Solvers’ ratings April 1st 2010
New competitions: Moscow, Bratislava, Oakham, Lowicz, Open Lowicz
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Search Results for: ratings
Solvers’ ratings
Solvers’ ratings January 1st 2010
New competitions: Open Rio de Janeiro, 33. WCSC Rio de Janeiro, Open GP Warsaw,
GP Warsaw, Zagreb
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Rating (Max. Rat. = the maximum rating solver ever achieved)
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Halfrating
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Non-active solvers
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ISC 2024 – FINAL results
20th International Solving Contest (ISC) 21th January 2024
We had 41 tournaments in 26 countries and 669 solvers from 46 countries (24 unofficial solvers in cat-3) – 171 solvers in cat-1, 236 solvers in cat-2 and 262 solvers in cat-3. Thanks to all local controllers for their excellent work and good cooperation and congratulations to the winners.
Special thanks to Borislav Gadjanski for his daily updates of the results on the MatPlus-website, to Luc Palmans who checked Cat1, to Andy Ooms who checked Cat2, Bohumil Moravčik who helped a lot with the selection of the problems.
Arvydas Mockus, Central Controller of ISC 2024.
Problems CAT1 – CAT2 – CAT3 | Solutions CAT1 – CAT2 – CAT3 | Results CAT1 – CAT2 – CAT3
The 20 years of ISC (2005-2024)
The idea to organize the International Solving Contest, simultaneously in many countries, came from Uri Avner in the year 2003. After a period of preparation the 1st ISC was held in January 2005. The winner was Roland Baier (SUI) and Ward Stoffelen was the Central controller. With 27 tournaments in 23 countries and 262 solvers it was already the greatest solving tournament in history.
After the success of the first edition, it was decided that the next tournament in 2006 should be rated, and that a second category for less experienced solvers should be included. In the following years ISC became a standard in the second half of January and the number of participants grew until more than 400.
In 2015 a third category for kids under the age of 13 was established. The record number of participants was reached in 2020, with 885 solvers in 31 countries. Later on, the regularity of ISC wasn’t interrupted even during the Covid crisis. The ISC became an opportunity for many solvers around the world to compete and get initial ratings. Also, nearly all top solvers have been using this tournament to test their skills. The record holder is Piotr Murdzia (POL) with six wins in the 1st Category competition.
Axel Steinbrink,
Central controller of 14 ISC tournaments
Happy Chess Composition Day, with the 1st OSCY launch!
Since 2007, our community has been marking January 4th as the International Day of Chess Composition, inspired by an article from 155 years ago, where chess composition was declared a kind of art. Today we are doing it in the contemporary spirit, launching the 1st WFCC Online Solving Challenge for Youth (OSCY).
The 1st OSCY unites efforts of very different generations. You may see here the OSCY video promotion made by the young Anirudh Daga, who also contributed to some elements of design.
And here is the Press Release text by our senior member Brian Cook, the heart and soul of the whole project:
As the WFCC announce their new bi-monthly Online Solving Challenge for Youth (OSCY), never has there been a better time for young chess players from 5 to 21 years old to test their skills at chess problem solving. It isn’t unusual to find that those who have taken the plunge converting their modest FIDE ratings into much higher solver ratings, earning norms and titles in the process. Free of the need for detailed knowledge of openings and strategy, their exceptional tactical skills have flourished with astonishing results. Rather than solving/composing a fast evolving web of typical threats & traps set by/for their opponents, solvers are generally confronted with a few won positions (often composed by GMs of Chess Composition) of greater complexity and/or featuring an unusual concept. Greatest of the many success stories in this regard are GMs of Solving:
Danila Pavlov – 21 year-old 3 x World Champion and No.1 (rated 2820 for solving, 2361 by FIDE), Ural Khasanov – 17 year-old World No.5 (solving at around 1000 rating points higher than he plays), not to mention 14 year old Anna Shukhman, World No.1 for women.
