56th World Congress of Chess Composition, 37th World Chess Solving Champioship

The 56th World Congress of Chess Composition, WCCC, together with the 37th World Chess Solving Champioship, WCSC, will take place this year, September 21-28 2013, in Batumi of Georgia at the Black Sea.

There are participants from many countries, as you may see at the site of the congress.

The composers who would like to submit entries to the composing tourneys, may visit the page Composition. Some tourneys are only for the participants, others are open for all the composers of the world. See below

David Gurgenidze-60 JT,
for studies with Theme "White with a single minor piece (N,B) in the final makes positional draw against a rook and a minor piece (N,B). Pawn should be absent in the final position".

Gia Nadaraeishvili MT,
for studies with Theme "White with a materials rook + night (bishop) in the final makes positional draw against a queen + rook. Pawn should be absent in the final position".

StrateGems magazine, and three prized helpmates

First we will say a few words about the American chess magazine StrateGems and then we will see the three prizes from a tourney for moremovers helpmates.

The magazine StrateGems, with the issue 63 July - September 2013, 56 pages, has reached its 16th volume.
Its site is http://strategems.net and you may reach the chief editor, Mike Prcic, via e-mail tuzlak@aol.com .

To have an idea for the variety of the contents, here they are in titles:

StrateGems 2010 Retros Award, by Gerd Wilts
StrateGems 2012 h#n Award, by Mike Prcic
StrateGems 2012 Retros Award, by Henrik Juel
Dan Meinking and the 'Legal' Variation of the Parry Series Genre, by Valery Liskovets
An Andernach-Equihopper Theme, by Newman Guttman
Recently Honored US Compositions
Original Compositions,
...Twomovers (editor Eugene Fomichev),
...Threemovers (editor Rauf Aliovsadzade),
...Moremovers (editor Richard Becker) and Studies (editor Eugene Fomichev),
...Helpmates (editor Nikola Stolev), Selfmates (editor Petko A. Petkov),
...Series-movers and Stalemates (editor Radovan M. Tomasevic),
...Fairies (editor Petko A. Petkov),
...Retros and Proof Games (editor Kostas Prentos)
Small is Beautiful!, by Sebastien Luce
Three Amigos, Part III, by Robert Lincoln
StrateGems 2011 Fairies Award, by Juraj Lorinc
StrateGems 2012 Moremovers Award, by Mike Prcic
Bournemouth 2013, by Robert Lincoln

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From all these, we will see the prizes from the tourney StrateGems h#n 2012 (with n greater than 3).

Problem-715 Tichomir Hernadi 1st Prize, StrateGems 2012 h#n

8/kb1r4/2Bp4/6p1/q7/2p3bp/2r4p/4s2K (2 + 12) h#7,5

1...Be4 2.d5 Bxc2 3.Bb8 Bxa4 4.c2 Bc6 5.c1=B Bxb7 6.Be3 Bc8 7.Ka8 Bxd7 8.Bea7 Bc6# The wBc6 makes two roundtrips (in German : RundLauf) like the figure 8!

Problem-716 Kostas Prentos 2nd Prize, StrateGems 2012 h#n

8/1p5r/6q1/3p4/4r1k1/1p6/1p2S3/1K3B2 (3 + 8) h#4,5  2 solutions

1…Sd4 2.Rh2 Bb5 3.Kh3 Se6 4.Qg3 Bd7 5.Rh4 Sf4# 1...Bh3+ 2.Kh5 Bf5 3.Rh4 Bc2 4.Qg5 Bd1 5.Rh6 Sf4# The White forms twice a battery Knight / Bishop and the wS goes to the same square to give a model mate. There is a mirror-Echo of the mates in the two solutions. We see the self-blocks of the Black and a Pelle-move of the pinned wB. The position of the wK defines the sequence of the black moves.

Problem-717 Christer Jonsson, Rolf Wiehagen 3rd Prize, StrateGems 2012 h#n

8/3pK1p1/3p3p/3p1Sp1/3p1pBs/5P2/8/7k (4 + 10) h#3,5  duplex

White plays : 1...Sxh4 2.Kh2 Sg2 3.Kg3 Se3 4.Kh4 Sf5# Black plays : 1...Sxf5+ 2.Kf7 Se3 3.Kg6 Sg2 4.Kf5 Sh4# Reciprocal captures. When the piece, which gives mate in another solution, is captured we have Theme Zilahi. We see model mates. The interesting part is that the knights step on the same squares, making their roundtrips, but in opposite directions!

