Invitation to the 16th ISC

  October 6, 2019 - 7:01 pm |
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The International Solving Contest – ISC – next year will take place on Sunday January 26th 2020. The event is happening simultaneously in all participating countries. The name of the locally appointed controller must reach the central controllers Axel Steinbrink and Luc Palmans by e-mail no later than December 31st 2019:  axel.steinbrink@gmx.de  / palmans.luc@skynet.be

There are two changes of the rules compared with ISC 2019:

1. The rating limit of Cat-2 is now 2000 (1700 in 2019) and cat-2 will be rated. Of course the birthday limit of cat-3 is now 31.12.2006.

2. The results will be automatically transfered to the MatPlus-website where they can be seen by all solvers. This means that there is no need anymore to enter results manually into MatPlus.
But top 3 results of Cat. 1 must still be sent by email to central controllers on Sunday evening!

I hope that even more local controllers will use the official WFCC Solving Tournament Manager (STM) for their results.

Until 31.12.2019 please send the following information: 

1. Name of local controller
2. E-Mail address of local controller
3. Location of local tournament
4. Use of STM: yes/no

Axel Steinbrink, 16th ISC Controller

World Solving Cup 2019/2020 – Geel 05.10.2019

  October 6, 2019 - 6:52 pm |
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26th Open Belgian Solving Championship 2019  | 2nd tournament of World Solving Cup 2019/2020: 
Participants: 12 | Winner: Eddy Van Beers (BEL – Belgian champion) ahead of Dolf Wissmann (NED) and Andrey Selivanov (RUS)
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2272.49 | WSC category: 8
Top 5 World Solving Cup: 1. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 31 points, 2. Michel Caillaud (FRA) 27 points, 3. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 23 points, 4. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 22 points, 5. Arno Zude (GER) 19 points

More details are published in Competitions → Solving → World Solving Cup (WSC) → 2019/20 Calendar.

Solvers’ ratings October 1st 2019

  September 30, 2019 - 2:07 pm |
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Solvers’ ratings as of October 1st 2019 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published - including the first solving tournament with rating calculations according the new rating system! 9 tournaments of the 3rd quarter 2019 are included: Open Solving Tournament Yaroslavl 2019, Open Tournament to Launch Chess Compositions in Memory of Leo Kapusty (1919-1990), 2nd Ukrainian Cup 2019, 27th Czech Chess Solving Championship 2019, 3rd Russian Women Chess Solving Cup 2019, GPNTB Solving Cup 2019, Open Solving Tournament of WCCC 2019, 43rd World Chess Solving Championship 2019, 35th Open Swiss Solving Championship 2019.

The ranking of the top ten solvers had only a few changes within the group. The largest five gains have been achieved by women junior solver Aleksandra Safronova (RUS / +236.47!) ahead of junior solvers Ivan Novikov (RUS / +125.5!), Roy Ehrlich (ISR / +80.84) and Maksim Romanov (RUS / +79.67) and GM Martynas Limontas (LTU / +78.98).

World Solving Cup 2019/2020 – Bern 28.09.2019

  September 29, 2019 - 3:07 pm |
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35th Open Swiss Solving Championship 2019  | 1st tournament of World Solving Cup 2019/2020: 
Participants: 22 | Winner: Piotr Murdzia (POL) ahead of Michel Caillaud (FRA) and Martynas Limontas (LTU)

8. Roland Baier (SUI – Swiss champion), 5. junior solver Danila Moiseev with 3rd IM norm

Average rating of top ten solvers: 2478.87 | WSC category: 4

Top 5 World Solving Cup: 1. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 31 points, 2. Michel Caillaud (FRA) 27 points, 3. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 23 points, 4. Arno Zude (GER) 19 points, 5. Danila Moiseev (RUS) 16 points

More details are published in Competitions → Solving → World Solving Cup (WSC) → 2019/20 Calendar.

15th European Chess Solving Championship

  September 13, 2019 - 5:06 pm |
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The Chess Composition Committee of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, Poltava Region Chess Federation, Poltava City Organization of Poltava Region Chess Federation have the honour to invite the European national teams and individual solvers of Europe and World to participate in the 15th European Chess Solving Championship. The event will be held from Friday, April 24rd of 2020 (arrival) till Monday, April 27th of 2020 (departure) at the Poltava Palace of Culture (Maidan Nezalezhnosti square, 5). Accommodation offered is in the Hotel “Almaz”.

