Dear composers, I have to apologize to all of you –
no publications of Original problems JF-2024
I regret about it too, for a long time during this year I was hoping that it is just delayed, but the reality is different. After half a year (and especially most of the summer) spent on the Congress in Jurmala, I had to jump into the process of implementation of a new ERP in my company, which unluckily started the same summer. Working overtimes daily since August, with a long working days and half of weekends too, and it might last for few months more. My short free time I need to spend away from the computer.
Please, those of you who sent me your original problems to publish, feel free to send it to another magazines (I will also send you private emails). I hope, the situation will change by the beginning of the next year. – Julia
Dear Friends, I’m sorry for a long break in publications on JF. For some time I still hoped that I will manage to have original problems published during this first half of year, but now I have to admit that it is impossible.
Being the main organizer of WCCC 2024 in Jūrmala, plus a director of 8th YCCC tourney, and a webmaster of WFCC and WCCC 2024, I physically couldn’t do anything also. Well, I still have full time working days.. unfortunately 😉
So, sorry to those who sent me original problems and waiting for the publication. Probably, it will be possible only in August. Please let me know by August if you sent your works somewhere also.
JF’s waiting list: Daniel Papack, Vlaicu Crișan & Klaus Wenda
I would like to remind that I give a priority to the problems I can publish faster, so please consider either using the submission form or to provide all required information in your email sending.
(30.12) No.1796 (-4 & #1 Pacific Retractor) – N.Shankar Ram. “A belated dedication to Vlaicu, for his 50th birthday on 26-Aug-23. ” (Author). The solution for animation is written by Shankar, before I never had Retractors animated!
(30.12) No.1794 (ser-!#8 ; Breton Adverse) – Gunter Jordan. “Excelsior, minor promotion, change of function…” (Author)
(30.12) No.1793 (#3 ; Camel, Fers, Wazir) – Zach Smith. “Zach Smith is a Short Fiction Writer and Chess Composer from Pennsylvania.” (Author). Welcome to Zach in Original problems section of JF!
(30.12) No.1792 (ser-h=31 ; Circe) – Paul Rãican. “This is a correction of a cooked problem sent to Heinonen MT, fairy section” (Author)
JF’s waiting list (to be published in December): Received in October-November: Gábor Tar, Brian D. Stephenson & Jacques Rotenberg, Michael Barth, Sergey Smotrov. I would like to remind that I give a priority to the problems I can publish faster, so please consider either using the submission form or to provide all required information in your email sending.
The order of publication might be not the same as in the waiting list: the problems correctly sent using the submission form, easy to test and to animate, C+, without additional questions to composers will go first.
(29.11) No.1771.1 (pser-s#9 ; AntiCirce) – Kjell Widlert & Arno Tüngler. “To my astonishment, my old friend Arno found that a fourth corner-to-corner move can be added to my 1771 at very little extra cost.” (K.W.)
(29.11) No.1784 (hdp=3.5) – James Malcom & Andrew Buchanan. Help dead position (hdp). “Testing DP & particularly hdp problems has been notoriously challenging. After 20 years of wandering around in the dark….” (Authors)
(29.11) No.1783 (h#2 ; Shrinking Men) – Andreas Thoma. “Dedicated to Bernd Gräfrath on his 65th birthday” (Author)
(29.11) No.1782 (PG 11 ; Chess960 + #Colour) – Paul Rãican. “This version seems sound. The last 8 moves was actually checked.” (Author)
(12.11) No.1781 (hs#4) – Nikola Petković. Exchange of functions and something more on the same square.
(12.11) No.1780 (hs#3.5) – Menachem Witztum. Enjoy some solving! 🙂
(12.11) No.1779 (h#2 ; SeriesCapture) – Menachem Witztum & Ricardo de Mattos Vieira. Warm welcome to Ricardo!
(05.11) No.1778 (h#2 ; PAO, Grasshopper, Camel) – Hiroaki Maeshima – “Inspired by Stefan Milewski-80 JT’s Theme ‘Mate by a pinned piece.’ ” (Author)
(05.11) No.1777 (h#2 ; VAO, PAO, NAO) – Georgy Evseev & Boris Shorokhov – “Dedicated to 21st Tzuica TT” (Authors
(05.11) No.1775 (s#6 ; Grasshopper ; Maximummer) – Henri Nouguier.
(05.11) No.1774 (h#7 ; Horizontal cylinder) – Ya’aqov Mintz & Hans Gruber – “This is one of our joint compositions with which we are investigating possibilities to create an AUW on cylindrical boards.” (Authors)
Animated diagrams use Py2Web by Dmitri Turevski and WinChloe‘s graphics, Christian Poisson
JF’s waiting list (to be published in October): Henri Nouguier, James Malcom & Andrew Buchanan, Paul Rãican, Ya’aqov Mintz & Hans Gruber, Menachem Witztym, Georgy Evseev & Boris Shorokhov, Gerhard Maleika
The order of publication might be not the same as in the waiting list: the problems correctly sent using the submission form, easy to test and to animate, C+, without additional questions to composers will go first.
