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.