The director of 15th ECSC has not been selected yet | Director of the open solving tournament will be Valery Kopyl.

The email of the event: ecsc2020poltava@gmail.com | All the information about the championship will be published on the site:  https://www.wfcc.ch/ and http://www.chess-kopyl.com.ua/ua/

The FIDE Album 2013-2015 has been published

  September 9, 2019 - 7:39 am |
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fide album 2013-2015 photoThe FIDE Album 2013-2015 (an official selection of the world’s best and most representative chess compositions) has been published. 704 pages, 1499 diagrams, 270 authors. Comments, indexes, registers, statistics in English. 

Hard-cover blue clothbound. Price 45 euro. Discounts if more copies ordered. Orders to Peter Gvozdják, peter.gvozdjak@gmail.com. Sample pages available as a PDF file.

4.YCCC: Results & Gallery

  September 3, 2019 - 7:32 am |
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black-yccc-transpYCCC2019-winners4th YCCC attracted 54 entries by 25 participants from 9 countries! Announcement English/Russian | Results (PDF) | Photo gallery

The Youth Chess Composing Challenge (YCCC) is an individual international competition first introduced by the Serbian Chess Problem Society in 2016. Since 2018, the YCCC has become a joint project of the newly established Youth Committee of the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC), and a part of regular program of the yearly WFCC Meetings.

YCCC competitions are presented in the /Competitions/Composing section.

43WCSC summary page

  September 3, 2019 - 7:18 am |
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WCCC_2019_Vilnius_logo_be fonowccc2019-cakeBy Ryszard Królikowski, the 43rd WCSC director: “The 43rd  WCSC competition brought a tensed and exciting fight for the highest places. Finally, Piotr Górski (POL) won, having the most consistent results during all six rounds. Besides, he fulfilled the 4th GM norm and obtained the desired title. He is the first World Champion without an international title in OTB chess, after many years (Caillaud 2000, Selivanov 2003) …”   →more

21 teams / 90 solvers / 24 countries. See the summary page of the 43rd WCSC 2019 under /Competitions/Solving.

62nd WCCC – Highlights and Decisions

  August 28, 2019 - 10:42 pm |
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WCCC_2019_Vilnius_logo_be fono 26 member countries were present. United Arab Emirates was welcomed as a new member country of the Federation. Neal Turner was appointed as the new secretary.

WCCT: The themes of the 11th WCCT were selected. Countries are urged to inform the spokesman Georgy Evseev, 10wcct@gmail.com (same email address as in the previous tournament) and the director of the tournament Mikalai Sihnevich, n_signevich@tut.by about the sections they are willing to judge. The deadline is 1 November 2019. It is hoped that the WCCT can be announced by the end of the year.  →more…

16th International Solving Contest (ISC) on 26.1.2020, directors Axel Steinbrink and Luc Palmans
15th European Chess Solving Championship (ECSC) in Poltava, Ukraine 24-26 April 2020
63rd World Congress of Chess Composition (WCCC) and 44th World Chess Solving Championship (WCSC) in Rhodes, Greece 3-10 October 2020.

Danila Pavlov winner of the World Solving Cup 2018/2019 – Vilnius 19.08.2019

  August 25, 2019 - 9:52 pm |
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wsc2018-19-winnersAfter a fascinating race in the last rounds the Russian European Champion 2019, junior solver Danila Pavlov (RUS) has won the 4th World Solving Cup. There have been 19 tournaments including the Open Solving of the ECSC and the WCCC with total of 85 World Cup points winning solvers.
Final top five: 1. Danila Pavlov (RUS) 139 points (+3), 2. Martynas Limontas (LTU) 136 points (+23), 3. Eddy Van Beers (BEL) 115 points (+/-0), 4. Aleksey Popov (RUS) 113 points (+5), 5. Piotr Murdzia (POL) 103 points (+41).

Open Solving Tournament WCCC 2019 – 19th tournament of World Solving Cup 2018/2019
Participants: 100 | Winner: Piotr Murdzia (POL) ahead of John Nunn (GBR), Michael Pfannkuche (GER), Martynas Limontas (LTU) and Boris Tummes (GER).
Average rating of top ten solvers: 2573.88 | WSC category: 2
David Hodge (GBR) with 12th place and 2nd FM norm

More details are published in Competitions → Solving → World Solving Cup (WSC) → 2018/19 Calendar.