Full OSCY details are provided at the tournament website along with much of what needs to be known by beginners PLUS World Champion coaching and, except for <€10 for coaching, it’s all FREE. See the WFCC Announcement.
As Online and @Home solving has become more popular (at both grass-roots and elite levels), a smooth pathway is emerging from informal to the many rated/physical tournaments at which titles are earned. So, please give OSCY a try and avoid missing out on what may be your personal chess paradise.
NOTES:
- Unusual pieces such as ‘nightriders’, ‘grasshoppers’, etc are not indulged in OSCY. They remain strictly for the ‘fairies’
- For anyone pressed for time – the home of our QuickStart Guide
Guidelines for directors of rated solving tournaments
Guidelines for directors
of rated solving tournaments
Although the rules for rated solving tournaments are clear and easily accessible at the WFCC website, some tournament directors seem to have difficulties with them. Sometimes the mistakes are small and unimportant, but other times they can be very important. Some examples: incorrect studies although already known as incorrect in the database of Harold van der Heijden; too many solutions in helpmates; points for first moves of orthodox problems other than twomovers and endgame studies, sometimes even for problems with a threat; many local and recently published problems, etc. To ensure that all rated tournaments are run under the same conditions, the WFCC solving committee has produced this text with the most essential guidelines. There are no so far unpublished new rules in this text. These guidelines are also to the benefit of solvers, who can refer to them when they notice an irregularity.
1. Stick to the rules
For starters: take a good look at the latest rules on the WFCC website (https://www.wfcc.ch/). In fact, everything is published there!
2. Announcement
The tournament should be announced and reported to the responsible persons of the WFCC Solving Committee at least two months beforehand but not at all later than 7 days before the day of the tournament takes place. This announcement includes all details: dates, venue, program, name of the director, information about the used fairy problems, etc. If no information about the solving tournament is sent at least a week before the tournament starts, the tournament will not be rated and no solving norms will be possible for solvers.
All information about the criteria for acceptability of tournaments at which ratings can be gained and the criteria for gaining norms and titles are covered in the document “Solvers’ rating” (https://www.wfcc.ch/rules/rating/).
3. Preparation work of the director
The director is responsible for the selection of the problems: he can do it himself, or let it done by someone else, or he can work in cooperation with other persons. In any case, he has the final responsibility for the selection. For more details about the selection, see paragraph 6.
The director must decide the distribution of points for every problem. For details, see paragraph 7.
The director must prepare all necessary documents for the solvers: solving sheets, diagrams, solutions, etc.
The use of the Solving Tournament Manager (STM) is highly recommended. In case the director cannot use the STM (no computer, no experience with the software, etc.), he should inform the responsible persons of the WFCC Solving Committee in advance.
In case the director would like to experiment (selection of problems, tournament system, number of problems, etc.) he must inform the spokesman of the WFCC Solving Committee in advance. The solving committee will advise as soon as possible if the suggested experiments are acceptable.
Recommendations for diagrams and solutions:
Diagrams should show the stipulation in a common form (H#2, S#3, +, = etc.), with the number of white and black pieces and they should be numbered with Arabic numbers (e.g. 1-18 for WCSC type tournaments, not A-R).
Solution sheets should be provided with the sources of the problems (examples: composer, publication, year, distinction, dedication, version, “mirror position”, etc.) and at least in one version with Latin letters.
An original problem or study used in a solving tournament is eligible to compete in any composing tournament within the next two years (see article 20 of the “Codex for Chess Composition”).
4. The tournament
The rules of the tournament are well covered in the rules for the World (European) Chess Solving Championship (WCSC/ECSC) in chapters 7 to 14 (https://www.wfcc.ch/rules/wcsc/).
5. After the tournament
All tournament documentation (name of tournament director, diagrams of problems, solutions, complete list with detailed results per problem, possible complaints, etc.) should be sent to the responsible persons of the WFCC Solving Committee within 5 days (10 days for multiple-locations tournaments) after the end of the competition. In addition the solving sheets have to be kept by the tournament director for at least 4 weeks to enable probing possible issues.
The responsible persons will check and publish these documents as soon as possible.
