New look of Ratings pages

The new look of Ratings pages will replace the pages for period 1.07.2013-01.04.2021 given on the bottom of Competitions->Solving page.
By default the new page shows the latest period, with the search option for previous lists.

The link (URL) to any rating list looks like: https://www.wfcc.ch/competitions/solving/solvers-ratings/?per=[quarter], where [quarter] is YYQN, like 21Q1 = 2021 quarter 1; 20Q4 = 2020 quarter 4; etc.
Quick links to the recent rating lists: 01.10.2020 | 01.01.2021 | 01.04.2021

Links to the old ratings pages, 1.07.2013-01.04.2021, will work up to May 14th, 2021. If you had any references on your websites to them, please update! I apologize for possible inconvenience related to the change in URLs.

The technical part of the change was related to the further (and necessary) upgrade of the software platform (WordPress + PHP versions). Hope, you’ll like the new design! (JV, the webmaster)


Solvers’ ratings April 1st 2021

Solvers’ ratings as of April 1st 2021 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published! 13 tournaments of the 1st quarter 2021 are included: Open of A. Suetin Memorial 2021, A. Suetin Memorial 2021, 17th International Solving Contest 2021 Cat 1, 17th International Solving Contest 2021 Cat 2, Open tournament Championship of the Central Federal District of Russia 2021, Open Solving Championship of CFO 2021, 15th Urals Problemist Cup 2021, RSSU-Cup 2021 (Alexander Pochinok Memorial Tourney), Kornilov-90 Tournament, Open of E.Bykova solving MT 2021, E.Bykova solving MT 2021, Open solving tournament Tula 2021, Open of the 35th Ukrainian Solving Championship 2021.
The top ten remain the same solvers as in the previous quarter with Danila Pavlov (RUS) rising from 8th to 5th place. The largest three gains have been achieved by junior solver Egor Sokolov (RUS / +155.08), ahead of junior Nikita Ushakov (RUS / +117.43), Bogdan Zolotov (RUS / +51.35), junior women Marina Putintseva (RUS / +49.45) and junior Andrey Shkurkin (RUS / +45.62.

9th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2021: Announcement

FIDE-logoComposers are welcome to take part in the 9th FIDE World Cup in Composing 2021 !
(the Regulations are published on the page COMPOSING COMPETITIONS)

The Director of the tournament is Juri Bazlov (Russia). The sections are:

        •      A. Twomovers – Judge: Vasil Dyachuk (Ukraine)
        •      B. Threemovers – Judge: C.G.S. Narayanan (India)
        •      C. Moremovers – Judge: Mark Erenburg (Israel)
        •      D. Endgame studies – Judge: Oleg Pervakov (Russia)
        •      E. Helpmates – Judge:  Silvio Baier (Germany)
        •      F. Selfmates – Judge: Mikhail Khramtsevich (Belarus)
        •      G. Fairies – Judge: Tadashi Wakashima (Japan)
        •      H. Retros – Judge:  Joaquim Crusats (Spain)

The closing date for submitting the entries is July 1, 2021.

Cancellation of WSC 2020-21 cycle

As most of the scheduled solving tournaments have been canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Presidium agreed with the solving committee’s suggestion to cancel the current 2020-21 cycle of the World Solving Cup and only restart a new cycle after the next congress or after a new proposal is made to start one again. There has not been a single event in the current cycle, so we are of the opinion this is a good (though sad) moment for the cancellation as no solvers with WSC points will be affected.

ISC 2021 – FINAL results, Statistics & Galleries

PAvlovDAnila17th International Solving Contest (ISC) 24th January 2021

This year the ISC suffered under the circumstances of the Corona-pandemic. In many countries it was not possible to organize a tournament. But not only the pandemic led to less tournaments and solvers but also very low temperatures in Siberia (-47°C in Nizhnevartovsk) and the consequences of a severe earthquake in Croatia three weeks ago. The results of Nizhnevartovsk (the solvers solved at home) you can find as unofficial solvers at the bottom of the tables.

