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.
Assembly was informed about the new sentence in the Rules for the World Solving Cup, Point 4, proposed by Roland Ott:
“Organisers should try to avoid holding their tournament on the same weekend as another WSC tournament that has already been published”.
During a short discussion, Neal Turner was against this kind of restriction for the WSC organizers, claiming it has already been rejected in Batumi, and should be rejected again. Other delegates, including Georgy Evseev, Kjell Widlert and Harry Fougiaxis, thought differently, that new formulation isn’t mandatory at all, that it’s only a good reminder. At the end, this additional sentence was accepted.
Marjan Kovačević presented the latest version of Calendar of composing tournaments, prepared and compiled by Kenneth Solja. He urged delegates to contribute to it, in order to complete the final goal, an official WFCC Calendar on the WFCC website.
The main discussion, about the situation in each country, and about the future WFCC events, took a long time and the whole Meeting lasted around two and half hours. The first ones to talk were delegates who presented bids to organize the WCCC & WCSC 2024.
Marcos Roland (the Rio de Janeiro bid) described his attempts to popularize chess composition in Rio and Brasilia trough the series of online lectures and solving competitions. He stressed the problem of presenting helpmates and selfmates to newcomers, and suggested these genres should be omitted in the competitions for beginners – a topic left for future meetings to be discussed.
Harry Fougiaxis, who offered the bid for Rhodes, informed about the Solving Cup to be simultaneously happening in several cities in Greece. He expressed opinion that tradition of ECSC, WCCC and WCSC each year shouldn’t be broken. In order to assure having hosts for ECSC, Harry suggested that some countries from the Central Europe should step forward and say they are ready to organize it. He thinks the suitable location and short weekend program would allow this competition to keep going and attract many participants.
Julia Vysotska explained she wanted to organize in Jurmala a Congress she would like: a kind of summer festival in an enjoyable and friendly atmosphere. Another important reason was to give a chance to young solvers she has been gathering during the last seven years, having in mind a lack of support from local chess federation. For the same reason, she supported organizing ECSC in easy to get destinations in Central Europe.
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.
When it comes to difficulties chess composition faces, many delegates regretted not having better connections with their chess federations. A sense of general agreement was felt in the hopes that FIDE would accept official solving competitions in the context of the World Youth Chess Championship. Although Polish solvers have a relatively good position in their chess federation, Piotr Górski was also insisting on the same goal, as a good way to increase interest of the national chess federations.
Opinions about having both ECSC and WCSC each year were divided, with majority supporting it. As some of the reasons to keep the tradition, Harry Fougiaxis named chances to gain the highest solving norms, and possibility of having 4th solver in the ECSC team.
Marjan Kovačević thought two competitions per year increase organizing and financial burden, while the lack of interested hosts leaves WFCC no real possibility to control the standard of events. He insisted there should be a competition of at least two bids for each event.
Marko Klasinc suggested having WCSC and ECSC every second year, with additional competitions, such as Fairy solving. From his point of view, both competitions had a higher importance at the times before the World Solving Cup where solving norms could be gained now.
Other options to reduce costs of both events were mentioned too. Pavel Kamenik suggested ECSC to be organized simultaneously in several countries, while Dinu-Ioan Nicula strictly opposed this idea, putting under question the regularity of such events. From his side, Dinu-Ioan suggested reducing number of solvers in ECSC teams to three. He gladly announced the strong intention to organize WCCC 2025 in the year of centenary of Romanian chess federation.
17 delegates took part in this review by countries. Many of them shared the same list of difficulties: chess composition societies are getting older and smaller; the numbers of magazines and publications are reducing, and there is no adequate support from chess federations.
For a difference, Bjørn Enemark reported about the first youth solving championship in Dеnmark and continuation of the Thema Danicum magazine in PDF form; Shankar Ram explained Indian chess composers activities in other countries (The Problemist, Julia’s Fairies …);. Yochanan Afek told good news the Variantim has been published in both PDF and paper form, and endgame study has been flourishing in Israel (including Yehuda Hoch coming back after 25 years).
Italian composers are not many but Marco Guida reported they have regular weekly Skype meetings and prepare two magazines in PDF form: Sinfonie Scacchistiche and Best Problems. As Vidmantas Satkus explained, apart from keeping their magazine Šachmatija in both PDF and paper form, Lithuanian solvers have an excellent position. They have a separate sports organization out of the chess federation, with a direct support from their government. Romania is another example of good position in national Sport organization, thanks to personal involvement of Dinu-Ioan Nicula in national chess federation.
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.
31 member countries were present, 4 of them via Zoom connection. Armenia was welcomed as the 44th member country of the Federation.
Upcoming events 2024:
20th International Solving Contest (ISC) on 21 January 2024, central organizers Luc Palmans and Arvydas Mockus.
17th European Chess Solving Championship (ECSC) in Hagen, Germany 19-21 April 2024.
