2024 – World Solving Cup 2023/2024

By admin 19/02/2024 19/02/2024 WSC

45^th Finnish Chess Solving Championship 2024 | 5^th tournament of World Solving Cup 2023/2024:
Participants: 16 | Winner: Jorma Paavilainen (FIN – Finnish champion!) ahead of Kari Karhunen (FIN) and Paavo Tikka (FIN).
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2120.16 | WSC category: 11
Top 5 WSC Standings (unchanged): 1. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 69 points, 2. Vidmantas Satkus (LTU) 39 points, 3. Roland Ott (SUI) 29 points, 4. David Hodge (GBR) 29 points, 5. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 27 points.
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

Harrow on the Hill (London) 17.02.2024 – World Solving Cup 2023/2024

By admin 19/02/2024 19/02/2024 WSC

Winton British Chess Solving Championship 2024 | 4^th tournament of World Solving Cup 2023/2024:
Participants: 31 | Winner: Eddy Van Beers (BEL) ahead of Vidmantas Satkus (LTU) and Abdelaziz Onkoud (FRA – 3^rd IM norm).
British Champion, again David Hodge (4^th Place) before Jonathan Mestel (5^th Place).
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2447.89 | WSC category: 5
Top 5 WSC Standings: 1. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 69 points (+27), 2. Vidmantas Satkus (LTU) 39 points (+23), 3. Roland Ott (SUI) 29 points (+10), 4. David Hodge (GBR) 29 points (+16), 5. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 27 points (+4).
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

Jurmala will host 66th WCCC and 47th WCSC (27.07 – 03.08.2024)

By admin 10/11/2023 10/11/2023 FIDE Albums, Other, WCCC/WCSC, WFCC online meetings, WSC

WFCC online Meeting, 8^th November 2023

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 66^th WCCC and 47^th 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 4^th 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 27^th July to 3^rd August 2024!

After the voting some delegates had to leave, while others continued the review by countries.

→read more: discussion by country…

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 4^th 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.

Marjan Kovačević, WFCC president

Geel 28.10.2023 – World Solving Cup 2023/2024

By admin 02/11/2023 02/11/2023 WSC

28^th Open Belgian Solving Championship 2023 | 3^rd tournament of World Solving Cup 2023/2024:
Participants: 14 | Winner: Eddy Van Beers (BEL – Belgian Champion) ahead of Roland Ott (SUI) and Nikos Sidiropoulos (GRE).
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2357.56 | WSC category: 6
Top 5 WSC Standings: 1. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 42 points (+23), 2. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 23 points (unchanged), 3. Roland Ott (SUI) 19 points (+19), 4. Nikos Sidiropoulos (GRE) 16 points (+16), 5. Vidmantas Satkus (LTU) 16 points (unchanged).
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

Bern 14.10.2023 – World Solving Cup 2023/2024

By admin 17/10/2023 17/10/2023 WSC

38^th Open Swiss Solving Championship 2023 | 2^nd tournament of World Solving Cup 2023/2024:
Participants: 16 | Winner: Martynas Limontas (LTU) ahead of Eddy Van Beers (BEL) and Vidmantas Satkus (LTU).
Klaus Köchli (SUI) Swiss Champion on the 6^th Place
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2368.03 | WSC category: 6
Top 5 WSC Standings: 1. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 23 points, 2. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 19 points, 3. Vidmantas Satkus (LTU) 16 points, 4. Ronald Schäfer (GER) 13 points, 5. Arno Zude (GER) 10 points.
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

Athens 1.10.2023 – World Solving Cup 2023/2024

By admin 03/10/2023 03/10/2023 WSC

21^st Greek Chess Solving Championship 2023 | 1^st tournament of World Solving Cup 2023/2024:
Participants: 10 | Winner: Nikos Mendrinos (GRE – Greek champion!) ahead of Panagiotis Konidaris (GRE) and Panagiotis Masouros (GRE).
Average rating of top ten solvers: 1894.99 | WSC category: 14
Standings: 1. Nikos Mendrinos (GRE) 2 points, 2. Panagiotis Konidaris (GRE) 1 point.
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

Batumi 4.9.2023 – Eddy Van Beers winner of World Solving Cup 2022/2023!

By admin 05/09/2023 05/09/2023 WSC

Open Solving Tournament of WCCC 2023 | 17^th and last tournament of World Solving Cup 2022/2023:
Participants: 77 | Winner: junior Ural Khasanov (FID) ahead of Eddy Van Beers (BEL), junior Danila Pavlov (FID), Kacper Piorun (POL) and Aleksey Popov (FID)
GM norms of juniors Ural Khasanov and Nikita Ushakov (both FID), 2^nd FM norm of junior Mihnea Costachi (ROU) who gets the FM title and also 7^thFM norm for and Kevinas Kuznecovas (LTU) who will directly get the IM title based on previous IM norms.
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2609.08 | WSC category: 1
Final standings top 5: 1. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 91 points (+41), 2. Kevinas Kuznecovas (LTU) 90 points (unchanged), 3. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 87 points (+23), 4. Danila Pavlov (FID) 83 points (+36), 5. Kacper Piorun (POL) 71 points (+31).
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

World Solving Cup 2022/2023 – Prague 26./27.8.2023

By admin 31/08/2023 03/10/2023 WSC

31^st Czech Chess Solving Championship 2023 | 16^th and second to last tournament of World Solving Cup 2022/2023:
Participants: 19 | Winner: Marek Kolčák (SVK) ahead of Richard Dobiáš (SVK) and Miloslav Vanka (CZE – Czech Champion)
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2106.90 | WSC category: 11
Top 5 World Solving Cup (unchanged: 1. Kevinas Kuznecovas (LTU) 90 points, 2. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 71 points, 3. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 64 points, 4. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 50 points, 5. Danila Pavlov (FID) 47 points.
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

World Solving Cup 2022/2023 – Ra’anana 25.6.2023

By admin 01/07/2023 02/07/2023 WSC

8^th Israel Open Solving Championship 2023 | 15^th tournament of World Solving Cup 2022/2023:
Participants: 17 | Winner: Danila Pavlov (FID – also winner of the multiple locations tournament) ahead of Ofer Comay (ISR – Israel Champion) and Igor Yarmonov (UKR)
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2261.58 | WSC category: 8
Top 5 World Solving Cup: 1. Kevinas Kuznecovas (LTU) 90 points (unchanged), 2. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 71 points (unchanged), 3. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 64 points (unchanged), 4. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 50 points (unchanged), 5. Danila Pavlov (FID) 47 points (+16 points).
More details published in Competitions→Solving→World Solving Cup @ Solving Portal

Note: The rating list as of 1^st July 2023 is not yet ready to be published because results of the local tournaments outside of Israel are not yet confirmed.
But results of the Israel tournament which is part of the WSC are final and might only have a slight change of the Performance Rating based on changes of the overall tournament.

Category: WSC