Finally there were 30 tournaments in 10 countries (20 tournaments in Russia). While in cat-1 it was an international contest (but only 49 solvers compared with 202 solvers last year) the contest in cat-2 and cat-3 could be also called “Russian Solving Contests” with only a few solvers from other countries.

Results: Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Statistics ISC TOP 100

Because in cat-3 the prizes for the best three solvers in the overall-category were all won by girls (perhaps an influence of the “Queen’s Gambit”?) we decided not to have special prizes for the girls but for the best boys.

At the same date there was also a home-solving tournament organized with the problems of the ISC with some top solvers. You can see the results on www.probleemblad.nl

Congratulations to the winner Danila Pavlov on his first ISC win with full points and nearly the best time.

I want to give a special thank to

  • Ivan Denkovski who selected most of the problems
  • Luc Palmans for preparing the problem and solution sheets
  • Borislav Gadjanski for the daily update of the results on the Mat Plus website
  • All local controllers for their work (most of them used STM for the results)
  • Oleg Efrosinin who coordinated 11 tournaments in Russia with more than 40% of all solvers

Axel Steinbrink, Central Controller of ISC 2021


See more on the presentation page of ISC 2021 Results with a gallery of participants

FIDE ALBUM 2016-2018 – Results in section F

fide-album-cover-topThe results of the FIDE Album 2016-18 section F are ready!

1041 selfmates scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 1108 entries), an excellent percentage of 94%. The ratio of the 215 selected problems with 8+ points vs. the entries with 4,5+ points is 20,7%, which is reasonable. 79 entries had already qualified from the WCCI process. Kudos to the composers for submitting their highest quality works for review!wfcc-logo-transparent

Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!

Update 04.02.2021: A s#4 of Aleksandr Azhusin, which qualified automatically from the WCCI, was found anticipated by the album judges. The composer agreed with the anticipation claim and withdrew the composition from the album. The page of the results was updated accordingly.

All announced results are published in the FIDE Album 2016-18 finished sections page.

FIDE ALBUM 2016-2018 – Results in section C

fide-album-cover-topThe results of the FIDE Album 2016-18 section C are ready!

735 moremovers scored at least 4,5 points (out of the totally submitted 914 entries), a very good percentage of 80%. The ratio of the 159 selected problems with 8+ points vs. the entries with 4,5+ points is 21,6%, which is reasonable. 52 entries had already qualified from the WCCI process. Kudos to the composers for submitting their highest quality works for review!wfcc-logo-transparent

Many thanks to the director and the judges for their hard and efficient work!

All announced results are published in the FIDE Album 2016-18 finished sections page.

World Solving Cup 2019/2020 – Winner Aleksey Popov

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic only 10 solving tournaments could be organised although the time range for WSC events of this cycle has been extended until the end of the year 2020.
Aleksey Popov (RUS) is the winner of the WSC cycle 2019/2020 with 86 points gained in 4 tournaments.
2nd is Piotr Murdzia (POL) with 62 points and a performance rating of 2759 for the two events which he has attended.
Martynas Limontas (LTU) as 3rd also achieved 62 points – but with a performance rating of only 2526 of the 5 tournaments which he has participated.

More details are published in Competitions → Solving → World Solving Cup (WSC) → 2019/20 Calendar.

Solvers’ ratings January 1st 2021

Solvers’ ratings as of January 1st 2021 produced by the Solving Tournament Manager are published! 6 tournaments of the 4th quarter 2020 are included: 29th Kedainiai chess solving cup tourney 2020, Branko Babić Memorial 2020, Tula Open 2020, Tula Region Championship 2020, Open of Tula Solving Cup, Tula Solving Cup 2020.
The top ten remain the same solvers as in the previous quarter. The largest three gains have been achieved by Bogdan Zolotov (RUS / +37.19), ahead of women junior solver Olga Shishkova (RUS / +35.71) and Ilja Biriukov (RUS / +17.18.).