The judge of JF-2023: K. Seetharaman

Dear composers, I’m happy to announce our judge for informal fairy tournament JF-2023 – the well known Indian composer Seetharaman Kalyan! I believe everybody knew Seetharaman as one of the most active members of chess problem society. Have to mention that Seetharaman was also one of the first visitors of just created Julia’sFairies website in April 2012, the one who was always ready to comment some new publications, to support any new ideas. Currently Seetharaman is editing fairy section of The Problemist. One of his most known inventions is Super Guards fairy condition (2012; 14 problems with SuperGuards published on JF). Composes problems in all genres. Age 74.

I’m very grateful to Seetharaman for his support and his good will in doing this job for JF!


JF10JT: a week to the deadline

a week to the deadline… 10.02.22

Dear friends, I know about some of you, and I hope if I don’t know 🙂 that you do compose for JF’s jubilee tournament.


Update final 10.02.22: Accepted 59 entries by the section: A=10, B=32, C=17.

Thanks a lot to all of you who take part! I’ve enjoyed your compositions very much and now I’m glad to pass it to the judge, Kjell Widlert. The tournament is anonymous.

Results and prize giving: May 15th 2022 in Riga, at the closing ceremony of the 15th ECSC and published the same day on JF, of course.


Unpin in JF10JT: important clarification

Unpin in JF10JT:
important clarification

We’re grateful to all of you for your comments and questions regarding pin/unpin definition for this tournament!

After some thoughts and discussions we decided to allow almost any interpretation of the given definition of a fairy unpin. We are not trying to produce the final definitions of pin and unpin here, we are running a tourney! Still, we would not like to call a normal un-paralysing move an unpin (in a problem using paralyzing pieces, or Madrasi, etc), and even less an ordinary line-opening… The same time we would allow the fairy concepts of self-unpin.

So, please see an update to previously given definition of unpin for this tournament:

ThemeUnpin of any kind. The unpinned piece may be white, black or neutral, and unpinning may be done by any side, in any way: interposition, withdrawal, K move, etc. For this tourney, we define a pin to be a situation where a random move by one piece would cause its own K to be in check from one or more enemy pieces = the pinner(s). An unpin is any move that eliminates this situation, including self-unpin (the pinned piece makes a move that eliminates the pin) but excluding captures of the pinned piece that remove it from the board. 

This means that we now allow self-unpins where the pinned piece captures the pinner, and also allow captures of the pinned piece as long as it is reborn somewhere else on the board (so it is now unpinned).

The tourney may provide material for a future discussion about how best to define pin and unpin in the fairy field.

To give you a better idea here are three examples provided by Ricardo Vieira:

1.Bf6 Sxf6[Bf8] – thematic!
First, 1.Bf6 move may be treated as allowing Sg8 to move.
Second, 1…Sxf6[Bf8] move may be treated as self-unpin.

After Sa1 fxe5 is legal
After Sc1 fxg5 is legal
not thematic because random move by Pf6 won’t be self-check. 

1.Bxd3[Bf1] not thematic, as opposed to the definition (doesn’t eliminate the situation of pin)

Welcome to participate! – Julia Vysotska (tournament director) & Kjell Widlert (judge)


Deadline: February 10th 2022
Please, send computer tested problems only (indicate the program used for testing), to julia@juliasfairies.com

Results and prize giving: May 15th 2022 in Riga, at the closing ceremony of the 15th ECSC.

Prize fund 450 : Three prizes in each section, each prize €50.

See Examples in the updated PDF announcement JF10JT (the version includes just published clarifications)


An update to JF 10 JT

An important update to JF 10 JT

Maximum number of pieces: 15
The discount works up to the deadline for submissions, 10.02.2022 🙂
The maximum number of pieces changed from 12 to 15 considering some further thoughts and some of your comments.

The Jubilee composing tournament JF 10 JT dedicated to 10 years of JF (10.04.2012-10.04.2022) | announcement in PDF

Let’s find and show something the best of what we know the best!


JF 10 JT (C10.02.2022)

JF 10 JT

Julia’s Fairies is pleased to announce the Jubilee composing tournament JF 10 JT
Dedicated to 10 years of JF (10.04.2012-10.04.2022)

Let’s find and show something the best of what we know the best!

The background: on April 10th, 2022 the JF website will celebrate its 10 years. see/hide more…

ThemeUnpin of any kind. The unpinned piece may be white, black or neutral, and unpinning may be done by any side, in any way: interposition, withdrawal, K move, etc. For this tourney, we define a pin to be a situation where a random move by one piece would cause its own K to be in check from one or more enemy pieces = the pinner(s). An unpin is any move that eliminates this situation, including self-unpin (the pinned piece makes a move that eliminates the pin) but excluding captures of the pinned piece that remove it from the board. 

THIS MEANS THAT WE NOW ALLOW SELF-UNPINS WHERE THE PINNED PIECE CAPTURES THE PINNER, AND ALSO ALLOW CAPTURES OF THE PINNED PIECE AS LONG AS IT IS REBORN SOMEWHERE ELSE ON THE BOARD (SO IT IS NOW UNPINNED). (update 08.01.2022)

Stipulations for three sections: (A) #2-4; (B) h#2-4; (C) hs#3-4
Maximum number of pieces: 15

Fairy pieces and conditions: The idea of the tournament is to present most popular fairy pieces and conditions of the last 10 years. Problems should have at least one fairy piece or fairy condition, and at most two different fairy pieces/families, and/or at most two different fairy conditions from the lists below. Any other fairy pieces or conditions are not allowed.

