Category: Other

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).

The preliminary results in section E – Helpmates (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 08.08.2023).

The preliminary results in section B – Threemovers (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 04.08.2023).

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!

The preliminary results in section H – Retros (PDF) are already 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 one month after the publication of the preliminary results (until 08.08.2023).

Solvers’ ratings as of July 1^st 2023 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal.
14 tournaments of the 2^nd quarter 2023 are included: 49^th Latvian Chess Solving Championship 2023, Open Solving Championship of Serbia 2023, 37^th Ukrainian Championship 2023, Open Solving Tournament Lithuania 2023, 44^th Lithuanian Championship 2023, 31^st Chess Solving Championship of Slovakia 2023, Winton British Chess Solving Championship 2023, 44^th French Chess Solving Championship 2023, Open Solving Tournament of ECSC 2023, 16^th European Chess Solving Championship 2023, 45^th German Solving Championship 2023, 42^nd Azerbaijan Chess Solving Championship 2023, 8^th Israel Open Solving Championship 2023, 8^th Israel Open Solving Championship 2023 – Category 2.
Ranking of the top ten solvers: Eddy Van Beers overtook John Nunn from the 7^th to the 6^th place and Kevinas Kuznecovas gained 50 places to the 10^th place.
Largest five gains: junior Kevinas Kuznecovas, LTU (+216.88), women junior Kamila Hryshchenko, GBR (+166.96), Arvydas Mockus, LTU (+131.61), junior Taras Rudenko, UKR (+107.86), women junior Daria Dvoeglazova, ISR (+86.01).

Composers from all around the world are welcome to take part in the 

11th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2023!

(the Regulations are published on the page COMPETITIONS->COMPOSING->FIDE)

The Director of the tournament is  Aleksey Oganesjan (FIDE).
The sections are:

• A. Twomovers – Judge: Gerard Doukhan (France) 
• B. Threemovers – Judge: Jean-Marc Loustau (France)
• C. Moremovers – Judge: Ralf Krätschmer (Germany) 
• D. Endgame studies – Judge:Branislav Djurašević (Serbia) 
• E. Helpmates – Judge: János Csák (Hungary) 
• F. Selfmates – Judge: Zoran Gavrilovski (North Macedonia)    
• G. Fairies – Judge: Borislav Gadjanski (Serbia) 
• H. Retros (Proofgames) – Judge: Thomas Brand (Germany)

The closing date for submitting the entries is June 15, 2023.

Solvers’ ratings as of April 1^st 2023 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal.
6 tournaments of the 1^st quarter 2023 are included: 19^th International Solving Contest 2023 Cat 1, 19^th International Solving Contest 2023 Cat 2, 44^th Finnish Chess Solving Championship 2023, 28^th Dutch Open Chess Solving Championship 2023, 46^th International Polish Championship 2023, 31^st Branko Atanacković Memorial 2023.
Ranking of the top ten solvers: former World Champion Kacper Piorun overtook John Nunn and Eddy Van Beers from the 7^th to the 5^th place, and Boris Tummes passed Marko Filipović from the 11^th to the 10^th place.
Largest five gains: Arvydas Mockus, LTU (+81.89), junior Kevinas Kuznecovas, LTU (+52.36), women junior Kamila Hryshchenko, GBR (+40.05), Tomoki Kurokawa, JPN (+31.55), Andrii Sergiienko, UKR (+29.70).

In 2007, our organization accepted the idea of the famous Ukrainian Grandmaster of Chess Composition Valentin Rudenko (1938-2016) to name January 4^th as the International Day of Chess Composition. According to the proposal, on January 4th 1869, the Czech (Bohemian at that time) magazine “Svetozor” published an article by Antonín König (1836-1911) where he described chess composition as an independent form of Art.

It was, in fact, a joint proposal by Ukraine and Russia in 2007. It was accepted, but has never got an essential acceptance by the majority of WFCC member countries. In reality, the International Day of Chess Composition was mostly celebrated in the same two countries, Ukraine and Russia, with lively meeting of problemists, adding sometimes competitions to mark it. Without a wider appreciation, January 4^th was gradually losing its importance. To add to the controversy, later research in the archive of “Svetozor” has never proved the existence of that particular article, published on that particular day.

So, what would be the reasons for us to celebrate it today? We do it, not only to respect our own decision, but to glorify the greatest events and personalities from our history. No matter what day we may choose, it is a historical fact that Antonín König – a well known painter, illustrator, and chess player – promoted chess composition as equal to other forms of art, and founded the Bohemian school, the first attempt to define aesthetic models on the chess board.

It’s also well known that magazine “Svetozor” served as a high platform for that. Surfing through its old archive, you may be amazed to see that chess problems were the main, if not the only, content of the Chess column of that magazine. We should proudly recall how it was 150 years ago, and use every possible reason to celebrate our existence and unity.

Marjan Kovačević,
WFCC President

Solvers’ ratings as of January 1^st 2023 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal.
10 tournaments of the 4^th quarter 2022 are included: 31^st Kedainiai Cup 2022, 37^th Open Swiss Solving Championship 2022, 27^th Belgian Championship 2022, 31^st Henk Hagedoorn Memorial 2022 Cat A, 3^rd Branko Babic Memorial 2022, 4^th  Ukrainian Cup 2022, Open Solving Tournament of WCCC 2022, 45^th World Chess Solving Championship 2022, 4^th Pavle Orlov Memorial 2022, 7^th Greek Chess Solving Cup 2022.
Ranking of the top ten solvers: World Champion Danila Pavlov has overtaken Georgy Evseev and is now also the leader in the ranking, Eddy Van Beers has overtaken Kacper Piorun to the 6^th place; in addition Ural Khasanov and Marko Filipović are new in the top 10 on places 9 and 10.
Largest five gains: women junior Kamila Hryshchenko, (+163.20), junior Kevinas Kuznecovas (+143.61), junior Nikita Ushakov (+95.16), women junior Denisa-Andreea Bucur (+73.70), Bilguun Sumiya (+64.82).