The rating will automatically be calculated by the STM. Also all the information about category, norms, difficulty of problems, etc. will be provided by the STM.
6. Selection of problems
All the problems and studies must be:
- originals;
- or published problems at least six years old;
- or modified published problems (correction, versions, etc.) at least six years old. Mirroring is not recommended as solvers easily recognise them if they know the original problem;
- not used in previous rated solving tournaments, with the exception of a maximum of two problems which were not used in previous solving tournaments in the last 10 years and not at all in any WCSC, ECSC, ISC or tournaments in the same country. Check the Solving Tournament Database of the STM.
The director must use common sense in his selection and must avoid problems which could be known by the solvers (well-known problems from FIDE-Albums, etc.). A good mix of styles, themes, composers, etc. is advisable.
It is recommended that at least one problem is quite easy to avoid many possibly frustrated solvers with 0 total points; but the majority of problems should not be too easy to enable a good differentiation of the results for the solvers. On the other hand, no problem should be so difficult that chances are very high that no solver can solve it.
All the problems must be computer checked. To ensure correct diagrams, it is recommended that diagrams are copied electronically to the problem sheets to avoid errors by manually transferring them, e.g. by using the FEN of a problem’s database entry to create them or by copying picture files of correct diagrams directly from reliable sources.
For solutions of a single problem not more than 10 variations should be necessary to write.
The director must take care with the selection of studies:
- Check in the Harold van der Heijden’s database if the study is known to be incorrect; if the director does not have a license to use the database, he must get in contact with the spokesman of the solving committee or ask for help from someone who has a license;
- Check the study with computer engines;
- Avoid incomprehensible database lines;
- The study should have a clear main line without obscure side lines, and should not be too long.
Helpmates:
In a WCSC-tournament the maximum for total solutions is 9. In an Open tournament the maximum for total solutions is “number of H# × 3”. For example: in an Open tournament with two helpmates, the maximum for total number of solutions is 6.
In a WCSC tournament there must be a H#2, a H#3 and a longer H#.
Remember: H#1,5 is the same as a H#2; H#2,5 is the same as a H#3, etc.
The director should consider the artistic value of helpmates (examples: thematic link between the phases, avoiding cook-like solutions, etc.)
Moremovers:
In a WCSC tournament there must be at least one #4 and at least one moremover longer than #4.
Selfmates:
In a WCSC tournament there must be a S#2, a S#3 and a longer S#. It is advisable to use a S#4 instead of a very difficult longer S#.
Fairy:
In this context, fairies are problems which are not studies, orthodox problems, helpmates or selfmates. If the director uses fairy problems he must announce the elements at least two months in advance. Examples: “Reflexmate”, “Circe”, “Andernach”, “Nightrider”, “Shortest proof game”, etc.
7. Distribution of Points
No points for key moves of orthodox problems (except twomovers) and selfmates can be given. Points can only be given to full-length variations and threats of problems. Example: in a #5 only variations and threats till the 4th move before the mating move can get points. It is not possible to give points “halfway” of the solution.
For studies only points for white moves of the main line can be given, no points for black moves and moves of side lines. It is not advisable to give 5 points for 1 move only.
8. WFCC Solving Committee
The solving committee will monitor all rated tournaments closely. If necessary, it will inform the tournament directors about any inconsistencies, mistakes or irregularities. It will also advise how to avoid these problems in the future.
Contact Persons
WFCC has created two email addresses for all matters concerning the solving competitions and the rating.
To directly contact the spokesman of the WFCC Solving Committee use:
To directly contact those responsible for the World Solving Cup, rated tournaments, ratings use:
Version of 8th September, 2023
Guidelines for directors of rated solving tournaments, PDF (updated in October, 2023)
Rules for WSC
World Solving Cup (WSC)
Rules
- The WSC is a competition for individual solvers who compete at solving tournaments appointed by the WFCC.
- Tournaments have to meet the criteria for acceptability of tournaments at which ratings can be gained and must run at one place. In the case of tournaments with multiple locations only the tournament in the country and place of the central controller counts for the WSC.