See/hide accepted fairy pieces and conditions

Number of entries per composer: 3 entries per composer in total, in one section only or spread over several sections.

Joint problems: Allowed; a joint work counts as 1 for the group of composers, and less than 1 for each of them (if there are 2 composers of the joint problem, it’s counted as 0.5 entry for each).

Deadline: February 10th 2022

Judge: Kjell Widlert

Tournament director: Julia Vysotska
Please, send computer tested problems only (indicate the program used for testing), to julia@juliasfairies.com

Results and prize giving: May 15th 2022 in Riga, at the closing ceremony of the 15th ECSC.

Prize fund 450 : Three prizes in each section, each prize €50.

See Examples in the PDF announcement JF10JT. Welcome to take part!!! – Julia


Ofer Comay – the judge of JF-2021/I

Dear composers, now I’m glad to announce to you that our fairy judge for JF-2021-I (01.01.2021-30.06.2021) will be Ofer Comay!

It was not so long ago, August 2015, when Ofer accepted to be the judge of JF-2015-II. In the tournaments section you can find a great work done by Ofer with over 100 problems of that tournament:

JF-2015-II f 2015-07-01 2015-12-31 Ofer Comay ->See the Award!

To my words from before I’d like to add I’m very grateful to Ofer for supporting JF (and me) the 2nd time, for his positive, objective and human  approach, for the nice personality and great experience we will enjoy on JF again! Well, I believe other editors understand how I feel. They know how it is not easy to look for the judges, to ask for such a big work… and then not really knowing how to find words for being thankful enough.

Important information from the judge to the composers: “I will split the tournament to two sections: 1) problems like hs, serial, with no fairy pieces and conditions;
2) problems with fairy pieces and/or fairy conditions.”

Welcome to JF-2020/II !

Welcome to JF-2020/II !

Dear composers, thank you for your patience in waiting for me to get ready for the next step after the weeks I devoted to adjusting JF website to the upgrades made by the hoster.
Now I’m glad to welcome your works for the next fairy tournament, JF-2020/II (July – December,2020)!
Let’s welcome our judge, who will be judging JF’s competition already for the 2nd time, previously it was Retro and PG problems 2013-2014:

The judge: Hans Gruber – German composer, solver, judge and organizer, specialized in fairy chess and retro problems, long lasting collaborator of the fairy chess magazine feenschach, and the president of Die Schwalbe, the German association of problemists. Hans has been doing a great service to chess composition, as an International Judge (since 1985) in not less than seven genres: moremovers, endgames, selfmates, helpmates, fairies, retro and mathematical problems!

I’m deeply grateful to Hans for accepting my invitation!

Updated in Original Problems

Dear visitors/composers,
The serious update to Original Problems section has been done during the last few days. The change of code with some better ideas/implementation for keeping and presenting the tournaments with the lists of related problems. But the changes in implementation (good ones!) created some changes in the hierarchies and design and referencing links too. Applying too many changes in a short time period I’m not sure that haven’t missed something, more like sure I have! So, please, I’d be very much grateful to all of you for checking at list your own problems – if they are included in related tournaments, if the links to them work from posts and tables or published problems.

Where to look for the news? Two top menus updated:

  • Original Problems – has some general information on the main page, and two submenus for the search options. The search is also an easiest way to find your own problem by the number, to to see some selections of the problems by the given criteria. I’ll try to add some more search possibilities later.
  • Tournaments – presents current list of all informal tournaments on JF, Fairy and PG/Retro. Selecting the tournament from the list you can see the problems participating in the tournament.

Critical / important thing to check: The links to all original problems (starting No.214, Y2013) are updated the way that their URLs contain one hierarchy level less, and will always look like https://juliasfairies.com/problems/no-NNNN/ (where NNNN – the number of your problem) – this is how you can always find your problem if even some direct links are broken. I hope I’ve done most of the updates on JF’s pages. PDF files (like, links in PDF awards) will be updated too. Please, please, report to me whatever bugs you see! I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but after 8 years of work, starting from zero knowledge and getting some more in a process, and also because of the necessity of update pushed by the upgrade of the environment, I had no other choice!

Please, don’t worry! Your problems are all on the place, nothing disappeared!
Whatever doesn’t work now – will be fixed!

– Julia, your editor


JF-2020/I complete!

JF-2020/I complete!

Dear Friends,

So time goes fast and one more informal tournament on JF is over. And as any finished project it brings some thoughts and some emotions too… Half of this period was hard for all of us, but the summer coming with its light, and warmth and hopes for the best!

There’re general things we can think about and there’re also relatively little things, but those which can make our days. So, before thanking all of you who participated in JF-2020/I, who were patient and supportive, who were writing nice and instructive comments… I’d like to say a special THANKS to Shankar Ram! And not only for one more index page of the tournament, or for his statistics you can see on the top, but for bringing me smile every time when I read his mails! 

Dear Eric, now the competition is in your hands! I hope you’ll enjoy the work! 
Dear composers, please check one more time if your problems are included in the list of Fairy problems  JF-2020/I.

What to say more? Talking about the rational things, I have to mention that I still don’t have a judge for the next fairy competition, and that I still need to make some technical work for JF to keep it working in the future… so, I’d like to ask you to be patient and wait for me for several weeks. And if about irrational things.. I have to say at this period of isolation, of some unclearness in the air, I’m also moody, maybe more emotional about the both, positive and negative things, maybe less creative, but the same time more hardworking… Wishing to all of us to survive this emotional pressure and to support each other with our smiles! – Julia, your editor


 

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 2nd time when Eric has accepted my invitation to judge JF’s tournament. Can’t believe that almost 7 years have passed since Eric’s 1st 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!