Results from Kobe, Composers

I have received the booklet with the results of the compositions during WCCC 2012 in Kobe Japan, in electronic form. I present here tourneys and results, writing in bold what is relevant with the Greek composers.
The composers Themis Argirakopoulos, Kostas Prentos (this year has moved to USA) and Emmanuel Manolas have earned distinctions.

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Quick Composing Tourney

#2, Judge : Touw Hian Bwee (Indonesia)
1st Place : Marjan Kovacevic, 2nd Place : Yuji Kikuta, 3rd Place : Paz Einat

h#2, Judge : Ricardo de Mattos Vieira (Brazil))
1st Prize : Mark Erenburg, 2nd Prize : Ofer Comay, 3rd Prize : Michel Caillaud
Honorable Mention : Hitoshi Yanami
Commended : Hemmo Axt

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15th SABRA composing Tourney (PDF)
1st Prize : Dieter Mueller, 2nd Prize : Jean Haymann, 3rd Price : Emanuel Navon, 4th Prize : Kostas Prentos
1st Hon. Mention : Mario Parinello, 2nd HM : Fadil Abdurahmanovic, 3rd HM : Abdelaziz Onkoud, 4th HM : Kohey Yamada, 5th HM : Shaul Shamir, 6th HM : Mark Basisty
1st Comm. : Luis Miguel Martin, 2nd Comm. : Ricardo de Mattos Vieira, 3rd Comm. : Valery Kopyl, Comm. : Ralf Kraetschmer, Comm. : Rodolfo Riva, Comm. : Julia Vysotska, Comm. : Emmanuel Manolas, Comm. : Yoel Aloni

Problem-619 Manolas Emmanuel 8/1R6/2k5/8/8/b5P1/4bP2/rr4QK h#2, 2.1.1.1 (Theme : Mating piece must be initially pinned) 1.Bd6 Qxb1 2.Bd1 (Bf1??) Qb5# 1.Bc5 Qd1 2.Bf1 (Bd1??) Qd7# Self-blocking, Diagonal mirror echo, Dual avoidance.

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Jenever 2012 (PDF)
Prize : Pavel Arestov

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UKRAINE 2012 (PDF)

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SPIŠSKÁ BOROVIČKA (PDF)

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Champagne Tourney (PDF)

Section A : Proof Games
1st Prize : Satoshi Hashimoto, 2nd Prize : Hitochi Yanami
1st Hon. Mention : Hitochi Yanami, 2nd HM : Hitochi Yanami
1st Comm. : Allan Bell, 2nd Comm. : Peter van den Heuvel, 3rd Comm. : Igor Vereshchagin, 4th Comm. : Bjorn Enemark

Section B : Any kind of Retro problems
Prize : Naoki Matsuzaki
Commendation : Marco Bonavoglia

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Long Thematic Tourney

A) Tadashi Wakashima-60 Jubilee Tourney, #3 (PDF)
Prize : Alexander Feoktistov
1st Hon. Mention : Dieter Werner, 2nd HM : Eugene Fomichev
Comm. : Gennady Chumakov, Comm. : O. Comay and M. Erenburg and M. Witztum

B) Helpmate in 2.5 moves (PDF)
1st Prize : bernd ellinghoven, 2nd Prize : Menachem Witztum, 3rd Prize : Marko Klasinc
1st Hon. Mention : Menachem Witztum and bernd ellinghoven, 2nd HM : Ricardo de Mattos Vieira, 3rd HM : Vidmandas Satkus
Comm. : Valery Kopyl, Comm. : Mark Erenburg, Comm. : Ofer Comay, Comm. : Menachem Witztum and Ricardo de Mattos Vieira

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3rd Bulgarian Wine Tourney (PDF)
1st-4th Prize : Petko Petkov, Vlaicu Crisan and Eric Huber, Ofer Comay and Paz Einat, Kostas Prentos, 5th Prize : Ricardo Vieira, 6th Prize : Mark Erenburg, 7th Prize : Michel Caillaud, Special Prize : Juraj Lorinc
1st Hon. Mention : Petko Petkov, 2nd HM : Mario Parinello, 3rd HM : Manfred Rittirsch, 4th HM : Mario Parinello, 5th HM : Julia Vysotska, 6th HM : Pierre Tritten, 7th HM : Manfred Rittirsch, 8th HM : James Quah and Michel Caillaud, 9th HM : Themis Argirakopoulos, 10th HM : Themis Argirakopoulos, 11th HM : Seetharaman Kalyan
Comm. : Mario Parinello, Comm. : bernd ellinghoven and Kjell Widlert, Comm. : Rudolfo Riva, Comm. : Dieter Mueller, Special Comm. : Igor Vereshchagin

