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).
As Solving Tournaments Calendar shows, there will be a lot of fun and challenge on the table already in January, starting from the 1st WFCC Online Solving Challenge for Youth (14.01). A week later (21.01), the 20th International Solving Contest will unite participants from many countries around the world. February will bring the first 2024 competitions of the World Solving Cup 2023-24, simultaneously in Helsinki and London (17.02). The highlights of the solving year will be 17th ECSC in Hagen (19-21.04) and during 66th WCCC in Jurmala (27.07-03.08), including the 47th WCSC.
Have a fruitful, joyful and peaceful 2024! – Marjan Kovačević, WFCC President