8th World Chess Composing Tournament of the FIDE
The General Rules were accepted at Pula in September 1972 by the Permanent Commission
of the FIDE for Chess Compositions (PCCC) and modified and added to in September
1978 in Canterbury, in August 1984 in Sarajevo, in September 1990 in Benidorm,
in August 1991 in Rotterdam, and in August/September 1993 in Bratislava. Further
amendments have been made in the light of changes approved at Pula 2000, Wageningen
2001 and Eretria 2005.
GENERAL RULES
1. The WCCT (World Chess Composition Tournament) is organised with the authority
of the PCCC.
2. The WCCT is open to all member federations of the FIDE (participating countries).
3. The WCCT includes the following sections: A) Two-movers, B) Three-movers,
C) More-movers, D) Endgame studies, E) Helpmates, F) Selfmates, G) Fairies.
4. The PCCC regulates the procedure for proposing and selecting themes. The
PCCC also approves the procedure to be used for judging. The final choice of
themes and the countries to be asked to judge each section lies with the PCCC.
5. Constructional tasks or any theme stipulating a limit to the number of pieces
should be avoided. Twin form, duplex form and compositions with more than one
solution are accepted only in accordance with the definitions. Promoted pieces
in the diagram positions are allowed only if they are substitutes for captured
pieces of the same value. It should be noted that a King’s Bishop cannot be
a substitute for a Queen’s Bishop. Fairy pieces or other fairy conditions which
do not correspond with the theme definitions will not be accepted.
6. The member federations of the FIDE are to be given adequate opportunity
to report in advance their intention to participate.
7. Each participating country appoints a team-leader. The Tournament Director
and the team-leader must be different persons.
8. A dated announcement of the WCCT will be made which sets out the rules and
which carries theme definitions with diagrammed illustrations. There should
be at least 10 months between the date of the announcement and the closing date
for entries.
9. Three compositions in each of the seven sections are allowed from each participating
country, but only the two highest-placed compositions will score points in the
final award. Any one composer may participate with three compositions for each
section. Joint compositions are permitted.
10. The organising country may participate in the WCCT provided that sealed
copies of that country’s entries are sent to the President of the PCCC two weeks
before the last legal sending date.
11. The last legal sending date of the entries is to be defined clearly. This
closing date must not be changed.
12. Entries for the WCCT are to be printed or stamped on uniform diagrams with
the section, composer’s name and country, and full solution clearly written
on the front of each diagram. The algebraic notation is to be used.
13. The entries are to be acknowledged by the Tournament Director who will
produce a booklet containing all the entries on diagrams with the full solution
but without composers’ names and countries. Each diagram will bear a number
for reference purposes. The booklet will be sent to the team-leaders for checking,
and the Tournament Director must be informed of any misprints or claims of anticipation
or unsoundness within three months.
14. The Tournament Director will inform all judging countries and team-leaders
of any misprints, any entries deemed to be unsound, and any claims of anticipation,
so that six weeks may be given for checking these claims.
15. Each judging country will allocate points to all sound compositions in
the section which it has agreed to judge, except entries from the judging country
itself, using a scale from 0 to 4 including half-points. The Tournament Director
will calculate the average points gained by each composition by dividing the
total points by 5 (or by 4 in the case of compositions from a judging country).
In addition, any individual score (0, ½, 1, 1½, .. , 3½,
4) may be allocated a suffix of either "+" (plus), or "–"
(minus), or else it could remain without a suffix (e.g., a problem may get a
score of 1+, 2, 2½-, 3½, 4+ etc). The number of pluses minus the
number of minuses divided by the number of judgments will decide in the case
of entries getting the same overall score.
16. The Tournament Director will rank the top entries in each section on the
basis of the average of the points awarded. However, in accordance with para.
9 above, the third-placed entry of any one country will not contribute to that
country’s score, though it will appear in the final awards booklet. The Tournament
Director’s decision is final in respect of ranking.
17. In each section the top 24 compositions (excluding any 3rd placed entries
from a single country) will be awarded scores from 24 down to 1. Scores will
be divided equally among compositions with equal ranking. The overall winner
of the Tournament is the team with the highest total of scores from all sections.
18. If a judging country does not make its award within a reasonable time (or
in the case of other irregularities), the Tournament Director may appoint another
country to act as judge, making use in the first instance of the list of reserves
drawn up by the WCCT sub-committee. The President of the PCCC shall be informed.
19. Diagrams of all ranked compositions, together with their solutions, will
be included in the final award, and published. The awards will be made available
to every participating country and composer. The unpublished compositions will
be available to their composers for publication elsewhere, once the final award
has appeared.
20. The official documents (announcement and award) are to be written in at
least one of the official languages of the FIDE.
21. The three countries with the highest points totals and the composers of
the three best compositions in each section will be awarded a certificate of
honour.
Invitation | Introduction
by the WCCT Subcommittee | Themes
| Questions and Answers | List
of registrations | Prior realizations of the themes
| Versions