Composers' cooperations (3)

In this post we will see five problems created by cooperative composers. In general, the chess composition is a lonely activity. Most of the time it is you and your chessboard, or even your computer running the proper software. But often the composers share an idea with someone else and the composition has more than one parents.
Who has done most of the work? Finally, it does not matter. The cooperation is worthwhile.
Whose name will be written at the top? We said, it does not matter. The main thing here is that the composers cooperate and sometimes they become friends.
There are in the chess history rare cases, where composers having together awarded compositions, at the end they do not speak to each other.

Problem-710 Ioannis Kalkavouras, Greece Emmanuel Manolas, Greece 2nd Com., www.problemiste.com, Problem 6, 1/2012

2R1RB2/bs1p1p2/5k1K/2pp1Pps/rPPp2P1/3p4/1r3P2/8 (9 + 13) #10

Try : {1.Re1?  [2.Be7#]  Re2!} Key : 1.f4! [2.Be7# / fxg5#] 1…gxf4 2.Be7+  Ke5 3.Bd8+ Kd6 4.Bc7+ Kc6 5.b5+ Rxb5 (the bRb2 goes away) 6.Bd8+ Kd6 7.Be7+ Ke5 8.Bf8+ Kf6 9.Re1 ~ 10.Be7# The travel of the black king is named pendulum. The problem is characterized Logical, that is what can not be done with the try, it appears again during the main solution of the problem.

Problem-711 Ioannis Kalkavouras, Greece Emmanuel Manolas, Greece MATPLUS 39-40, Autumn-Winter 2010, Problem 1675

5R2/5K2/2p2B2/2p2kpS/2p5/SPpb1P2/Pbs2p2/s2B1r2 (9 + 12) #8

Try : {1.Re8? [2.Re5#] Re1!} Key : 1.Sb5! [2.Sd6#] 1…cxb5 2.Rc8 [3.Rxc5#] Ba3 3.b4 [4.Rxc5#] Bxb4 4.Re8 [5.Re5#] Re1 5.Be2 [6.Re5#] Rxe2 6.Rg8 [7.Rxg5#] Re7+ 7.Kxe7 ~ 8.Rxg5# The problem is characterized Logical, that is what can not be done with the try, it appears again during the main solution of the problem.

Problem-712 János Mikitovics, Hungary Emmanuel Manolas, Greece juliasfairies.com 290

White : Kd3, Black : Kd6 Qh8 Re6 Bh3 Pd5h5g3, Neutral : Pe2, (1 + 7 + 1) The neutral pawn takes the color of the side which has the move. series auto-stalemate in 14 (White plays 14 moves and becomes stalemated). a) Diagram : condition Circe PWC (exchange of places during capture) b) +bRg5 : condition  KoBul Kings

a) 1.Kc2 2.e4 3.exd5(+bPe4) 4.dxe6(+bRd5) 5.e7 6.e8=nR (it is promoted to neutral Rook) 7.nRb8 8.nRxh8(+bQb8) 9.nRxh5(+bPh8) 10.nRh7 11.nRxh3(+bBh7) 12.nRh1 13.nRe1 14.nRxe4(+bQe1) auto= b) 1.Rd2 2.e4 3.Ke3 4.Kf4 5.exd5 6.dxe6(bK=bRK) 7.e7 8.e8=nB (it is promoted to neutral Bishop) 9.nBxh5(bRK=bK) 10.nBg4 11.Kxg3 12.Kh2 13.Kh1 14.nBxh3(bK=bBK) auto=

Problem-713 Vito Rallo, Italy Emmanuel Manolas, Greece variantim April 2013, problem 2363

8/8/8/8/8/1K2SP2/4k3/4s3 (3 + 2) h#3, 2 solutions, condition Andernach (= the capturer changes color)

1.Sxf3(=wSf3) Sd4+ 2.Kd2 Ka2 3.Kc1 Sb3# 1.Kd2 Sd5 2.Kd1 Kb2 3.Sxf3(=wSf3) Sc3# Ideal mates, Chameleon Mates (0,1), reversal of two black moves.

Problem-714 Vito Rallo, Italy Emmanuel Manolas, Greece juliasfairies.com 247

8/8/8/8/K7/pGG5/k7/s7 (3 + 3) (Grasshoppers b3 c3 + 0) h#3.5, Helpmate in 3.5 κινήσεις (that is white plays first) 2 solutions, Andernach (= the capturer changes color)

1…Gd3 2.Sc2 Ge3 3.Ka1 Kb3 4.Sxe3(=wSe3) Sc2# 1…Kb4 2.Sxb3(=wSb3) Sd2 3.Ka1 Kb3 4.a2 Ga3# In the same page of juliasfairies.com, there is the problem 248, another composition from the ones we create together with the Sicilian Vito Rallo.