Final Award in SUPERPROBLEM Quick Composing TT-232

Awards, other February 15, 2020 August 20, 2020 Leave a comment

“Dear chess friends!

The Final Award in TT-232 (…and now it’s time for half-neutrals!; #2, fairies) has been published.

There are no changes compared to the provisional award. Please, check the correctness of names, positions and solutions.

We thank all participants of the tourney and congratulate the Prize winners!”

Aleksey Oganesjan

The Prize winners: 1^st Prize – Petko Petkov; 2^nd Prize – Jean-Marc Loustau & Michel Caillaud; 3^rd and 4^th Prizes – Hubert Gockel;
1^st Special Prize – Michel Caillaud & Jean-Marc Loustau; 2^nd Special Prize – Kjell Widlert.

Original Problems
JF-2020/I

(11.01.2020) The New Year 2020 came to us, and the new fairy tournament JF-2020/I starts on JF. Welcome to all of you!

I’m glad to welcome our judge of this period, Eric Huber! It is the 2^nd time when Eric has accepted my invitation to judge JF’s tournament. Can’t believe that almost 7 years have passed since Eric’s 1^st time (JF-2013(III), Award)!

Dear Eric, thank you very much for your support! And I hope that authors will do their best to make your work enjoyable!

Statistics JF-2019/II

Tournamens, JF January 11, 2020 August 20, 2020 Leave a comment

Some statistics about just closed tournament JF-2019/II prepared by Shankar Ram:

Wishing good luck to the judge of this competition, Petko Petkov!

Sergey Smotrov 50JT

Tournaments, other December 11, 2019 August 20, 2020 1 comment

Jubilee tourney “Sergey Smotrov – 50”

Stipulation: s#12-N
Theme: logical selfmate in 12 or more moves.
Both orthodox selfmates and selfmates with any quantity of fairy pieces and/or conditions are allowed. Depending on quantity and quality of sent problems, the judge can divided an award into several subsections or, vice versa, can combine several sections into the one.
Judge: Sergey Smotrov | Send entries to the judge sergsmotrov@yandex.ru | Closing date: February 4^th, 2020
Award will be published on the website http://superproblem.ru

JF 2019/I — Award

Awards, JF November 12, 2019 August 20, 2020 Leave a comment

Julia’s Fairies • Tournament JF 2019/I • Award

Michal Dragoun, Prague, October 2019

In Julia’s Fairies 2019/I tourney took part 43 problems. It is slightly less than in previous tournaments on Julia’s website and in my opinion, the quality of published problems was lower too. Not in general – I considered relatively high number of problems for low distinction – but I missed problems impressive at the first look.

→ to the Award…

Published with a gratitude to the judge, Michal Dragoun, for so exceptionally fast results! /Julia/

WinChloe: cook in 1HM No.550.1

Awards, JF October 20, 2019 October 20, 2019 Leave a comment

Reported by Michel Caillaud:

Christian Poisson just released a new version of Winchloe with improved solving for proofgames.
On his site can be found a booklet with 562 (!!) original homebase PGs and some explanations: http://christian.poisson.free.fr/problemesis/problemesis.php

From Readme of v.3.46 (oct.2019)
Solving of proof games (‘partie justificative’) is a little more “intelligent”. A new option in “Solving options” allows you to choose whether short solutions are sought. In this case, a solution in p moves will not be sought if there is a solution in p-n moves (n integer).
I composed some simple proof games to check the programming with several fairy conditions. They are gathered in a pdf available on Problemesis.

Winchloe is (sometimes much) slower than Jacobi, but it is interesting for conditions not implemented in Jacobi, as it is sometimes much quicker than Popeye.
Such the case is for Take&Make, and in solving the 8,0 first moves of 550(1), Winchloé finds the cook :
1.d4 Sç6 2.Bh6 g×h6(ç1=S) 3.Sd2 S×é2(Sé4) 4.Ba6 S×d2(Sb3) 5.a×b3(d2) b×a6(f1=B) 6.R×a7(Ra5) Sé5 7.Qf3 S×f3(Sb7) 8.Sé2 Bg7…

It’s already too late to change the Award by Hans Gruber…

Lennart Werner 50 JT

Tournaments, other October 19, 2019 October 19, 2019 Leave a comment

Jubilee Tourney Lennart Werner 50 years

To celebrate the 50^th birthday of FIDE Master Lennart Werner on July 16, 2019, the Swedish Chess Problem Club and the magazine Springaren announce a jubilee tourney.

Theme: h#3–n Circe with 2 or more phases (solutions, twins, set-play) (no fairy pieces or other fairy conditions)

Closing date: May 1, 2020 | Judge: Lennart Werner | Prize fund: € 100 | Examples in PDF

Address: Rolf Uppström, rolf.uppstrom@springaren.se | Godhemsgatan 24c, SE-41468 Göteborg, Sweden

5th Retroblog TT on Fuddled Men proofgames

Tournaments, other September 18, 2019 September 18, 2019 1 comment

5^th Retroblog TT on Fuddled Men proofgames

With “Fuddled Men”, no unit can make two moves in succession. This restriction also holds for the effect on the opponent’s king.

In an article Bernd Gräfrath demonstrates this fairy condition with six original proof games, and in order to encourage the further exploration of this thematic field, the Retroblog announces a thematic tourney for proof games with Fuddled Men. Both article and announcement of the thematic tourney you will find at
https://www.thbrand.de/downloads/5rbtt_fuddled.pdf

Please send you entries until March 31, 2020 to me; Bernd will judge the tourney. Much fun and good luck! – Thomas Brand

“…and now it’s time for half-neutrals!” – Quick TT-232 by SuperProblem

Tournaments, other September 18, 2019 August 20, 2020 Leave a comment

Quick Composing TT-232 by SuperProblem

Tourney name: “…and now it’s time for half-neutrals!“
Stipulation: #2 (fairy)
Theme: In the initial position or after the key move of #2, there is at least one orthodox half-neutral piece in neutral phase.
The thematic half-neutral piece should play at least 4 times, in the following way:
1) it should be played by White to give at least two mates on different squares.
and
2) it should be played by Black to at least two different squares, leading to different mates by White.
The thematic variations can be split between phases (set play, tries, actual play, twins) but zero-positions are not allowed.
It is also allowed to use the thematic piece as front piece of a battery.
No other fairy pieces and conditions are allowed, except orthodox half-neutral pieces.
Judges: Vlaicu Crişan, Julia Vysotska, Marjan Kovačević. | Closing date: October 24, 2019 | Download the announcement in English
Entries to Aleksey Oganesjan via e-mail: alexeioganesyan@gmail.com. All received problems will be presented to the judge in anonymous form. Award will be published on the website http://superproblem.ru.

feenschach-70 Jubilee Tourney – C29.02.2020

Tournaments, other September 11, 2019 September 11, 2019 Leave a comment

feenschach-70 Jubilee Tourney

feenschach turns 70 this year, and so feenschach editorial team announced a Jubilee Tourney dealing with the new fairy condition make&take invented at Andernach 2019.

Stipulated are problems with the condition “make&take”. Additional fairy pieces and/or conditions will be accepted.

Closing date: February 29, 2020. | Judges: Thomas Brand, bernd ellinghoven, Hans Gruber.
Controller: Ulrich Ring – please send your contributions via email to feenschach-70@rxng.de
“Internal duals” (ambiguous paths to the capture target) should be avoided. The extent to which they reduce the value is decided by the judges on a case-by-case basis.
Prizes: feenschach subscriptions or FEE=NIX books (if still available) | Announcement in PDF in German / English.