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10th Romanian Tzuica Tourney (PDF)

Orthodox Section
Special Prize : Petko Petkov
Commendation : Menachem Witztum, Special Commendation : Emanuel Navon

Fairy Section
1st Prize : Manfred Rittirsch, 2nd Prize : Diyan Kostadinov
1st Hon. Mention : Frantisek Sabol, 2nd HM : Juraj Lorinc, 3rd HM : Mario Parinello
Commendation : Julia Vysotska

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12th Japanese Sake Tourney (PDF)
1st Prize : Hans Uitenbroek, 2nd Prize : Thomas Maeder, Special Prize : Michel Caillaud, Special Prize : Naoki Matsuzaki
1st Hon. Mention : Ricardo de Mattos Vieira, 2nd HM : Kjell Widlert
Comm. : Kjell Widlert, Comm. : Kjell Widlert, Comm. : Diyan Kostadinov

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Results from Kobe 2012, Solvers

In the Open Solving Tournament we had the following results:

1 Comay, Ofer, ISR, 50.5
2 Limontas, Martynas, LTU, 49
3 Kovacevic, Marjan, SRB, 47.5

The full list of the participants and their ranking is here.

In the World Chess Solving Championship the first teams were...

1 POLAND (Mista, Alexander - Murdzia, Piotr - Piorun, Kacper)
2 GERMANY (Pfannkuche, Michael - Tummes, Boris - Zude, Arno)
3 RUSSIA (Feoktistov, Aleksandr - Mukoseev, Anatoly - Selivanov, Andrey)

The full list with the ranking of countries and their results is here.
In the same page you will find the individual results for World Champion of Solving Chess Problems. The first three were...

1 Murdzia, Piotr, POL (GM, 2766.89)
2 Zude, Arno, GER (GM, 2622.26)
3 Piorun, Kacper, POL (GM, 2650.68).

2012-09-15, Solving Contest in SOI Crete

FM Spiros Ilantzis writes (and we thank him) about a solving chess-problems contest, which was organised by Chess Group of Heraklion Crete (SOI, http://www.soi.gr/website) as parallel event for 6th OPEN tourney (see here).

[Last Saturday they called me from Heraklion (Crete) and I went there to organize a Solving Contest. Of course, they asked for problems orthodox and easy.

The solving contest commenced at 11:15, with 22 solvers (15 experienced, plus some "passing by") -but not the “big names” (Logothetis, Lyrintzakis, Maris, Stavrianakis, Xylogiannopoulos, Mylonakis – players of ELO 2100-2330 who took part in the parallel tourney, they did not come).
I had prepared 6, rather easy, problems, 5 two-movers and 1 three-mover (by Loyd). I allowed them time 1 hour 45' (instead of 3 hours stated in the initial announcement), There was not any need to tire them more...

The results:

1st mr Gerasimos Spyrou, with 25 points (he solved correctly all the two-movers!)

2nd mr K. Klokas, with 20 p. (he solved correctly 4 two-movers, not the 4th)

3rd mr Pan. Eleftherakis (young lad, remarkable, he had dealt with problems before and he had done good practice!) with 15 p. (he solved correctly two two-movers, not the 1st nor the 4th).

4th – 5th mr Marcos Vayonakis and mr K. Papadimitrakis, with 10 p.

6th – 7th mr Manos Lantzourakis and mr Man. Tsapakis, with 5 p.

The rest of the solvers ... were simply unlucky! :-)]

Here follow the selected problems with their solutions.

1st Solving chess-problems Contest of S.O.I.

Heraklion, September 15, 2012

The solutions of the problems of this contest:

1st of the contest (Problem-614) Mate in 2 moves (6 + 6) J. Dozescu, "Flacara Sibiului", 1965 Tries: {1.Rf7? [2.Qxf8#] Bg5!}, {1.Qc4? /Qb3? /Qc7? [2.Qf7#] f4!}. Solution: 1.Bg5! [2.Qxf8#] (the Bishop is sacrificed and there are 5 different ways to capture it, which lead to 5 different mates!), 1...Bxg5 2.Bxh5#, 1...Kxg5 2.Qg3#, 1...Sxg5 2.Sf4#, 1...Rxg5 2.Sh4#, 1...fxg5 2.Qc8#.

