Composing Calendar

The first version of the online Composing Calendar has been published on the WFCC website (Competitions -> Composing -> Calendar).
It presents the formal tournaments (A-H sections) and the informal ones (I section), in chronological order of their deadlines, with columns reporting possible themes, judges and directors, as well as links to the announcements and awards (when available).

The Calendar contains not only current tournaments, but also those whose deadline has expired (see “All tournaments”). Info about the already closed tournaments will be extended in the future with links to the awards, once they are reported by the involved persons. Some of them you may already see in the Awards column, with the mark “published”.

This draft version will be under construction for a longer time, and will continue with a permanent development. The quality of the Calendar will depend on all interested parties and whoever wants to help.

The work on Calendar started a year ago, with the draft templates created by Ilija Serafimović, and later sent to the delegates. During the Batumi WCCC Kenneth Solja offered to volunteer in contacting the organizers and compiling material. He has largely enriched the content, and has been passionately continuing the same process ever since. During the previous month Julia Vysotska spent many hours organizing and adjusting the content of the excel tables to become a part of the WFCC website. The next steps will depend on the enthusiasm of delegates, organizers, editors, judges, directors, and other individuals.

Please, send your contributions to the Calendar Coordinator Kenneth Solja.
The first step will be to compile all possible corrections (names, dates, themes, links …) and all missing info (new tourneys, announcements, awards …). It’s desirable to have texts in English, and instead of pdf documents to send only the adequate links.

Marjan Kovačević, WFCC president


Bedrich Formánek (6.6.1933 – 19.11.2023)

Bedrich Formánek passed away on November 19, 2023, at the age of 90. A long-time the President of the Slovak Chess Composition Organization (SOKŠ) and later its Honorary President, a former President of the Permanent Commission for Chess Composition (PCCC) and then the Honorary President of the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC), member of the SOKŠ Hall of Fame, chess composer, judge, lecturer, organizer, author of several books on chess composition and its tireless promoter, author of 7,475 chess composition columns in newspapers, chess godfather of many Slovak chess composers, but above all a great person and a good friend.
We will certainly return to his work, life and compositions for a very long time.

Bedrich, rest in peace.

Executive Board of the Slovak Chess Composition Organization


Jurmala will host 66th WCCC and 47th WCSC (27.07 – 03.08.2024)

WFCC online Meeting, 8th November 2023

30 Member Countries took part in the WFCC online Meeting that was mostly devoted to discussion about the future WFCC events and the host of the 66th WCCC and 47th WCSC 2024.

At the beginning, the FIDE Album Committee spokesman Harry Fougiaxis announced the new title-holders in chess composition:

  • Grandmaster: Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen (DEN)
  • International Master: Karen Sumbatyan (RUS)
  • FIDE Masters: Sergiy Didukh (UKR), Daniel Keith (FRA), Jan Sprenger (GER), Aleksandr Stavrietsky (RUS)

Congratulations!!

These norms were fulfilled according to the results of the Section D (endgames) of the FIDE Album 2019-2021, published on 4th November.

→read more: WSC rules and discussion by country…

This long-lasting session was interrupted after speeches of some other delegates, to execute secret voting while all participants were still present. Out of 30 delegates in the Zoom Meeting 21 gave vote to Jurmala, four to Rhodes and three to Rio de Janeiro. One delegate didn’t vote and one was abstained. After adding two more votes sent by email, Jurmala convincingly won straight majority with 23 votes from 32 delegates.

With such a wide support, we will be preparing for a memorable Congress in Latvia, from 27th July to 3rd August 2024!

After the voting some delegates had to leave, while others continued the review by countries.

→read more: discussion by country…

This Zoom Meeting was excellently organized by the secretary Mohammad Alhallak. He also replaced the UAE delegate Abdulla Ali Aal Barket in presenting optimistic plans about development of solving in the UAE, in neighboring countries and in the whole Asia.

Marjan Kovačević, WFCC president


Solvers’ ratings October 1st 2023

Solvers’ ratings as of October 1st 2023 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal.
Only 4 tournaments of the 3rd quarter 2023 are included: 5th Ukrainian Cup 2023, 31st Czech Chess Solving Championship 2023, Open Solving Tournament of WCCC 2023, 46th World Chess Solving Championship 2023.
Ranking of the top ten solvers: Ural Khasanov (FID) moved up 4 places from 9th to 5th place and Aleksey Popov moved up 7 places from 15th to 8th place!
Largest five gains: women junior Anna Shukhman, FID (+123), junior Nikita Ushakov, FID (+111.34), women junior Daria Dvoeglazova, ISR (+85.84), junior Egor Sokolov, FID (+77.62), Kacper Piorun, POL (+70.78).


11th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2023 – Preliminary results – D,F

FIDE-logo

The preliminary results in sections D-Endgame studies, F-Selfmates (PDF) are published and can be found above the Announcement, in the Preliminary Results section. Preliminary results are published without names. Names will appear in the final results. Claims of defects and anticipations can be sent to the Director during 2 weeks after the publication of the preliminary results (until 22.08.2023).


11th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2023 – Preliminary results – A,C,G

FIDE-logo

The preliminary results in sections A-Twomovers, C-Moremovers, G-Fairies (PDF) are published and can be found above the Announcement, in the Preliminary Results section. Preliminary results are published without names. Names will appear in the final results. Claims of defects and anticipations can be sent to the Director during 2 weeks after the publication of the preliminary results (until 15.08.2023).


Happy International Chess Day!

The United Nations picked July 20 to to mark the date of the International Chess Federation’s establishment in 1924, and to promote chess. This is also our day, let’s celebrate it with some delightful chess compositions on our boards!

Many of you across the world will celebrate International Chess Day with various activities and happenings all about our beloved game. On this day, we want to reinforce the tradition started in previous years: we ask members of the chess community to teach someone how to play chess. The more, the merrier! Be it your neighbour, niece, colleague or grandfather, let’s make the chess family grow. Don’t forget to share your experience on social media using the hashtag #Internationalchessday. Let’s make our celebrations really big and prove that chess is the most played game in the world!