(22.10) No.1773 (#6 ; Madrasi) – S.N.Ravi Shankar – “Inspired by Werner Keym, Die Schwalbe, 2016 (V)” (SNRS).
Thanks a lot to all composers in the list below for using the submission form and making my work much faster! ❤
(22.10) No.1771 (pser-s#7 ; AntiCirce) – Kjell Widlert – “I have been experimenting with more thematically interesting parry-series-selfmates than we usually see in magazines these days. I wasn’t completely unhappy when I found this.” (KW) Normally I don’t publish several problems of the same composer in a row. But Kjell is always an exception!
(22.10) No.1766.1 (hs#4) – Nikola Petković & Georgy Evseev – A result of joint effort, an improvement to no.1766, published on the same page.
(08.10) No.1767 (hs#3.5 ; NAO, PAO, VAO) – Georgy Evseev – Yet another test of the submission form! And more than that!
(08.10) No.1766 (hs#4) – Nikola Petković – I am always glad to see new composers on JF! And here it is, another problem I give a priority today, welcoming Nikola in Original problems section of JF and thanking for his first submission nicely done!
(08.10) No.1765 (Mixed #3) – N.Shankar Ram – Similar to JF 1760, Mixed stipulation not programmed in Popeye/WinChloe. I gladly publish this problem out of the order as Shankar was the first one who had tested the submission form! Thank you for the support, Shankar!
Animated diagrams use Py2Web by Dmitri Turevski and WinChloe‘s graphics, Christian Poisson
It can be found in the JF PROBLEMS top menu and also by the button as above placed on the top of the page.
No, for now this is not the only way to submit your problem, the email submissions are also accepted as before. But, please, If you send your submission by email to me, please take care about including the information from this form.
I have to tell to all of you, I hardly can manage to keep doing all my projects. Chess composition related projects, growing amount of my primary office work, plus a new family member – a young Arabian Akila. If I want to keep JF up and running, I need either somebody’s help or more efficient work. For now I hope that all of you would help me to make the publication of your problems faster. The efficiency of the publications depends on you!
The 7 problems published on Saturday, 30-sep, took me the whole day. But it could be just 1-2 hours if no questions to composers, complications, manual work almost with each of them and with those in the waiting list.
Please care about your entries, and I will try to do my best to publish them faster! – Julia
JF’s waiting list (to be published in October): Henri Nouguier, James Malcom & Andrew Buchanan, Paul Rãican, Ya’aqov Mintz & Hans Gruber, Zoltán Laborczi, S.N.Ravi Shankar, Menachem Witztym, Georgy Evseev & Boris Shorokhov
The order of publication might be not the same as in the waiting list: the problems easy to test and to animate, C+, and those without additional questions to composers will go first.
(30.09) No.1764 (#2 ; Paralyzing piece, PAO, VAO, Antelope) – Peter Gvozdják – “Pioneer example of the 5-fold Odessa theme…” (PG)
(30.09) No.1763 (s==9 ; Royal Grasshopper, Nightrider ; SAT) – Neal Turner – “What makes these sequences special is that they don’t involve the usual captures…” (NT)
(30.09) No.1762 (h#2.5 ; Berolina Pawn) – Andrew Kalotay & Jorge Kapros & Jorge Lois & János Mikitovics – Unusually big group of composers! Unfortunatelly, Jorge Kapros (1955-2023) is no longer with us.
(30.09) No.1761 (h#2 ; Neutral Grasshopper ; Take&Make) – Georgy Evseev – “This is, I think, an original T&M post-mate switchback effect.” (GE)
(30.09) No.1760 (Mixed hs#7) – N.Shankar Ram – “Mixed HS#N not programmed in WinChloe and Popeye.” (NSR).
(30.09) No.1759 (h#2 ; Circe, Madrasi) – S. K. Balasubramanian – “Subtle Madrasi effect on the mating move.” (SKB)
(30.09) No.1758 (hs#5 ; Anda) – Vlaicu Crişan – “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to fully test this composition: Popeye and Jacobi don’t know Anda, while Winchloe is too slow.” (VC)
(13.09) No.1757 (-11 & s#1 Proca ; Anti-Circe Calvet ; PAO) – Klaus Wenda – “The problem is a dedication to the 75. birthday of my German friend Hanspeter Suwe on 13.9.” (KW)
Animated diagrams use Py2Web by Dmitri Turevski and WinChloe‘s graphics, Christian Poisson
The order of publication might be not the same as in the waiting list: the problems easy to test and to animate, C+, and those without additional questions to composers will go first.
