Cancellation of WSC 2020-21 cycle

  February 17, 2021 - 1:11 pm |
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As most of the scheduled solving tournaments have been canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Presidium agreed with the solving committee’s suggestion to cancel the current 2020-21 cycle of the World Solving Cup and only restart a new cycle after the next congress or after a new proposal is made to start one again. There has not been a single event in the current cycle, so we are of the opinion this is a good (though sad) moment for the cancellation as no solvers with WSC points will be affected.

ISC 2021 – FINAL results, Statistics & Galleries

  February 5, 2021 - 11:10 pm |
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PAvlovDAnila17th International Solving Contest (ISC) 24th January 2021

This year the ISC suffered under the circumstances of the Corona-pandemic. In many countries it was not possible to organize a tournament. But not only the pandemic led to less tournaments and solvers but also very low temperatures in Siberia (-47°C in Nizhnevartovsk) and the consequences of a severe earthquake in Croatia three weeks ago. The results of Nizhnevartovsk (the solvers solved at home) you can find as unofficial solvers at the bottom of the tables.

Finally there were 30 tournaments in 10 countries (20 tournaments in Russia). While in cat-1 it was an international contest (but only 49 solvers compared with 202 solvers last year) the contest in cat-2 and cat-3 could be also called “Russian Solving Contests” with only a few solvers from other countries.

Results: Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Statistics ISC TOP 100

Because in cat-3 the prizes for the best three solvers in the overall-category were all won by girls (perhaps an influence of the “Queen’s Gambit”?) we decided not to have special prizes for the girls but for the best boys.

At the same date there was also a home-solving tournament organized with the problems of the ISC with some top solvers. You can see the results on www.probleemblad.nl

Congratulations to the winner Danila Pavlov on his first ISC win with full points and nearly the best time.

I want to give a special thank to

  • Ivan Denkovski who selected most of the problems
  • Luc Palmans for preparing the problem and solution sheets
  • Borislav Gadjanski for the daily update of the results on the Mat Plus website
  • All local controllers for their work (most of them used STM for the results)
  • Oleg Efrosinin who coordinated 11 tournaments in Russia with more than 40% of all solvers

Axel Steinbrink, Central Controller of ISC 2021

The presentation page of ISC 2021 Results with a gallery of participants coming soon.

FIDE ALBUM 2016-2018 – Results in section F

  February 2, 2021 - 11:07 pm |
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fide-album-cover-topThe results of the FIDE Album 2016-18 section F are ready!

1041 selfmates scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 1108 entries), an excellent percentage of 94%. The ratio of the 215 selected problems with 8+ points vs. the entries with 4,5+ points is 20,7%, which is reasonable. 79 entries had already qualified from the WCCI process. Kudos to the composers for submitting their highest quality works for review!wfcc-logo-transparent

Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!

Update 04.02.2021: A s#4 of Aleksandr Azhusin, which qualified automatically from the WCCI, was found anticipated by the album judges. The composer agreed with the anticipation claim and withdrew the composition from the album. The page of the results was updated accordingly.

All announced results are published in the FIDE Album 2016-18 finished sections page.

FIDE ALBUM 2016-2018 – Results in section C

  January 14, 2021 - 5:28 pm |
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fide-album-cover-topThe results of the FIDE Album 2016-18 section C are ready!

735 moremovers scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 914 entries), a very good percentage of 80%. The ratio of the 159 selected problems with 8+ points vs. the entries with 4,5+ points is 21,6%, which is reasonable. 52 entries had already qualified from the WCCI process. Kudos to the composers for submitting their highest quality works for review!wfcc-logo-transparent

Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!

All announced results are published in the FIDE Album 2016-18 finished sections page.

World Solving Cup 2019/2020 – Winner Aleksey Popov

  January 14, 2021 - 5:02 pm |
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Due to the Covid-19 pandemic only 10 solving tournaments could be organised although the time range for WSC events of this cycle has been extended until the end of the year 2020.
Aleksey Popov (RUS) is the winner of the WSC cycle 2019/2020 with 86 points gained in 4 tournaments.
2nd is Piotr Murdzia (POL) with 62 points and a performance rating of 2759 for the two events which he has attended.
Martynas Limontas (LTU) as 3rd also achieved 62 points – but with a performance rating of only 2526 of the 5 tournaments which he has participated.

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

Solvers’ ratings January 1st 2021

  January 2, 2021 - 7:25 pm |
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Solvers’ ratings as of January 1st 2021 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published! 6 tournaments of the 4th quarter 2020 are included: 29th Kedainiai chess solving cup tourney 2020, Branko Babić Memorial 2020, Tula Open 2020, Tula Region Championship 2020, Open of Tula Solving Cup, Tula Solving Cup 2020.
The top ten remain the same solvers as in the previous quarter. The largest three gains have been achieved by Bogdan Zolotov (RUS / +37.19), ahead of women junior solver Olga Shishkova (RUS / +35.71) and Ilja Biriukov (RUS / +17.18.).

2nd Home Solving Tournament: Results & Presentation

  December 13, 2020 - 2:03 pm |
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“When we organised the Lockdown Tournament last May, it was never the intention to repeat this. At that moment nobody had any idea what the future would bring. We all hoped to return quickly to our normal live. Half a year later we know that it is not that simple.

Some time ago I made the selection for the traditional Henk Hagedoorn Memorial in the Netherlands, but when this tournament was cancelled, everything went fast. With most of the problems “ready to use” and a complete lack of live tournaments, the decision to repeat the Home Solving Tournament (a much better name than the ugly “Lockdown”) was quickly made.”

− Luc Palmans, Spokesman of Solving Committee

→ See the results and photo gallery in the presentation Roland Baier wins Second Home Solving Tournament!

Results | Problems | Solutions

FIDE ALBUM 2016-2018 – Results in section D

  October 17, 2020 - 3:11 pm |
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fide-album-cover-topThe results of the FIDE Album 2016-18 section D are ready!

771 studies scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 909 entries), a very good percentage of 84,8%. The ratio of the 227 selected studies with 8+ points vs. the entries with 4,5+ points is 29,4%, which means that nearly one out of each three entries was successful. 59 entries had already qualified from the WCCI process. Kudos to the composers for submitting their highest quality works for review!
wfcc-logo-transparent

Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!

All announced results are published in the FIDE Album 2016-18 finished sections page.