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


WCCI 2019-2021: Results

The RESULTS of the 8th World Championship in Composing for Individuals WCCI 2019-2021 are published! The director’s report will come later.

(06.09.2022) Update: The director apologises for the unfortunate mistake that slipped in the threemovers (section B) spreadsheet. While entering the judges’ scores, he accidentally filled in the column of C.G..S Narayanan’s marks with those of Sergey I. Tkachenko. Such oversights may happen, particularly when someone works under harsh conditions. The files of the results and the top-rated threemovers are now updated.

The winners:

A Twomovers: Vasyl Dyachuk, Pavel Murashev, Marjan Kovačević
B Threemovers: Aleksandr Kuzovkov, Igor Agapov, Valery Shavyrin
C Moremovers: Aleksandr Kuzovkov, Mikhail Marandyuk, Valery Shavyrin
D Endgame studies: Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen, Oleg Pervakov, Serhiy Didukh
E Helpmates: Mykola Kolesnik, Aleksandr Semenenko, Viktoras Paliulionis
F Selfmates: Andrey Selivanov, Zoran Gavrilovski, Gennadiy Koziura
G Fairies: Petko Petkov, Valery Semenenko, Václav Kotěšovec
H Retros: Silvio Baier, Dmitrij Baibikov, Kostas Prentos


Extension of WCCI and WCCT judging deadlines

The World Federation for Chess Composition strongly condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the involvement of Belarus and expresses its solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people. We feel deep sorrow for all the victims of the war and their families.

Ukrainian problemists are facing mortal danger right now, so it is unreasonable we keep the original time schedule of WCCI 2019-21 and WCCT-11; the deadline for WCCI judges and WCCT judging countries is rescheduled for 1st of August 2022. In the coming weeks we will have a more clear picture of the situation and will update you further.


WCCI 2019-2021: Entries completed

wfcc-logoWCCI 2019-21 attracted a bit more than 250 composers with 2600+ compositions. Participants should check the list of entries on the Entries page and report comments to the director, Valery Kopyl (email: v.kopyl@i.ua) and to the webmaster (email: webmaster@wfcc.ch).

The Entries to the 2019-21 WCCI can be found from the TOP EVENTS menu on the right and on the Competitions/Composing page, WCCI section:

Director of WCCI greets all participants and expresses his gratitude for the entries presented and proper reaction and assistance in working process.


WCCI 2019-2021: Entries

wfcc-logoThe Entries to the 2019-21 WCCI can be found from the Competitions/Composing page, WCCI section:

The update is planned to happen weekly. Please, be patient, we have a lot of manual work here, and if any links are broken, write directly to webmaster@wfcc.ch. The questions about the content of the entries or any other questions related to the current WCCI should be sent to the tourney director, Valery Kopyl (email: v.kopyl@i.ua).


WCCI 2019-2021: Announcement

wfcc-logoThe WFCC is inviting composers of all countries to participate in the 2019-21 WCCI. The tourney director is Valery Kopyl (email: v.kopyl@i.ua). The competition will be held according to the system used in the previous championship, with changes in point 9 of the rules.

Update (14.12.2021): The changes in the announcement appear in red colour.

Participants may submit their entries by January 20, 2022. Details can be found in the announcement.

WCCI 2016-2018: Results

wfcc-logoThe seventh World Championship in Composing for Individuals is completed. 266 composers from 42 different countries competed in 8 sections and submitted a total of 2831 compositions. With the exception of section count, these numbers are the WCCI new all time high. 611 compositions by 151 author automatically qualify for the inclusion into the FIDE Album. About a hundred of these problems mostly composed by the winners can be found in this report.

My congratulations to the winners! Your results are overwhelmingly impressive given the extreme level of competition. My congratulations to everyone who is happy with his or her performance! The WCCI is open to everyone.

This was a big project that took almost two years in preparation and execution. It would not be possible without the help of many experts from different countries who consulted me on possible judge candidates and provided other valuable advice. Many thanks to you!

Many thanks to our judges! In less than five months they have done a titanic amount of work. This year we have had two substitute judges who had to run on even tighter schedule. Contribution of the judges is priceless, this event would not be possible without them.

Also I want to thank the members of the Supervising Panel and the President of the WFCC (who also acted as one of the judges) for their timely feedback and advice on the rules of the competition.

D. Turevski, Moscow 18/06/2019

Presentation of the WCCI 2016-18 results | Results in PDF: A-Twomovers  | B-Threemovers | C-Moremovers |
D-Endgame studies | E-Helpmates | F-Selfmates | G-Fairies | H-Retros

The WINNERS: 

  • A – Twomovers: Vasyl Dyachuk, Marjan Kovačević, Valery Shanshin
  • B – Threemovers: Aleksandr Feoktistov, Aleksandr Kuzovkov, Valery Shavyrin
  • C – Moremovers: Mikhail Marandyuk, Aleksandr Kuzovkov, Fedor Davidenko
  • D – Endgame studies: Oleg Pervakov, Martin Minski, Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen
  • E – Helpmates: Vasyl Kryzhanivskyi, Aleksandr Semenenko, Fadil Abdurahmanović
  • F – Selfmates: Andrey Selivanov, Zoran Gavrilovski, Aleksandr Kuzovkov
  • G – Fairies: Vlaicu Crișan, Petko Petkov, Lev Grolman / Borislav Gadjanski
  • H – Retros: Silvio Baier, Dmitrij Baibikov, Nicolas Dupont

The ceremony and the award of trophies will be held in this year’s congress in Vilnius.

WCCI 2016-2018: Announcement

wfcc-logoThe WFCC is inviting composers of all countries to participate in the 2016-18 WCCI. The tourney director is Dmitry Turevsky (email: dmitri.turevski@gmail.com). The competition will be held according to the system used in the previous championship, with changes in the points 4, 5, 8 and 12 of the rules.

Participants may submit their entries by January 20, 2019. Details can be found in the announcement.

WCCI 2013-2015: Results

wfcc-logoThe WFCC is pleased to announce the results of the 2013-15 World Championship in Composing for Individuals. The WCCI was conducted, as usual, in 8 sections and attracted a record number of 2862 entries by 248 composers from 41 countries. We are grateful to Dmitry Turevsky, the director of the championship, who uploaded all entries on the site, co-ordinated flawlessly the 40 judges and prepared an excellent and very comprehensive report. All judges worked smoothly and submitted their scores on time. The members of the supervising panel resolved a few minor issues without interfering to the judges’ work.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all participants who made the championship such a great success!
The ceremony and the award of trophies will be held in this year’s congress in Belgrade.

WCCI 2013-2015: Statistics

wfcc-logoWCCI 2013-15 broke all the records! 

By far the biggest final numbers: till the last day (January 20th) 2862 entries by 248 composers from 41 countries arrived! 

For the first time, all entries publicly available on the “Entries” page (click on the numbers of problems sent by each composer).

Previous records: 2319 entries (2004-06), 227 composers (2010-12), 38 countries (2001-03).