67th World Congress of Chess Composition
Alba Iulia, Romania
July 5 – July 12, 2025
Highlights & Decisions
31 member countries were present, 9 of them via Zoom connection.
New delegates: Suren Poghosyan (Armenia) and Ian Watson (Great Britain).
WFCC Fujairah Grand Prix 2025-26 has started, based on all individual results (official and unofficial) from Athens ECSC 2025 and Alba Iulia WCSC 2025. The Grand Prix budget for 2025 was distributed to 27 winners in each competition (22,000 Euros in total) and to the event’s organizers (5,000 Euros in total). The last two legs were planned to include ECSC 2026 & WCSC 2026, with the Final in Fujairah, at the end of 2026. The whole Grand Prix Budget is granted by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah. See the Grand Prix official website.
WCCT: Thomas Maeder will be the new spokesman of the committee. The 12th WCCT runs as planned, with the WCCT page initialized and the first circular letter issued right after the congress. It was decided not to be too strict about the initial deadline for registering (1st July) and to wait till the end of July. After the congress, the initial number of registered countries grew to 35.
WCCI: The spokesman Marco Guida thanked the WCCI 2002-24 director Narayan Shankar Ram for his outstanding efforts to conclude this massive competition according to the schedule. Describing the increasing difficulty to recruit an adequate panel of judges, as well as the tough tasks for the director and the judges, Mr. Guida has anticipated that he will stop serving as WCCI Spokesman unless changes in format and process are undertaken. After joint discussions of members of WCCI committee & FIDE Album committee, the need for changes to assure the long-term sustainability of WCCI was put on vote and was supported by the vast majority of delegates.
FIDE Album: The 2019-21 album was available in the congress as scheduled. Harry Fougiaxis commended work of the editor Peter Gvozdjak, and an exceptional contribution by Michal Dragoun to the indexing phase. Work for the 2022-24 album has started as planned, closing date is 1st of September.
Finish proposal (PR5 in the agenda) that endgames should count 1 point instead of 1.67 wasn’t accepted. Nine delegates voted for the change, 15 against and six abstained.
Youth: The 9th YCCC 2025 attracted 66 entries by 34 participants from 13 countries. Belgium, Brazil, China and Singapore were represented for the first time.
Gady Costeff organized My First Endgame Study composing event, supported by ChessBase India and Satanick Mukhuty. It attracted 50 studies by 35 beginners in the field.
Nikola Petković has presented a project of an online platform for young composers. Beta version is expected this autumn.
Online Solving Challenge for Youth (OSCY) has continued, with Brian Cook ready to keep directing it in 2026.
David Gurgenidze organized World Cup in Chess Solving for Cadets in Batumi this June, with 149 participants (U8, U10 & U12).
The World Cadets Chess Solving Championships U8, U10 & U12 will be held in Almaty (Kazakhstan), on 25th September.
Youth Evening was a successful novelty in the WCCC 2025 program. It brought to the stage nine young participants aged 11-12.
Youth committee supported initiative by Andrey Selivanov to introduce the title of FIDE Trainer for Chess Composition (solving & composing). The discussion about the criteria and procedures should continue during the next online meeting.
Ethics & Disciplinary Committee: Upon discussions during the last online meeting, Presidium suggested to establish a permanent Ethics & Disciplinary Committee (PR4). Narayan Shankar Ram will be the spokesman, and other members are Harry Fougiaxis, Axel Gilbert, Roberto Osorio and Klaus Wenda. Presidium followed the suggestion of the Ethics & Disciplinary Committee and issued a warning to Georgy Evseev for his speech during Jurmala WCCC.
Solving: Piotr Górski will be the new spokesman of the committee. It was agreed to extend Point 1.2 of the WCSC/ECSC Rules according to the Proposal PR9, and the point distribution in World Solving Cup was changed as suggested in the Proposal PR11. The committee didn’t recommend the proposals: PR6, PR7, PR8, PR10, and PR12. Some of them will be discussed again.
Irregularities in ISC 2025: Following protests submitted by six countries and evidence from the reports (Points 9.1 to 9.5 in Agenda), the assembly voted to exclude results of the four Category 1 solvers from Sumgait (Azerbaijan). Consequently, all rating lists since January 2025 will be changed. Appealing committee for the future ISC competitions will be appointed by the WFCC presidium before the tournament. ISC 2026 is planned for the end of January, with Arvydas Mockus as Central Controller once again.
After discussion on who and how should decide about the possible sanctions to the solvers from Sumgait, the assembly supported proposal by Mr. Mockus to ban the four solvers from the next two ISC tournaments. Klaus Wenda added that the newly established Ethics & Disciplinary Committee will discuss the matter and make a proposal for a more detailed wording of the already accepted ban.
Computers Committee: The discussion about software tools supporting composing tournaments was reopened after some years, upon a proposal by Marco Guida that WFCC should invest in such technical tools (PR3). Some initial steps were formulated: to create a list of already existing tools; to look for tech people that are part of our community; to identify priority tasks, and to define initial user requirements. No decision has been made yet.
Codex: Proposal by M. Guida to announce the expected deadlines for the awards of the formal composing tournaments (PR 14) was supported by the Codex committee. Some details and the exact wording were left to be discussed and voted during the next online meeting.
Miscellanea: Assembly welcomed initiative by N. Shankar Ram/S. Nielsen/V.Samilo (PR1 & PR2) to introduce special awards for individuals who contributed our community by their selfless work in developing and maintaining software tools, databases and websites. A group was formed to collect nomination and suggests awards for the WCCC 2026.
New titles:
- International Grandmaster of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Vlaicu Crișan (Romania), Jorge Lois (Argentina)
- International Master of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Dirk Borst (Netherlands), Sergiy Didukh (Ukraine), Gérard Doukhan (France), Jan Timman (Netherlands)
- FIDE Master for Chess Compositions: Alyaksandr Bulauka (Belarus), Evgeny Gavryliv (Ukraine). Ján Golha (Slovakia), Raúl Jordan (Germany), Vladimir Kuzmichev (Russia), Michael Pasman (Israel)
- Honorary Master of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Lkhundevin Togookhuu (Mongolia)
- International Judge of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Jarosław Brzozowicz (Poland, twomovers), Daniele Gatti (Italy, endgames and selfmates), Gunter Jordan (Germany, selfmates and fairies), Rainer Kuhn (Germany, helpmates), Jorma Paavilainen (Finland, threemovers, moremovers and helpmates), Bogusz Piliczewski (Poland, twomovers), Gerhard Schoen (Germany, extension for threemovers).
- International Solving Master of the FIDE: Maxim Kharitonov (Russia), Bilguun Sumiya (Mongolia)
- Women FIDE Solving Master: Audrey Kueh (Great Britain), Anna Shukhman (Russia)
22nd International Solving Contest (ISC) at the end of January 2026, the central controller Arvydas Mockus
19th European Chess Solving Championship (ECSC) in Skopje, North Macedonia, 8-10 May 2026
68th World Congress of Chess Composition (WCCC) and 49th World Chess Solving Championship (WCSC) – the deadline for bids was extended till 1st October, the final decisions to be made in WFCC online meeting three weeks later.