(30.06) No.1756 (hs#3 ; Protean Chess) – Bruno Stucker – “64 variations to checkmate the white king”. The animation is made only partly, for the first 26 twins. The full solution together with Author’s comment is attached as PDF.
(29.06) No.1755 (#2 ; LEO, PAO, VAO, MAO, MOA ; Take & Make Chess) – Ralf Danck – “The work was inspired by a problem of H. Gockel (The Problemist 2010, 1st Pr.).” – Warm welcome to Ralf!
(23.06) No.1754 (h#2 ; Immune Chess Rex Inclusive, Take & Make Chess) – Petko Petkov – “Complete Cycle in the play of three white pieces…. This idea in Meredith form is here presented for the first time.”
(20.06) No.1753 (h#2 ; Bicaptures Rex Exclusiv) – Manfred Rittirsch – “The fairy tournament of the recent RIFACE meeting (see announcement) was not a great success (only 4 entries according to Jérôme Auclair, including just a single h#), and I retrieved only 2 helpmate examples using the fairy condition Bicaptures Rex Exclusiv from the WinChloe database Echecs. However, the condition lingered on, and I was happy to find something very specific”.
Animated diagrams use Py2Web by Dmitri Turevski and WinChloe‘s graphics, Christian Poisson
My dear judges, composers, commentators, readers, visitors… those who take part in JF’s life in all different ways, I’m happy to have all of you here, in this fairy home!
This year we have 3 judges (!!) who kindly offered their help: K.Seetharaman for JF-2023, Thierry Le Gleuher for JF-R2023-24 and Sébastien Luce who will replace the judge of JF-2013/II !
Any editor knows what a complicated and delicate job is to find a judge. We engage the same people for doing this hard and time consuming job again and again, feeling guilty, but still having no choice. When somebody offers this help he really removes a heavy stone from the shoulders of the editor! 🙂 Well, at least I feel so. And again I would like to tell to all of you, who work this year, and who worked for JF before – THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Thierry Le Gleuher, Sébastien Luce, K.Seetharaman
I’m also grateful to the helpful composers, who sent their problems in kindly prepared way: with English notation, full solution (departure-arrival squares), definitions of unusual fairy elements, programs/times to test. This all helps a lot to make the publication faster and easier (https://www.mcmedicalnj.com/adderall).
I apologize for the delays in some publications! With a growing number of different obligations during 12 years in chess composition, I couldn’t do all at one time, combining it with a work and family and a 4-year young horse. For some weeks jumping into one or another project, and coming back. It is hard to stay enthusiastic and fast in a long term period. And the help of all of you is really very much needed to keep going.
Well, this is not what I like to mention, but still, to composers: please, check your problem for some days before sending to me for publication – each correction, new version takes some time to be published and announced! I’m very glad when a new, improved versions are coming from the comments, a joint work – this is what the comments are for! But the case when the composer corrects his problem on the next day after publication, or even before, is not the right approach, please! And one more thing I’d like to remind (maybe there’s something about it in the CODEX?): the problem couldn’t be “unpublished”! I can remove it from the tournament, but once shown it couldn’t disappear to my opinion. Please, also take care about the work of judges! If you don’t want your problem to take part in the competition, to be judged or commented – let me know it before the publication (and I will consider if to publish it at all 🙂 )!
Let’s care about each other! The June’s originals are coming in few days! – Julia
Dear composers, I still have no judge for PG & Retro tournament, Retro & PG problems 2023-2024, I’d be grateful to the one who is willing to accept this job! Also, I have to admit that the judge of JF-2013-II, Diyan Kostadinov, has to be replaced as he doesn’t seem to deliver the award ever. Again, I’d appreciate it a lot if anybody can overtake it! The award of JF-2020-I by Eric Huber is expected in 2024.
(25.05) No.1752 (ser-h#13 ; Circe) – Paz Einat – “I am not a fan of miniatures nor of model mates, but when magic happens to include both – it certainly adds value.” Warm welcome to Paz after a long break from 2015!
(25.05) No.1751 (phser-dia33) – Paul Rãican & Dmitrij Baibikov – Parry-series proofgame with white moving last.
(18.05) No.1750 (h#2.5 ; Phantom Chess) – Hein Verduin – Warm welcome to Hein in Original Problems section of JF!
(18.05) No.1749 (h#2.5 ; Anti-Kings) – Michael McDowell – “It seems to be an original combination of fairy condition and theme.”
(18.05) No.1748 (h#2 ; illegal/shadow piece) – János Csák & Béla Majoros – different solutions in the twins, b) bPc5<–>bPd5. Same as for the problem No.1718 (June,2022) it is referred to the Retro&PG section if no objections.
Animated diagrams use Py2Web by Dmitri Turevski and WinChloe‘s graphics, Christian Poisson