- Each member country of the FIDE may enter one tournament for the WSC which is open for all participants. Countries register their tournaments to be included in the WSC before or during the WFCC congress, but not more than one month later to the WSC Director.
- A list of registered tournaments is published on the WFCC website. The official announcement of each tournament must be sent to the WSC Director at least two months before it starts and will be published on the WFCC website. Organisers should try to avoid holding their tournament on the same weekend as another WSC tournament that has already been published.
- The Open solving tournament organised during the ECSC counts for the WSC and the one during the WFCC congress counts as the final WSC tournament of a season.
- A season of the WSC is a period between the two WFCC congresses.
- Tournaments are sorted into fourteen categories depending on the average rating of the ten participating solvers with the highest ratings.
- The best solvers from each tournament get WSC points. Depending on the category of a tournament a specific number of the best placed solvers get points. If two or more solvers share places they all get points for the highest place they share.
- The sum of a solver’s six best tournaments is taken into account for the WSC final result. In case of a tie of points the average of solver’s performance ratings from those tournaments decides. All solvers getting points are included in the final table.
- The director of each tournament sends the complete results, problems and solutions to the WSC Director at most three days after the tournament ends. They are published on the WFCC website.
- The WSC Director decides should a tournament be included in the WSC in case of exceeding deadline for the registration and for the announcement of the tournaments (items 3 and 4). He decides the same in ten days after the tournament ends in a case of exceeding deadline for sending results of the tournament (item 10) or any other irregularity.
Categories of tournaments and distribution of WSC points:
| Cat. | Average rating of ten best solvers | 1.pl | 2.pl | 3.pl | 4.pl | 5.pl | 6.pl | 7.pl | 8.pl | 9.pl | 10.pl | 11.pl | 12.pl | 13.pl | 14.pl | 15.pl |
| 1 | >=2600 | 46 | 41 | 36 | 31 | 27 | 23 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | >=2550 | 41 | 36 | 31 | 27 | 23 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |
| 3 | >=2500 | 36 | 31 | 27 | 23 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 4 | >=2450 | 31 | 27 | 23 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||
| 5 | >=2400 | 27 | 23 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | >=2350 | 23 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| 7 | >=2300 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| 8 | >=2250 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| 9 | >=2200 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||
| 10 | >=2150 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
| 11 | >=2100 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 12 | >=2050 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 13 | >=2000 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 14 | < 2000 | 2 | 1 |
WSC rules, PDF (updated in October 2023)
65th WCCC – Highlights and Decisions
65th World Congress of Chess Composition
Batumi, Georgia
September 2-9, 2023
31 member countries were present, 4 of them via Zoom connection.
Armenia was welcomed as the 44th member country of the Federation.
Legal and financial matters: Attempts to open an official WFCC bank account have been continuing in Fujairah, where the WFCC main office was opened. The urgent expenses in 2023 were covered from the Fujairah Government financial support of 5.000 EUR. Some other proposals to assure WFCC financial stability will be discussed during 2024.
Sanctions on Russia and Belarus: The WFCC meeting confirmed the continuation of the earlier sanctions decided in 2022, until further notice: a) Individual solvers from Russia/Belarus are allowed to participate in ECSC/WCSC if they appear without country designations or under the FIDE flag. No RUS/BLR team result is applicable; b) The results of new solving tournaments (including ISC Cat.1 & Cat.2) organized in Russia and Belarus are not included in the calculation of solvers’ ratings.
WCCT: It was decided to continue discussion about proposals for rules change. While the idea was considered logical, a number of negative points were found, like difficulty of understanding, inability for manual checking, potential dependence on small changes in marks.
To avoid potential conflicts with the FIDE Album schedule the 12th WCCT should be started in 2024 or 2025. Decisions were made to initiation the search for the Director, and to ask for proposals for themes and judging possibilities from member countries.
