Category: ISC

The International Solving Contest next year will take place on Sunday 29.01.2023. The event is happening simultaneously in all participating countries.
There will be three categories: one for experienced solvers. The second category is intended for weaker, inexperienced solvers. This second category is not open for solvers with a rating (or half-rating or non-active-rating) of more than 2000. The third category is intended for youngsters born after 31.12.2009.

The name of the locally appointed controller must reach the central controllers by email not later than 31.12.2022:  axel.steinbrink@gmx.de  / palmans.luc@skynet.be

Announcement of 19^th ISC | Rules of ISC

Axel Steinbrink, 19^th ISC Controller

18^th International Solving Contest (ISC) 23^rd January 2022

Finally we had 44 tournaments in 20 countries and 585 solvers (+15 unofficial solvers in cat-3) – 94 solvers in cat-1, 166 solvers in cat-2 and 325 solvers in cat-3. Thank you to all local controller for their excellent work and good cooperation and congratulation to the winners. If you find any mistakes in the tables (e.g. wrong written names, wrong gender, …) please let me know. I will correct such mistakes.

Results: Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Statistics ISC 2022 | ISC 2022 Studies-Analysis | ISC 2022 Winners | ISC 2022 TOP 100

Axel Steinbrink, Central Controller of ISC 2022

See the ISC 2022 presentation with a gallery of participants!
The navigation to the ISC main page: Competitions -> Solving -> International Solving Contest

The preliminary results of the 18th ISC: We had 44 tournaments in 20 countries. In Category-1  94 solvers ; Category-2  166 solvers ; Category-3  323 solvers (+14 unofficial because solvers were too old for cat-3) – together 583 solvers.

In Category-1 already nearly 90% of the results are confirmed. Still the scanned sheets from several countries are missing.

All results will be updated in MatPlus every evening – see http://www.matplus.net/start.php

Best wishes,
Axel Steinbrink, Luc Palmans
Central controllers ISC 2022

The International Solving Contest (ISC) next year will take place on Sunday 23.01.2022. The event is happening simultaneously in all participating countries. There will be three categories: one for experienced solvers. The second category is intended for weaker, inexperienced solvers. This second category is not open for solvers with a rating (or half-rating or non-active-rating) of more than 2000. The third category is intended for youngsters born after 31.12.2008

The name of the locally appointed controller must reach the central controllers by email not later than 31.12.2021:  axel.steinbrink@gmx.de  / palmans.luc@skynet.be

Announcement of 18^th ISC | Rules of ISC

Axel Steinbrink, 18^th ISC Controller

17^th International Solving Contest (ISC) 24^th January 2021: referring to the post from February 5, 2021:

The presentation page of ISC 2021 Results with a gallery of participants is ready now!

With a gratitude to ISC 2021 Central Controllers, Axel Steinbrink & Luc Palmans!

17^th International Solving Contest (ISC) 24^th 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

See more on the presentation page of ISC 2021 Results with a gallery of participants

The International Solving Contest – ISC – next year will take place on Sunday January 24^th 2021. 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 31^st 2020:  axel.steinbrink@gmx.de  / palmans.luc@skynet.be

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

Until 31.12.2020 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

Announcement of 17^th ISC | Rules of ISC

Axel Steinbrink, 17^th ISC Controller

The results of ISC 2020 are final as of 25^th of February, 2020. 48 tournaments in 31 countries, 885 solvers from 47 countries. The overall winners by category:

Category 1 (202 solvers): Ulrich Voigt, GER (1^st place), Kacper Piorun, POL (2^nd place), Evgeny Viktorov, RUS (3^rd place)

Category 2 (241 solvers): Alexander Smirnov, RUS (1^st place), Miķelis Emīls Miķelsons, LAT (2^nd place), Bartosz Świątek, POL (3^rd place)

Category 3 (442 solvers): Nikita Ushakov, RUS (1^st place), Agnesa Stepania Ter-Avetisjana, LAT (2^nd place), Daniil Maneluk, RUS (3^rd place)

The presentation page of ISC 2020 Results is updated with a gallery of participants and statistics ISC TOP 100 2005-2020 by Axel Steinbrink.