2nd of the contest (Problem-615) Mate in 2 moves (7 + 5) Rudenko V. and Mortensen J., Moscow Congress 1961, 1st Prize Solution: 1.Qe3! 1...Kd5 2.Qd4# 1...Kf5 2.Qg5# 1...fxe6 2.Sd7#, 1...f6 2.Qxe4#, 1...f5 2.Qd4#, 1...fxg6 2.Qg5#. Theme "BP4" (4 different moves of the pawn in f7 lead to 4 different mates!).

3rd of the contest (Problem-616) Mate in 2 moves (10 + 7)

Fritz Giegold, Oberfrankische Schachzeitung, 1929

Try:
{1.Qc1? (1...Ke4? 2.Qh1#) Kxe6!}
Solution: 1.Qh8! (spectacular "key", the Queen goes to the corner of the chess-board giving to the bkack King two more flight-squares in -c- column!),
1...Kxc6 2.Qa8#,
1...Kc4 2.Qd4#,
1...Ke4 2.Qh1#,
1...Kxe6 2.Qg8#.

The theme is "X-flights", while the white Queen visits three corners of the chess-board.

4th of the contest (Problem-617)

Mate in 2 moves (10 + 2)
Myllyniemi Matti, Suomen Televisio 1961, FIDE Album 1959-61

Tries:
{1.Qd2? /Qd1? Bxf7!, (1...Bxh7? /Bxf5? 2.Qd4#), (1...Bxh5? 2.Qd5#)},
{1.Qh1? Bxh7!, (1...Bxf5? 2.Qd5# /Qh2#), (1...Bxh5? 2.Qe4# /Qd5#), (1...Bxf7? 2.Qe4#)},
{1.Qa1? Bxf5!, (1...Bxh7? 2.b3#), (1...Bxh5? 2.Qa5#)},
{1.Qg1? Bxh5!, (1...Bxf5? 2.Qg3#), (1...Bxh7? 2.Qg7#)}.
Solution: 1.Qe1!
1...Bxf7 2.Kf3#,
1...Bxh7 2.Qc3#,
1...Bxf5 2.Qg3#,
1...Bxh5 2.Qa5#.

Black has 4 available moves: the Bishop captures any of the 4 pieces in "X-shape" placing.

5th of the contest (Problem-618)

Mate in 2 moves (9 + 7)
Horatio Musante, Chess Life 1957-58, 3rd Prize

Try:
{1.Qe2? [2.Qe6#] Se3!,
(1...Qxf5 a 2.Qe7# A),
(1...Sxf5 b 2.Sd5# B),
(1...gxf5 c 2.Qa6# C),
(1...Kxf5 d 2.Bxg4# D)}.
Set play: {1...Kxf5 d 2.Bxg4# D} 
Solution: 1.Qb3! [2.Qe6#],
1...Qxf5 a 2.Be7# E,
1...Sxf5 b 2.Se4# F,
1...gxf5 c 2.Ra6# G,
1...Kxf5 d 2.Be4# H.

Stocchi blocks in two phases (the defences of Black are the same in the solution, as in the try, but the 4 mates are changed!

6th of the contest (Problem-144)

Mate in 3 moves (4 + 5)
Sam Loyd, 1865

Solution: 1.Qf1!
1...Bb2 2.Qb1 [2.Qxh7#] g6 3.Qxb2#,
1...Bc3 /Bd4 2.Qd3 g6 3.Qxc3# /Qxd4#,
1...Be5 /Bf6 2.Qf5 g6 3.Qxe5# /Qxf6#,
(the Queen is "hunting" the black Bishop!),
1...g3 2.Sg6+ hxg6 3.Qh3#

It is your turn now

Dear friends of the chess problems, during some recent years I was posting various subjects on this blog, trying to cover the omissions of the greek chess-literature or to promote things which held my interest. To be honest, some posts were written by friends.
But you may have some things in doubt about the chess composition, and you were not given the chance to ask.

It is your turn now to ask of us to answer your inquiries.
What is it, that you want to read about, here in this blog? Write your question in the comments.
We do not know everything, but we will try to answer.

Two notes by Alkinoos:
(1) Do not think that I have found myself in lack of material! I have, for example, 25 new originals by the rebetis Nikos Pergialis, best studies of some years and awards of composition tourneys. Simply, I have thought it would be good to ask you.
(2) Sorry that the posts here are somehow scarse, but this is the time of WCCC in Kobe Japan and I keep myself busy trying to compose entries for these tourneys.