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


Merry Christmas!

Dear WFCC community,
our composers, solvers, judges, organizers, supporters,
and all friends of chess composition, have a Merry Christmas!
Enjoy your winter holidays as much as you can, with family, friends, and a chess board too! Before we finalize the year 2022, here are some recent news and nice materials for you to see:

The 65th WCCC will be held from 2nd to 9th September 2023 in Batumi.

The WCCC2022 Bulletin (171 pages!) has been compiled, with generous help from Hannu Harkola.

The WCCC 2022 Media section has grown to include hundreds of photos, external articles, and videos.

We’ve got an invitation from the FIDE to promote our most important events, on their official website.

We live in the times of social media, and now please welcome the WFCC in this open air too! See icons for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram on the top right corner of the official website. Whichever of them you use, please, visit our introductory post and join the WFCC followers! Let’s keep in touch!

FINAL results of the 10th FIDE World Cup in Composing

The FINAL results of the 10th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2022 are published and can be found above the Announcement, in RESULTS section.

“Congratulations to all for completing the 10th FIDE World Cup in the planned time frame!  Congratulations to all winners and prize-winners! I wish new creative successes to all the participants! And, especially thanks to the director and the judges for their work!”

Andrey Selivanov, FIDE Chess Composition Director


Solvers’ ratings October 1st 2022

Solvers’ ratings as of October 1st 2022 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published on the WFCC Solving Portal.
Only 3 tournaments of the 3rd quarter 2022 are included: 1st Solving Tournament of Martynas Limontas 2022, 30th Czech Chess Solving Championship 2022, 20th Greek Chess Solving Championship 2022.
The ranking of the top ten solvers almost remain the same with the exception of Silvio Baier who now belongs to the non active solvers. The largest three gains have been achieved by Martynas Limontas (LTU / +43.29), ahead of junior solver Kevinas Kuznecovas (LTU / +30.72) and women solver Laura Rogule (LAT / +29.07).


10th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2022 – Preliminary results – C

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The preliminary results in section C – Moremovers (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 one month after the publication of the preliminary results (until 30.09.2022).
Congratulations to the winners and all participants!


10th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2022 – Preliminary results – E

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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 one month after the publication of the preliminary results (until 22.09.2022).
Congratulations to the winners and all participants!


10th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2022 – Preliminary results – D

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The preliminary results in section D – Endgame studies (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 one month after the publication of the preliminary results (until 22.09.2022).
Congratulations to the winners and all participants!


10th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2022 – Preliminary results – G

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The preliminary results in section 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 one month after the publication of the preliminary results (until 21.09.2022).
Congratulations to the winners and all participants!


10th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2022 – Preliminary results – A

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The preliminary results in section A – Twomovers (PDF) are published and can be found above the Announcement, in 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 07.09.2022).
Congratulations to the winners and all participants!


10th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2022 – Preliminary results – B & H

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The preliminary results in section B – Threemovers (PDF) and H-Retros and Proofgames (PDF) of the 10th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2022 are published and can be found above the Announcement, in RESULTS section. This time 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 02.09.2022).
Congratulations to the winners and all participants!