WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN COMPOSING FOR INDIVIDUALS
GENERAL RULES
- The WCCI is organized with the authority of the WFCC. The championship should be announced in advance.
- The WCCI is open to all composers from all Countries.
- The WCCI includes the following sections: a) Twomovers, b) Threemovers, c) Moremovers, d) Endgame studies, e) Helpmates, f) Selfmates, g) Fairies and h) Retro problems.
- In each Section the Spokesman and the Director will select 5 judges among eminent composers with judging experience adequate to ensure a sound and fair assessment of the entries submitted, with the restriction that in each Section the judges should be from different Countries. The Spokesman and the Director shall make their best efforts to select different judges across Sections, to maximize the number of Countries providing judges and to achieve a good turnover of judges across WCCI cycles, with the restriction that the same person can be selected in a given Section for up to two consecutive WCCI cycles. The same person can act as a judge in more than one section. The composers will have to agree in writing that they are willing to act as judges.
- A composer may submit to each section no more than 6 and no less than 4 compositions published in the defined three-years period. For informal tourneys the date of publication of the issue containing the composition is decisive; for formal tourneys the date of appearance of the award is decisive (NB: not the closing date of the tourney). Later corrections or versions could be accepted if they are submitted before the deadline. If the date of publication is in doubt, the Director should ask the composer for evidence. Joint compositions and versions created in collaboration with other composer(s) are not allowed. It is not allowed to submit compositions on behalf of someone else without explicit statement of the other person’s consent.
- Entries must be sent to the Director by email and in PDF format only. In each section composers have to submit one PDF file, which will include all their entries to this section with one composition per page. Composers must have already marked their entries with No. 1 to 6. The compositions should be in diagrams of a uniform size, with the author’s name, publication data, any award, stipulation, full solution and a comment if desired. Algebraic notation is to be used. In section D (endgame studies) composers may alternatively submit a PGN file of their entries or both. In section G (Fairies) composers must provide the definitions for the less common fairy elements. The Director forwards the PDF/PGN files (one PDF/PGN file per composer) to the judges, as well as a spreadsheet where they will enter their scores.
- Using a scale of 0 to 4 including half-points, each judge will allocate points to all compositions in the section(s) which he has agreed to judge, except for his own entries and entries that were excluded from the competition on technicalities. Compositions which are sound and not anticipated should receive at least 0.5 points. The judges must explain their reason(s) for giving a score of 0 points to any composition. In section D, if a study arrives, during the solution, to a position of 7 pieces or less; and especially if it starts with 7 pieces or less, the judge is advised to base his score on his evaluation of the human contribution to the EGTB position, and on the amount of comprehensibility of the study to humans. After completing his work, each judge will send the spreadsheet with his scores to the Director, along with comments regarding errors, very close anticipations, thematic flaws, etc. The Director should distribute these comments to the other judges together with his own notes on anticipations, cooks, duals, etc. However, no comments regarding constructional weaknesses or possible technical improvements are to be sent to the judges. Judges may wish to change some of their scores as a result of discussion with their colleagues, but their individual scores should always reflect the true value of the compositions in the view of each judge. Until results will be published and made final, judges shall avoid any comments or discussions of the entries with the concerned composers as well as on any public forums.
- The Director will calculate the total points gained by each composition. If a composition has been judged by five judges, the Director discards the highest and the lowest marks and sums the remaining three. If a composition belongs to a judge, the Director sums the two middle marks and adds the average of these two marks (in other words, the score of such a composition is 1.5 times the sum of the two middle marks). If a composition has received zero points from at least one judge, the Director should inform the other judges about the reasons for such a decision. In such a case adjustment of points by all judges is necessary.
- The Director is responsible for reviewing the scores received by the judges and if he feels it necessary he will point out and try to resolve any potential irregularities, e.g. the average score of any one judge is much higher or much lower than that of the other four, or cases where there is a wide disparity (e.g. more than 1.5) between the judges’ points allocated to a given composition (in such cases the Director should email the outliers with the average score of the other judges).The Director will then send the tables with the results to the 3 members of the Supervising Panel who cannot be participating or judging in any section. The members of the Supervising Panel should also point out irregularities and ask the Director for a resolution.
- The sum of a composer’s 4 best compositions is calculated for his final result. The champion in each section is the composer with the highest sum of his 4 best compositions. In a case of a tie, the highest-ranked composition decides. If they are still the same, the second-ranked composition decides, etc. If all compositions have the same scores, composers share places.
- In his report, the Director includes a) tables with full results of all participants, b) the four highest-ranked compositions, with eventual comments, of the three winners in each section, c) the three compositions with the highest scores in each section, even if they do not belong to the three winners. The Director decides about remarks concerning complete anticipation, legitimate publication data, legality and soundness. The Director and the Supervising Panel decide about any claims and the results are declared final when approved by the WFCC president and published on the WFCC site. The compositions (the best four) with eventual comments should be published for at least three best composers in each section. The three compositions with the highest marks in a section should also be published if they not belong to the winners. The official documents (announcement and award) should be written in at least one of the official languages of the FIDE.
- The three winners in each section will be awarded a plaque of honour.
(Version 05.07.2024)