This year, the 36th RIFACE (Rencontre Internationale en France des Amateurs de Composition Echiquéenne) will take place from Friday, May 22, 2015 (evening) to Monday, May 25, 2015 (noon) at Saint-Germain au Mont d’Or instead of the traditional location at Messigny.
Themes are the following:
RIFACE 2015 – Thème aidés.pdf | Thème féerique.pdf | Thème rétro.pdf
Address to send the entries : RIFACE.2015@gmail.com.
Time limit to send the entries : Sunday 24th May at 15:00
Why such theme tourneys are announced with so little time? Do they want less participation or do they want to honor substandard work?
It’s probably in the first place a quick weekend-tourney for those who are present at the meeting. So, the short time looks strange only to the possible “remote” participants.
True. I realise that. My opinion is the same. Why run such short notice tourneys?
Short tourneys and fast judgments – rankings are provided on Monday – the last meeting day. Therefore a kind of blitz composing/judging event – a not so bad idea IMO.
Personally, I find these quick composing tourneys very appealing and I try to participate when I can. This time, I had to work twelve-hour shifts both days, so my free time was very limited, but I still found the time to submit two entries. If you consider that I had not composed anything in months (with several slower tourneys being open and running), this works like a wake-up call for me.
So, for some of us, quick tourneys are nice. I don’t know if the organizers wanted to limit the participation, but even if they did, this is not the reason they had so fast schedule. As explained already, the tourneys have to fit in the three-day schedule of the meeting. I doubt that honoring sub-standard compositions is any judge’s intention, and it may happen whether the tourney is fast or slow. Of course, it is much harder for a judge to finish an award in one day, and some details may be missed. But overall, quick tourneys are useful and they serve a purpose. For those who prefer slower schedules, there are many tourneys that drag on for months or even years, so everyone is satisfied.
As a matter of fact I had the honor to judge such Messigny quick tourneys the past few years (both retros and fairies), and I can remember of some jewels that have been dug from the mine that way…
Yes. I too have seen some very good problems in the awards of these quick tourneys. Still I think at least two weeks is minimum for good results. Anyway there seem to be many composers capable of good work at short notice !! Kudos to them.