FIDE Album 2022-2024
Announcement
The World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC) invites composers to submit their highest-quality compositions for selection in the FIDE Album. Entry is open to compositions published during the years 2022-2024. 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).
If a composition has been published in a magazine which is labelled 2021 on the front but it appeared in 2022-2024, the composition is eligible for the 2022-24 album provided that the composer had not submitted the composition to the 2019-21 album.
If a composition has been published in a magazine which is labelled 2024 on the front but it appeared in 2025, the composition is eligible for the 2022-24 album provided that the magazine was published before the deadline for submission to the 2022-24 album.
If a composition has been published in a magazine which is labelled 2025 on the front but it appeared in 2024, the composition is not eligible for the 2022-24 album.
If the date of publication is in doubt, the directors should ask the composer for evidence.
Anyone entering compositions by another living composer should obtain the agreement of that composer beforehand. Compositions by deceased composers may be entered unless it is known that the deceased composers would not be willing to contribute their compositions to the Album. A composer is entitled to submit joint compositions even if his co-author(s) disagree.
Those who published large numbers of compositions during this period are strongly urged to make a selection consisting of only their very best work.
A composer may submit to each of the 8 sections (A: twomovers, B: threemovers, C: moremovers, D: endgame studies, E: helpmates, F: selfmates, G: fairies, H: retros) no more than 30 compositions published in the defined three-year period, or up to 3 times the number of his/her compositions that were selected in this section in any previously published album, whichever is greater. Compositions with mathematical content will have to be submitted to the fairies section.
With regard to joint compositions, if a composer A includes in his PDF file joint compositions with some other composer B, then these compositions count for the quota of composer A only (and not for the quota of composer B).
Entries must be sent to the directors 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. The solution may extend to more than one page if needed. The compositions must be in diagrams of 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. Entries not complying with these requirements will be rejected.
In section D (endgame studies) composers must also submit a PGN file of their entries. In section G (fairies) composers must provide the definitions for the less common fairy elements.
In sections E (helpmates) and G (fairies), composers must submit a separate file for each group E1 (helpmates in 2), E2 (helpmates in 2,5 and 3), E3 (helpmates in more than 3), G1 (fairies without fairy conditions, other than help-self-play problems), G2 (fairies with fairy conditions, other than help-self-play problems) and G3 (help-self-play problems with or without fairy conditions/pieces).
Compositions that receive 8 points or higher in the 2022-24 WCCI qualify for the FIDE album automatically, however they must also be submitted by the composers to the album in order to be published in it and count for points. Of course, the WCCI entries qualifying for the album count for the composers’ quota. If a problem qualifying from the WCCI is claimed cooked or anticipated, it should be reviewed by the Album judges too and be excluded, if confirmed defective. Then any Album points gained by the problem are subtracted, however if the composer had already been awarded a title based on these points then the title should not be taken away. Album entries that received less than 8 points in the WCCI will be judged like any other entries, whether or not they participated in the WCCI.
Attention! Compositions of the 11th WCCT 2021-22 should be submitted to this album.
WCCT section-winners qualify automatically for the album. Any such composition entered by the composer is judged in the normal way but is included anyway even if the points score falls below the required threshold. No points score is shown in the published album in the case of a WCCT section-winner not submitted by the composer.
The closing date is September 1, 2025.
The WFCC makes the following recommendations:
- Cyrillic names of composers should be written in Cyrillic capital letters and preferably also transcribed into Latin letters.
- The source of each composition should, if possible, include not only the magazine and year of publication but also the month or magazine number and/or the number of the composition. A reference to the award (issue of a printed magazine or a web link) should be also provided, if known.
- In joint compositions the order of authors’ names should be written as in the original publication.
- If a correction or version is submitted, then the exact date and source of publication of the version should be indicated.
- Position should be also given in FEN notation.
- WinChloe ID should be given if the composer knows it.
- Computer-tested compositions should be indicated by the symbol C+. In section G, authors should also indicate the testing program and its version.
- In compositions with the Anticirce condition (and similar variations), the author should specify if Cheylan or Calvet type is used (Calvet is considered as default).
Time Schedule
- Announcement: March 1, 2025
- Closing date: September 1, 2025
- Submission of entries to the judges: December 1, 2025
- Reports by the directors and results: December 1, 2026
- Submission of selected entries to the editor: February 1, 2027
- Indexing, typesetting, printing: August 1, 2028
Directors and judges
A) Twomovers
Director: Gérard Doukhan (FRA), gerard.doukhan@gmail.com
Judges: Vasil Dyachuk (SVK), Kabe Moen (USA), Anatoly Slesarenko (RUS)
B) Threemovers
Director: Sergey Bilyk (RUS), kuk.spb@mail.ru
Judges: Mikhailo Marandyuk (UKR), C.G.S. Narayanan (IND), Srećko Radović (SRB)
C) Moremovers
Director: Grigory Popov (RUS), popovgl@yandex.ru
Judges: Jorma Paavilainen (FIN), Valery Shavyrin (RUS), Igor Yarmonov (UKR)
D) Endgame Studies
Director: Jan Sprenger (GER), jan.sprenger@gmx.net
Judges: Amatzia Avni (ISR), Oleg Pervakov (RUS), Vladislav Tarasyuk (UKR)
E) Helpmates
Director: Harry Fougiaxis (GRE), loyaldragon@gmail.com
Helpmates in 2 moves (Group E1)
Judges: Michal Dragoun (CZE), Vladislav Nefyodov (RUS), Aleksandr Semenenko (UKR)
Helpmates in 2.5 and 3 moves (Group E2)
Judges: Valery Gurov (RUS), Mikola Kolesnik (UKR), Abdelaziz Onkoud (FRA)
Helpmates longer than 3 moves (Group E3)
Judges: Christopher Jones (GBR), Valery Semenenko (UKR), Marko Ylijoki (FIN)
F) Selfmates
Director: Zoran Gavrilovski (MKD), zoran.gavrilovski@gmail.com
Judges: Aleksandr Azhusin (RUS), Frank Richter (GER), Ivan Soroka (UKR)
G) Fairies
Director: Manfred Rittirsch (GER), mrittirsch@gmail.com
Fairies without fairy conditions, other than help-self-play problems (Group G1)
Judges: Emil Klemanič (SVK), Jean-Marc Loustau (FRA), Gerard Smits (NED)
Fairies with fairy conditions, other than help-self-play problems (Group G2)
Judges: Georgy Evseev (RUS), Eric Huber (ROU), Narayan Shankar Ram (IND)
Help-self play problems (with or without fairy conditions/pieces) (Group G3)
Judges: Vlaicu Crișan (ROU), Borislav Gadjanski (SRB), Juraj Lörinc (SVK)
H) Retros
Director: Silvio Baier (GER), silvio.baier@gmx.de
Judges: Andry Frolkin (UKR) [reserve: Kostas Prentos (GRE)], Thierry le Gleuher (CAN), Reto Aschwanden (SUI) [for proofgames], Andrew Buchanan (SGP) [for retros other than proofgames]