66th World Congress of Chess Composition (WCCC) and 47th World Chess Solving Championship (WCSC): the deadline for bids extended till October 15, decision postponed for the WFCC online Meeting.
(05-06.09.2023) 46th World Chess Solving Championship 2023 Main Judge: Steinbrink, Axel | Assistant: Klasinc, Marko | Problems Selected by: Steinbrink, Axel
(07.09. 15:00) The FINAL results of the 46.WCSC 2023 announced!
(06.09. 15:50) “In case of appeals please send an e-mail to me or see me in the tournament hall before the solving show” – director Axel Steinbrink, axel.steinbrink@gmx.de
The official website of the 65th WCCC (https://wccc2023.com) has published the Preliminary schedule, List of participants, and Contact information, as well as details about visas and transport.
The Georgian Chess Federation has the honour to invite all delegates of the World Federation of Chess Composition WFCC, national teams and individual solvers, chess composers to attend the 65th World Congress of Chess Composition and 46th World Chess Solving Championship in Batumi, Georgia.
The Congress will be held from September 2nd (arrival) to September 9th, 2023 (departure) at the Legend Hotel Batumi ***** with the WCSC on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 5th and 6th. Georgia has already organised this event in 2013. Georgia has a great tradition in the Chess Composition field. Georgian chess composers are well known all over the world and have played an essential role in chess composition development in the world.
The registration deadline is July 2. For registration and additional information, please contact David Gurgenidze at davidchessgurgenidze@gmail.com
In March, the Solving Committee has made another step forward, introducing the very informative Solving Portal on our website.
May was the month of 15thEuropean 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.
The first ever World Congress of Chess Composition in Arabian Peninsula was held from 12th to 19th November 2022. Behind the results and decisions of the 64th WCCC in Fujairah – to be found on the official WCCC 2022 website – some important general aspects of this adventure – for both participants and organizers – should be mentioned.
Unite Arab Emirates are new in our field, but the hosts from the Fujairah Chess & Culture Club have invested in 64th WCCC more than any country with a great tradition in Chess Composition. And, not only the highest ever prize-fund, the spectacular decoration and techniques for the Solving hall, or an unprecedented media coverage – there were all kinds of surprises, aimed to impress the rare guests.
Chess problemists from around the world have felt a great hospitality. We were offered different excursions (Fujairah tour, desert safari, and visit to Dubai), great facilities for the WFCC Meeting including options for the online members (not used enough by our distant delegates), and a rare appreciation by the high FIDE officers, lead by Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board. Finally, a big Blitz OTB tournament on Saturday 19th November attracted hundreds of active chess players – including our regular participants – and completed a genuine chess festival.
With so many pompous chess events in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, chess composition surprisingly became the Fujairah brand in UAE. That’s why the Crown Prince of Fujairah, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Hammad Al Sharqi, supported 64th WCCC so cordially, and for the first time opened the doors of his palace to any chess players.
Planting flowers in a desert isn’t a fast process. We have expected more participants from Asian countries in our competitions, but the first appearance of the very important Indian delegation (Shankar Ram, Seetharaman Kalyan, Velmurugan Nallusamy and Anirudh Daga) was enough to declare the choice of location as successful.
The WFCC Meeting will be remembered for the acceptance of India – the leading chess country in the World – into our small family of the WFCC members. You should have been there to see Velmurugan Nallusamy coming all the way from India for two days only – with both parents, wife and daughter – to celebrate his victory in the FIDE World Composing Cup, Section Retros. Or, to see the 14-years old Anirudh Daga going so many times to the stage in his new suite, to collect his 11 distinctions in composing tournaments and a prize for solving.
And this may be only the beginning of the wider opening of the WFCC to the outside world, to new generations and new countries.
Marjan Kovačević, WFCC President
Highlights & Decisions of the Congress, include the results of the WCCT & WCCI, FIDE Album 2016-18, New Titles and Elections.
The next meetings: 16th European Chess Solving Championship (ECSC) in Bratislava, Slovakia 2-4 June 2023 65th World Congress of Chess Composition (WCCC) and 46th World Chess Solving Championship (WCSC) in Batumi or Tbilisi (Georgia), August or September-October 2023. Place and dates will be announced in due course.
Exciting competition, nice debut by solvers who for the first time performed at the biggest stage, and constant rise of already established juniors, might be the most recognizable moments from the 45th WCSC. Danila Pavlov defended his individual title (overall and among juniors), in a drama where second-placed Ural Khasanov, third-placed Piotr Murdzia and fourth-placed Bilguun Sumiya had the lead after fifth, fourth and third round respectively. In the team contest, Poland made a strong performance and finished first, ahead of Serbia and Germany. The senior competition was won by Jorma Paavilainen, and the women’s competition by thirteen-year old Anna Shukhman. Ivan Denkovski, 45.WCSC Director