FIDE – International Chess Federation
24.02.2020

The 16^th WFCC International Solving Contest attracted a record number of 885 participants from 47 countries. Chess composition is the art of creating and solving chess problems. Tournaments, both for composers and solvers, are held all over the world and governed by the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC). [→more @FaceBook]

“Now we have the completed preliminary results of the ISC 2020. The reports of the Solving Tournament Manager (STM): Preliminary results Cat.1 | Preliminary results Cat.2 | Preliminary results Cat.3

This year we had 885 solvers (cat-1 202, cat-2 241, cat-3 442) from 47 countries and 48 tournaments in 31 countries.

Thank you to all local controllers. You make this tournament to a great success.

I want to give a special thank to

• Ivan Denkovski, Luc Palmans, Marjan Kovacevic and Neal Turner for selecting the problems 
• Luc Palmans  for the preparing of problem and solution sheets.
• Borislav Gadjanski for his help with all activities concerning Mat Plus and daily updates of results on Mat Plus
• all Local controllers who uses the STM for their results”

Axel Steinbrink, Central controller of ISC 2020.

The first ISC was organized in 2005 and was an immediate success. …more →

The idea of a multiple locations solving tournament was appealing, but there was also some scepticism. Of course, there were some issues, because everything was new. With trial and error in the next years the rules were slowly established. Internet, e-mail and social media made life of the controllers more easy. The Solving Tournament Manager, created by Misha Mladenović, is an incredible aid. But also the websites of WFCC (Julia Vysovska) and Mat Plus (Borislav Gadjanski) are pivotal for our competitions. We take this all for granted, but too quickly we forget all the hard work it takes.

Every year the first category of ISC welcomes some 200 solvers, many of them the best of the world. Winning this prestigious tournament is only for the happy few. The second category is much liked because the less experienced or occasional solver can enjoy a nice day of solving close at home, and still compete against the rest of the world. The introduction of a third category for kids proved to be a spark of genius. Thanks to the efforts of some local controllers, several hundred kids were this year introduced to problem chess.

The 16^th edition of the ISC will be in many ways a marking point for future tournaments. Experienced solving directors provided us with interesting problems, which lead to a selection of quality problems to solve. Especially Ivan Denkovski should be mentioned, because his review of the final proofs avoided some embarrassing errors.

We can’t praise enough the central controller Axel Steinbrink for his hard work, and without him the tournament would not be such a success. He developed the rules and the procedures of this complicated competition. As you all could witness in the past days, the tournament ran smoothly, with daily updates of the results, and a minimum of complaints. One reason of the success of this year (almost 900 solvers!) is undoubtedly that the ISC is such a well organized competition.

Everyone who was ever involved in a WCSC or ECSC-championship knows how hard this work can be: supervising several hours the competition, and then marking a few hundred solving sheets in the remaining hours, while all the solvers impatiently wait for the results. But this cannot be compared with the ISC. In the past days, Axel not only collected all the results and made all the rankings. Most of all he meticulously checked the more than 1300 solving sheets “with terrible handwriting, and corrects tens of careless local controllers” (dixit Marjan Kovacević). Thanks, Axel!

Finally, we thank all the participants for their efforts, congratulate the winners, and look forward to the 17^th edition!

Luc Palmans, Central controller of ISC 2020, Spokesman of WFCC Solving Committee

16^th ISC problems and solutions:
Problems cat.1 | Problems cat.2 | Problems cat.3 | Solutions cat.1 | Solutions cat.2 | Solutions cat.3
ISC 2020 Winners | Full Report

This year we have nearly 900 solvers in 31 countries who participated in the 16th ISC.

This is the preliminary TOP10 result:

– Axel Steinbrink, Central controller of ISC 2020