WCCI: New spokesman Marco Guida and the WCCI 2022-24 Director Narayan Shankar Ram had done most of the hard work before the WCCC 2023 meeting. In several months they had completed a proposal for a panel of all 40 potential judges for the WCCI 2022-24, taking care about many different aspects, including broadening the base of WFCC Member Countries providing judges for WCCI. Approximately 150 composers/judges from 47 countries had been screened, 67 of them from 37 countries have been invited and finally 40 from 27 countries have kindly accepted (in writing). The complete panel was discussed within the WCCI Committee and preliminarily accepted. This list will not be published and will remain unofficial until the official announcement.
The WCCI Committee suggested a new text of the General Rules for WCCI to be published on the WFCC website, in replacement of the obsolete text. The new text was essentially taken from the WCCI 2019-21 Announcement, with some minor formal amendments and a revision of the portion of text that sets some general criteria for the selection of judges to account for real world constraints and opportunities (e.g. removing the requirement that judges shall be ranked among the top-15 in the previous WCCI).
An initial discussion concerning the future of WCCI (beyond 2024) will be continued in the future WCCI Committee Meetings.
FIDE Album: All sections of the current FIDE Album 2019-21, except for the endgame studies, have been finalized. In section D, the judge Branislav Djurašević was late (he has scored 2/3 of the studies up to the end of September). The director and the spokesman have decided that Jan Sprenger will score the rest of the studies.
After reviewing the proposal by Vlaicu Crişan and Narayan Shankar Ram of 2022, the committee suggested to the Assembly that the fairies section of the next Album 2022-24 should include a new group (sub-section) G3 for help-self problems only. Several delegates expressed doubt or concern for it, or suggested some alternative split of the judges’ workload in section G. The spokesman Harry Fougiaxis stated that the committee will revisit the issue in the next congress with the intention to ask the delegates to vote.
Starting with the 2022-24 Album, it was unanimously decided that together with the results of each section, the final spreadsheet will be also posted with the TOTAL score of each composition. Scores of the individual judges will NOT be shown. Selection of directors and judges for the 2022-24 Album has started.
The committee agreed with Narayan Shankar Ram’s suggestion that an updated errata list of all Albums should be made available. This is a major project and requires time. The committee did not support the suggestion made by Igor Yarmonov regarding the change of the submission limit for problemists who have a lot of joint compositions with other composers.
Compositions with mathematical content will have to be submitted to the fairies section.
The suggestion by Bedrich Formánek and Juraj Brabec regarding the use of Z-System in the albums will be discussed in the next congress, when the editor is present.
Solving: Four changes were accepted, and two of them got slightly different formulations after the Congress. It was decided to amend Rule 4.3 of the WCSC/ECSC Rules (changes in bold): “A country may nominate three more solvers from extra categories, one of each from (juniors, women, seniors) out of this quota. For the junior’s / women’s / senior’s championship juniors / women / seniors from the regular national quota compete as well.”
The Rules 8 a) & 8 b) were extended with new sentences at the bottom of each paragraph (exact wording may still be changed):
a) In a moremover with a threat, it may be that a Black defence leads to a variation with the same White next move(s) as in the threat, but a continuation (up to and including White’s penultimate move) that diverges from that of the threat line – this variation must be written.
b) In a selfmate moremover with a threat, it may be that a Black defence leads to a variation with the same White next move(s) as in the threat, but a continuation (up to and including White’s last move) that diverges from that of the threat line – this variation must be written.
In the Guidelines for directors of solving tournaments, changes were made in the Point 6 (changes in bold):
6. Selection of problems
All the problems and studies must be:
– originals;
– or published problems at least six years old;
– or modified published problems (correction, versions, etc.) at least six years old. Mirroring is not recommended as solvers easily recognize them if they know the original problem;
– not used in previous rated solving tournaments (especially WCSC, ECSC and ISC). Check the website of the WFCC and the Solving Tournament Database.
– not used in previous solving tournaments with the exception of a maximum of two problems which were not used in previous solving tournaments in the last 10 years and not at all in any WCSC, ECSC, ISC or tournaments in the same country. Check the Solving Tournament Database of the STM.
