JF 10 JT (C10.02.2022) – Julia's Fairies

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…

By that time about 1700 original fairy problems will be published. Some problems are pleasant little things, some others are head breaking complexes. And some are only for the selected groups of experts or followers. On JF, new ideas and new fairy elements are mixed with the old ones. And I hope JF has something to offer to each fairy taste!
It took me a while to make some decisions about the thematic condition for this JT, after consulting Kjell Widlert, who generously accepted to be the judge. No, I didn’t want to limit it to the promotion of a concrete fairy element and to receive many similar problems in the award. Also, it wouldn’t be fair to offer only my favourites, and I didn’t want to have no restrictions at all, as in the informal tournaments.
Then, coming to the beginning: creating JF I wanted to learn about the world of fairies together with all of you: while publishing your problems, while reading comments. It turned out that the variety of fairy elements is too big (around 2.700!), and nobody is really able to follow the play in all of them. Each of us selects some problems for their own taste and ability to understand (and to enjoy!).
As the result of this tournament, I’d like to have the selection of “reader-friendly” fairy problems. I’d like them to be accepted by newcomers and enjoyable for experienced composers. Let it be a touch of the most popular fairy elements of the last 10 years, to mark that period and to promote fairy chess!
Christian Poisson was so kind as to make for me a statistic for fairy pieces and conditions from Echecs database, with the numbers of problems using them since 2012. The same kind of extraction I’ve made from JF’s database. I have taken the top 21 of fairy pieces and the top 21 of conditions from both of them, selected those matching ones, removed several too complicated/doubtful for the idea… and finally made a list of most popular fairy elements of the last 10 years. So, please, let’s find and show something the best of what we know the best!

Theme: Unpin 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 10^th 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 15^th 2022 in Riga, at the closing ceremony of the 15^th ECSC.

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

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

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Julia

November 11, 2021 19:00

A little update to the allowed fairy pieces: Juraj Lörinc pointed out that Nightrider-Lion and Nightrider-Locust might be included in the Lion/Locust families as long as Nightrider is present. Accepted by me and by the judge. The announcement is updated.

Last edited 2 years ago by Julia

Juraj Lörinc

November 11, 2021 22:53

Reply to Julia

Thank you very much Julia. I can’t say now if I use two added pieces, but I appreciate putting piece families on the equal footing.

Seetharaman

November 12, 2021 20:58

Nice theme and great prizes !

Last edited 2 years ago by Seetharaman

November 12, 2021 21:12

Seems more than two types/family of neutral pieces are allowed, which is anamalous

shankar ram

November 13, 2021 17:44

Dear Julia,
Advance wishes for the 10th birthday of JF!
Regarding the piece restrictions for the JT, I think they are quite clear. However, in the case of neutral, royal and chameleon types, which are piece attributes, there may be some ambiguity. Maybe you can mention that they apply only to orthodox pieces and cannot be combined with the other allowed piece types and families. Examples: Neutral Grasshopper, Royal Zebra. And also with each other. Example: Royal neutral chameleon!

November 14, 2021 00:37

Reply to shankar ram

Neutral Grasshopper is allowed. Royal Zebra is allowed too. Both of them – not. In simple words, from the list of allowed Pieces at most a combination of two lines is allowed. You can use Neutral Chinese pieces (and no more fairy pieces); or Royal Chameleon piece (and no more fairy pieces). Or a combination of Lion and Chinese families, but then no other pieces/attributes, like couldn’t have Neutral Lion and Leo together.

seetharaman kalyan

November 16, 2021 08:12

Thanks Julia. This was also my doubt

November 19, 2021 14:13

It might be interesting (and enlightening!) to compare the definitions of Pin and the related “Antipin” from recent issues of Conflictio:

JF-10JT announcement:
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, except when the pinned piece captures the pinner, or the pinner captures the pinned piece.
Conflictio 25:
Pin: The effect of a line-piece that prevents an opposing unit from moving due to a subsequent exposed (illegal) check. This can also be rephrased. Pin is a setup where a piece cannot depart from a specific square or line as this would result in the illegal self-check. In this way, a move along the pin line (Pelle move) is allowed.
Repelling or Antipin : … a setup where a piece cannot arrive to a specific square or line as this would result in the illegal self-check.
Conflictio 28:
Pin:
Pin of a unit is an arrangement of the line unit (pinning unit) on the line with two units of the opposite side, of which the first unit (pinned unit) shields the second unit (more valuable) from attack and as a consequence the pinned unit is limited in its mobility.
Pin is an arrangement in which the unit cannot leave the square or track it is occupying, as this would open the check to own king.
Pin is an arrangement in which the mobility of a unit is limited by self-check on the departure square.
Antipin:
Antipin is an arrangement in which the unit cannot enter the arrival square or track as this would turn on the check to own king.
Antipin is an arrangement in which the unit mobility is limited by the selfcheck or repelling on the arrival square of the move.

I suppose “Unantipins” are not thematic for the JF-10JT? 😉

Last edited 2 years ago by shankar ram

November 25, 2021 17:03

Whether HS#3 with set play 2.5 allowed?

November 26, 2021 01:55

Reply to Seetharaman

But of course! HS#3 is thematic, and any setplay is allowed as an addition.

November 26, 2021 16:09

Important note: Maximum number of pieces: increased from 12 to 15! The decision based on some comments related mostly to direct problems. Still, the economy is always appreciated!

November 26, 2021 16:46

Thank you for reminder. Just yesterday I have finished one possible entry for the tourney and now I know I have no entry as there are many more pieces on the board. So back to work 🙂

Andrew Buchanan

February 5, 2022 03:18

In the definition of pin, by “a random move by one piece” do you mean “any move by one non-king piece”?

February 5, 2022 10:20

Reply to Andrew Buchanan

Kings and other Royal pieces are also included since they can unpin themselves. While a King may not look at a Cat, he can most definitely unpin himself! 😉