Happy New Year 2023!

The year behind was crowded with official composing and solving events, thanks to the judges and organizers who worked hard in 2022.

January brought 18th International Solving Contest, another successful edition run by ever passionate Axel Steinbrink.

In March, the Solving Committee has made another step forward, introducing the very informative Solving Portal on our website.

May was the month of 15th European Chess Solving Championship, and Julia Vysotska created and exceptionally friendly atmosphere in Riga to attract solvers to the first ECSC since 2019.

Results of the two longest lasting composing events were completed between August and October. First, Valery Kopyl finalized the 8th World Championship in Composing for Individuals 2019-21, in spite of the most difficult circumstances in his country.

The other hard task was fulfilled by our long standing President Harry Fougiaxis, who took over the duty of the 11th World Chess Composing Tournament director.

During the summer, awards of the 10th FIDE World Cup in Composing were appearing one by one. In October, the director Aleksey Oganesyan ended his job and announced the final results.

World Solving Cup 2021/22, under the firm control of Roland Ott, lasted throughout the year, using the organizing resources of 13 different countries.

The final stage of the WSC was in Fujairah. In November, the United Arab Emirates hosted the 64th World Congress of Chess Composition. The first ever WCCC in Arabian Peninsula was an outstanding event in many ways. Dr. Abdulla Ali Aal Barket assured the memorable conditions for promotion of chess composition, and Mohammad Abdul Ghani was there to execute every single task.

The director of the 45th World Chess Solving Championship was the same as for the 15th ECSC. It was a challenging double task, unmistakably executed by Ivan Denkovski.


Let’s turn to 2023!

The red dates in our calendars will be 29th January (19th ISC), 2nd-4th June (16th ECSC in Bratislava) and 2nd-9th September (65th WCCC in Batumi).

Apart from regular competitions, we will have a joint duty to come closer to a much wider audience. The first steps in this direction were made a week ago, registering the WFCC in different social media (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram), with some introductory posts for each of them.

To find our stable place there we need more contributors from different countries, to “feed” the media with short but attractive and frequent posts. Some longer posts, for instance from national championships, may appear on the FIDE website, as announced by their Marketing and Communications Officer David Llada.

It’s perhaps time to recall words by our Honorary President Dr. Klaus Wenda, dedicated to the Golden Jubilee of our organization, in 2007:

There is no doubt that the status of the contemplative occupation of chess problems among the young is lower nowadays; that is confirmed by an alarming lack of young problemists in virtually all the member countries. It only makes the task of the commission more important, though: creating new incentives and new ways to arouse interest in chess composition. I know that there is no easy answer, but the important thing, in accordance with Herakleitos’s dictum, is to recognise new trends quickly and react to them appropriately.

Happy, healthy, and peaceful 2023!

Marjan Kovačević
WFCC President


15.ECSC: the presentation

After three years we met again at the European Chess Solving Championship. The event in Riga brought back to the field many old friends, and we were also happy to welcome a number of new ones – almost a quarter of the participants were debutantes. Danila Pavlov convincingly defended his title (overall and among juniors), finishing well ahead of the second-placed Piotr Murdzia and the third-placed Tomáš Peitl.

While the outcome of the individual competition was mostly certain already after the fifth round, the suspense in the team competition continued up to the last minute. In a spectacular finish, led by the young Ilija Serafimović, Serbia outran Lithuania as well as Slovakia, whose third team place was further accompanied by Marek Kolčák’s win in the senior competition. The women’s competition was won by the fifteen-year old Marina Putinceva. /Ivan Denkovski, 15.ECSC director/

→ presentation of final results 15.ECSCofficial website of 15. ECSC RIGA


15.ECSC – Registration & RIGA Tips

Dear participants of the 15th ECSC in Riga,

We are wishing you a nice stay in the capital of Latvia in May 2022!
For your convenience a RIGA TIPS section is created on the official website of the event, were we will be giving the recent information about traveling to Latvia and local conditions.

As some other big events take part in the same area in May, the official hotel expects to be in high demand. In the middle of April we will have to release a block of rooms reserved for ECSC 2022 if not used. Please register in March to be assured about staying in the official hotel (cancellation is free of charge up to the first week of May). Otherwise the registration is opened up to 15th April.

A number of measures will be eased as from 1 March 2022, as the state of emergency expires. From March 1st for entering Latvia either Covid19 vaccination certificate OR negative test result is needed. With the number of new cases declining, there are plans to lift all security restrictions as from 1 April.

Julia Vysotska, on behalf of Latvian Chess Problem Society


15th European Chess Solving Championship

Latvian Chess Problem Society, in co-operation with the Latvian Chess Federation, has the honor of inviting the European national teams and individual solvers to participate in the 15th European Chess Solving Championship. The event will be held from Friday, May 13th to Sunday May 15th, 2022, at the Islande Hotel, in Riga.

Directors of the competitions: ECSC: Ivan Denkovski (North Macedonia), Open solving: Antons Gajevskis (Latvia), Solving-Composing tournament: Marjan Kovačević (SRB).

Please, register by 15th April 2022 at the  ECSC 2022 Official website. See you in Riga!


COVID-19 and WFCC events

As a result of the growing COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on people’s lives all around the globe and taking into account the reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicating the constant increase in the number of cases worldwide, WFCC has decided to postpone the 15th European Chess Solving Championship that was scheduled for 24-26 April 2020. The event will be held in Poltava, Ukraine in 2021 (the exact weekend will be announced at a later stage).

With regard to the 63rd WCCC / 44th WCSC 2020 that are scheduled for 3-10 October in Rhodes, the organisers will monitor the situation as evolves and will decide by the end of April or May. At the moment, in Greece flights are suspended, all schools, universities, retail shops and hotels will be closed until at least end of April and citizens are not allowed to move freely around the country (except for going to their jobs if they are still operating, to the supermarket, or to a doctor).

Stay home and be safe!Harry Fougiaxis, WFCC president.

15th European Chess Solving Championship

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”.

Director of the championship will be Ivan Denkovski (MKD) and of the open solving tournament 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/

14.ECSC Results (Sponsored by Municipality of Glyfada)

The remarkably young (with three juniors among the four solvers!) team of Russia brought the country its first European team title, finishing well ahead of second-placed Poland and third-placed United Kingdom. While the powerful performance of the new champions made the outcome of the team competition quite certain already after the fifth round, the suspense in the individual competition continued up to the last minute. Thanks to their results in the final round, the silver-medalist Piotr Murdzia and the bronze-medalist (and winner in the official senior competition) John Nunn outran the other competitors, all except one: the sixteen-year old Danila Pavlov, who successfully resisted all the attacks on the yellow jersey that he had taken after the fourth round, and became the youngest ever European champion. /Ivan Denkovski, director/

Results | Problems | Solutions | Team results | Individual results | Juniors results | Women results | Seniors results