Criteria of acceptability of tournaments at which ratings and norms can be gained were changed in the part R4 (new text in bold): At least 12 problems of different types must be presented to the solvers. This slight change prevents a case when an incorrect problem may reduce the needed number of problems.
Youth: The 7th Youth Chess Composing Challenge attracted 42 participants from 16 countries with 64 entries, and included 7 out of the 10 best young solvers according to the July 2023 rating list. The Youth Committee expressed satisfaction with the rise in quality and suggested a few novelties for the 8th YCCC 2024. One of them is to introduce prizes for the five best representatives from five different countries. Two additional competitions for juniors will be included in 2024: Synthetics (proposed and directed by Vlaicu Crișan), and an online Solving Challenge (proposed and directed by Brian Cook).
Studies: Yochanan Afek informed about the new technical method of producing long endgames, with little or no creativity needed. It is based on simple and fast mining on a 7-men tablebase. The new method raises the questions of authorship and evaluation of the products of mining. The 1st Prize from the latest FIDE World Cup 2023 was mentioned as an extreme example.
Codex: Andrew Buchanan had made a number of proposals concerning the Codex. All of them were discussed, but no decisions were made this year, as some more proposals are announced for 2024.
New titles:
- International Grandmaster of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Mikola Kolesnik (UKR), Václav Kotěšovec(CZE), Gennady Kozyura (UKR), Pavel Murashev (RUS), Abdelaziz Onkoud (FRA), Manfred Rittirsch (GER)
- International Master of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Eric Huber (ROU), Anatoly Skripnik (RUS), Mihailo Stojnić (SRB), Dmitry Turevsky (RUS), Igor Yarmonov (UKR)
- FIDE Master for Chess Compositions: Marcin Banaszek (GER), Sergey Bilyk (RUS), Oleg Efrosinin (RUS), Volker Gülke (GER), Kenan Velikhanov (AZE), Viktor Zaitsev (BLR), Saturnin Limbach (POL)(†), upon request by the country, Dawid Przepiórka (POL)(†), upon request by the country
- International Solving Grandmaster of the FIDE: Ural Khasanov (RUS)
- International Solving Master of the FIDE: KevinasKuznecovas (LTU), Ulrich Voigt (GER)
- FIDE Solving Master: Mihnea Costachi (ROU), Jakub Marciniszyn (POL), Nikita Ushakov (RUS)
- International Judge of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Vlaicu Crişan (ROU) – fairies, retros and helpmates, Gérard Doukhan (FRA) – twomovers and threemovers, Paul Răican (ROU) – retros and fairies, Manfred Rittirsch (GER) – extension to helpmates
Bernd Ellinghoven (Germany) was nominated Honorary Member.
Statutes changes: In order to adjust to demands of time and allow easier work, two changes were suggested by the Presidium and accepted (changes in bold):
Page 8, Point 9.1 Presidium members:
The Presidium appoints the Treasurer.
Page 12, Annex II: Detailed rules for the admission and expulsion of Member Countries:
Visible activity in the composing or solving of chess problems or studies must exist in a country applying for admission to the WFCC.
Solving in the context of FIDE Youth events: Dinu-Ioan Nicula presented a proposal for official solving competitions in the context of FIDE Youth World Championships, from 2024 on. The proposal was prepared by a working group, in agreement with Akaki Iashvili, FIDE Special Tasks Director, chair of the FIDE Events Commission.
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.
64th WCCC – Highlights and Decisions
64th World Congress of Chess Composition
Fujairah, UAE
November 12-19, 2022
24 member countries were present. India was welcomed as a new member country of the Federation.
Sanctions on Russia and Belarus: The WFCC meeting confirmed the continuation of the earlier sanctions decided in the online meetings of March 2022: a) Individual solvers from Russia/Belarus are allowed to participate in ECSC/WCSC 2023 if they appear without country designations or under the FIDE flag. No RUS/BLR team result is applicable; b) The results of new solving tournaments (including ISC 2023 Cat.1 & Cat.2) organized in Russia and Belarus are not included in the calculation of solvers’ ratings.
An Ethics Working Group was formulated to review Peter Gvozdják’s report. The Federation accepted the suggestion of the Ethics Task Force and issued a warning to Evgeny Fomichyov for his behaviour in the MatPlus forum.
WCCT: The results of the 11th WCCT that were announced on the site in October 2022 were confirmed as final. The director emphasized that ALL compositions that received points and a place in the award are considered published with the source “Nth Place WCCT 2021-22”. Only the compositions that received zero points and the excluded compositions of the RUS/BLR teams are original and can be published by the composers elsewhere. The committee will study during next year Marko Klasinc’s suggestion and David Hodge’s alternative proposal regarding score adjustment in specific cases. The spokesman and the committee should start the preparation process for the next WCCT.
WCCI: The results of the 8th WCCI 2019-21 that were announced on the site in September 2022 were confirmed as final. A spokesman needs to be found to co-ordinate the committee members’ work.
FIDE Album: The 2016-18 album was available in the congress as scheduled. Work for the 2019-21 album has started as planned.
The suggestion of V. Crișan and N. Shankar Ram to introduce an individual section for help-selfmates was examined by the committee and it will be further discussed during the year. The committee will also study the alternative suggestion made by the WCCT committee to introduce instead a section of “light” fairies (stalemates, series-play, reflexmates, help-selfmates, all without fairy pieces or conditions).
Solving: It was decided to amend Rule 4.2 (changes in bold): “All countries are entitled to enter one team, the organising country two teams and one team of juniors or women or mixed juniors and women. A country participating with a team(s) is allowed to nominate one further solver for the individual championship.”
Marek Kolčák will be the new spokesman. World Solving Cup 2022-2023, as in previous cycle (director: Roland Ott; assistant directors: Axel Steinbrink and Marek Kolčák).
New titles:
- International Grandmaster of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Emil Klemanič (SVK), Valery Semenenko (UKR)
- International Master of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Amatzia Avni (ISR), Kostas Prentos (USA), Árpád Rusz (ROU), Ivo Tominić (CRO)
- FIDE Master for Chess Compositions: Dirk Borst (NED), Branislav Djurašević (SRB), Luis Miguel González (ESP), Igor Kochulov (RUS), Aleksey Oganesyan (RUS), Jan Timman (NED)
- International Solving Grandmaster of the FIDE: Aleksey Popov (RUS)
- International Solving Master of the FIDE: David Hodge (GBR), Ilija Serafimović (SRB)
- FIDE Solving Master: Ulrich Voigt (GER)
- International Judge of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Elmar Abdullayev (AZE, 3-movers), Sergey Borodavkin (UKR, selfmates), Mark Erenburg (ISR, n-movers and selfmates), Kenneth Solja (FIN, extension to 3-movers)
Elections: The Presidium for the years 2023-2026 will be: President: Marjan Kovačević (Serbia), 1st Vice-President: dr. Abdulla Ali Aal Barket (United Arab Emirates), 2nd Vice-President: Vidmantas Satkus (Lithuania), 3rd Vice-President: Dinu-Ioan Nicula (Romania). Harry Fougiaxis (Greece) was nominated Honorary President and Hannu Harkola (Finland) Honorary Member.
19th International Solving Contest (ISC) on 29.1.2023, directors Axel Steinbrink and Luc Palmans.
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.
Solvers’ rating
Solvers’ rating
The rating is a numerical value which a solver gains by solving in two approved tournaments. It can be gained at the tournaments which fulfil definite criteria. The rating list is published four times a year.
Rating 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: 01.01.2022
01.10.2021 | 01.07.2021 | 01.04.2021 | 01.01.2021
2010-1.4.2013 – wide tables in full-screen mode:
1.1.2010 | 1.4.2010 | 1.7.2010 | 1.10.2010 | 1.1.2011 | 1.4.2011 | 1.7.2011 | 1.10.2011 | 1.1.2012 | 1.4.2012 | 1.7.2012 | 1.10.2012 | 1.1.2013 | 1.4.2013
61st WCCC – Highlights and Decisions
61st World Congress of Chess Composition
Ohrid, Macedonia
September 1 – September 8, 2018
26 member countries were present. Neal Turner acted as substitute secretary.
WCCT: Mikalai Sihnevich (BLR) will be the director of the 11th WCCT. Countries are urged to submit their theme-proposals and inform about the sections they are willing to judge by 15 November 2018. The contact person is the WCCT committee spokesman, Georgy Evseev, 10wcct@gmail.com (same email address as in the previous tournament). It is hoped that the countries will submit sufficient feedback, so that the WCCT can be announced within March 2019.
WCCI: Selection of the judges for the 2016-18 WCCI was finalized. The announcement of the championship will be issued by the end of September and the closing date will be 20.1.2019. The results will be published on the site by the end of June 2019.
FIDE Album: Theme indexers are expected to finish their work by the end of 2018 and the 2013-15 album is scheduled to be ready in the 2019 congress. Selection of the section directors and judges for the 2016-18 album was finalized. The fairies section will be split in two groups (one group for fairies without conditions, and the other for fairies with conditions). The announcement of the 2016-18 album will be issued in early January 2019 with a closing date of 1 June 2019.
With regard to the rule for the number of allowed entries (30 entries, as a maximum, to each section or 3 times the number of selected compositions in that section in the previous album that the composer participated) it was agreed to change the last part of the rule to “…in any of the previously published albums.” The suggestion of Crisan/Loustau/Parrinello regarding changes in the judging phase schedule was reviewed by the Album committee and was discussed in the Assembly; advantages and disadvantages were spotted and the committee will contact the composers for further questions and clarifications.
Solving: Changes were agreed in the rules of ISC and WCSC/ECSC, as well as in the criteria for acceptability of tournaments at which ratings and norms can be gained. Roland Ott will be the director of World Solving Cup 2018-2019. Luc Palmans will be the new committee spokesman.
Youth: A new committee aiming to the development of chess composing and solving among youngsters was established. Marjan Kovačević was appointed as spokesman. WFCC will contact ECU to arrange the details of establishing a European Cup solving event in the context of the European Youth OTB championships.
New titles:
- International Grandmaster of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Aleksandr Semenenko (UKR)
- International Master of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Yury Gorbatenko (RUS), Vitaly Medintsev (RUS), Zlatko Mihajloski (MKD)
- FIDE Master for Chess Compositions: Georgy Evseev (RUS), Norbert Geissler (GER), János Mikitovics (HUN), Viktoras Paliulionis (LTU), Nikola Predrag (CRO), Dmitri Turevski (RUS)
- FIDE Solving Master: Nikos Sidiropoulos (GRE)
- International Judge of the FIDE for Chess Compositions: Yury Bilokin (UKR, helpmates), Aleksandr Bulavka (BLR, helpmates and fairies), Aleksey Ivunin (RUS, helpmates), Sergey Osintsev (RUS, studies), Mečislovas Rimkus (LTU, two/three/moremovers, helpmates), Dmitri Turevski (RUS, helpmates and fairies)
- FIDE Solving Judge: Ivan Denkovski (MKD), Borislav Gadjanski (SRB)
The presidium for the years 2019-2022 will be: Harry Fougiaxis (President), Thomas Maeder (1st Vice-President and Treasurer), Vidmantas Satkus (2nd Vice-President), Luc Palmans (3rd Vice-President).
Georgy Evseev, former 2nd Vice-President, was nominated Honorary Member of the WFCC.
15th International Solving Contest (ISC) on 27.1.2019, directors Axel Steinbrink and Luc Palmans.
14th European Chess Solving Championship (ECSC) in Glyfada (Athens), Greece 3-5 May 2019
62nd World Congress of Chess Composition (WCCC) and 43rd World Chess Solving Championship (WCSC) in Vilnius, Lithuania 17-24 August 2019