Originals February 2022

Julia's Fairies original problems 3 Comments

JF Original Problems | February, 2022

The judge of JF-2022/I: Vlaicu Crişan
The judge of Retro & PG problems 2021-2022: Thomas Brand

Coming soon: nobody in the waiting list. Next originals will be published starting the 2nd week of March.

  • (26.02.) No.1694 (h==15.5 ; Haaner Chess, ABC for white, ABC inverse for black) – Sébastien Luce (France). This problem was initially published on the same page with No.1690 as variation of the theme. But moved to be presented as a separate original problem by author’s request.
  • (28.02) No.1693 (h=8) – Ya’aqov Mintz (Israel) & Hans Gruber (Germany). “Black Allumwandlung, white Excelsior.” (Authors). Warm welcome to Hans!
  • (28.02) No.1684.1 (h=2 ; legality / shadow solution?) – János Csák & Béla Majoros (Hungary). Authors say that the new version fixes the bug in No.1684.
  • (28.02) No.1692 (ser-s#8 ; Anti-Circe) – Gábor Tar (Hungary).
  • (27.02) No.1691 (ser-h#10 ; Camel, Rose, Ibis) – Manfred Rittirsch (Germany). “Cyclic change of fairy promotions.”
    Dedicated to Petko A. Petkov for his 80th birthday
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETKO!!!
  • (26.02.) No.1690 (h==14.5 ; Haaner Chess, ABC for white, ABC inverse for black) – Sébastien Luce (France).

I would gladly publish your problems partly featuring JF10JT theme (not included into the tournament because of number of pieces or fairy element used), but after May 15th, when the Award of JF10JT is published.
Thank you for your understanding!

Animated diagrams use Py2Web by Dmitri Turevski and WinChloe‘s graphics, Christian Poisson

Fairy Eater Chess – a fairy chess variant by Vadrya Pokshtya

External Events & Adds 1 comment

My name is Sergey Kulelyaev (my pen name Vadrya Pokshtya). I am chess variants inventor and chess composer. Not so long ago, I managed to implement one of my most successful variants of fairy chess in terms of tactics, strategy and game dynamics – Fairy Eater Chess.

With a gratitude to P. A. Stonemann for a help with publishing my chess variants at Game Courier.

Vadrya Pokshtya (Sergey Kulelyaev)

The battlefield is an odd 9×9 board, on which two opposing sides have gathered, consisting of both classic fairy chess pieces and two new ones to reveal the strongest.

The original names of the pieces create the appropriate atmosphere of the game and immerse us in the world of dark fantasy, giving the necessary flavor to everything that happens on the board. It would seem that with such a crowded initial arrangement, the gameplay is impossible, but in reality it turns out the opposite: the pieces begin to behave super-aggressively, quickly devouring each other in these conditions of a confined space. The game is replete with mind-blowing combinations and incredible possibilities, which distinguishes it from all other variants of fairy chess.

Let’s take for example the following position from a practical game, which shows the amazing world of Fairy Eater Chess in the best possible way.

White to move and mate in one.

Nightrider’s non-obvious rebound from square d3 to h1 decides the outcome of the battle in favor of White. Black cannot close with the Shield on e7 from the Ghost (Skull) on d1, since the Nightrider on h1 does not allow to do it. Also note that Black’s Sorcerer cannot retreat to e9 because this square is under attack by the white Nightrider on a1.

JF10JT: a week to the deadline

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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.

Originals January 2022

Julia's Fairies original problems Leave a comment

JF Original Problems | January, 2022

The judge of JF-2022/I: Vlaicu Crişan. The 3rd time judging JF tournaments, after JF-2014-I (Award) and the recent retro JF-R2019-20 (Award). A very positive and helpful person, a very experienced judge I’m glad to welcome on JF again! 

The judge of Retro & PG problems 2021-2022: Thomas Brand.

  • (31.01) No.1689 (h=10 ; Grasshopper) Vaclav Kotěšovec (Czech Republic). Dedicated to Sébastien Luce “4-fold exact echo in 4 corners of chessboard”. (Author)
  • (31.01) No.1688 (ser-h#8 ; Mars Circe) Armin Geister & Daniel Papack (Germany). A logical try on the 1st move comes as a solution on the 8th.
  • (28.01) No.1687 (ser-h#8* ; Take&Make, Circe Equipollents) Chris Feather (England). “The inventor of Take&Make intended that it should take priority over any other fairy condition with which is is combined…” (Author)
  • (26.01) No.1686 (h#3 ; Neutral Berolina Super Pawn ; Circe, Take&Make) János Mikitovics (Hungary). Mates by Berolina Super Pawn or its promotions.
  • (25.01) No.1685 (h#2.5 ; Neutral VAO,PAO,MAO) Kenneth Solja (Finland). The only Kings are not neutral.
  • (25.01) No.1684 (h#2 ; legality / shadow solution?) János Csák & Béla Majoros (Hungary).  Warm welcome to Béla! 
    “Yes, the chess problem problem (H#2) and the solution is orthodox. However, the chess problem is not considered orthodox…” (Authors). For now the problem included in the Retro competition because of the question of legality. But the judges might see it differently.
  • (19.01) No.1683 (h=3 ; PAO ; ChecklessChess) Ľuboš Kekely (Slovakia). “Model pin stalemates.” (Author)
  • (17.01) No.1551.4 (Ser-S#23 ; Circe Rex Inclusiv) Dirk Borst (Netherlands). Accepted by Hans Gruber, the judge of JF-2020/II, as the award is not completed yet. “This 4th correction is dedicated to Arno in gratitude of his help.” (Author)
  • (15.01) No.1682 (#6 ; Rokagogo) Andrew Buchanan (Singapore) & James Malcom (USA). “This composition is intended as an economy record for the Rokagogo/Staugaard excelsior. If someone can produce the same effect with lighter material, we would be very pleased to see it.” (Authors)
  • (15.01) No.1681 (hs#3.5 ; LEO, PAO, VAO, NAO) Igor Kochulov (Russia).
  • (15.01) No.1680 (h++1* ; Circe Couscous, Promotion before rebirth) Joost de Heer (Netherlands). An improvement of No.1607 (previous period, but not included in the Award JF-2021/I). “No idea why I didn’t see that when I composed 1607.” (Author)
  • (15.01) First of all, I’d like to include into this tournament the problem No.1630 (#3 ;  Equileaper, Wazir, Zebra, Right Zebra ; Diagram Circe, Black must capture) by Shankar Ram, originally belonging to JF-2021/II , which was later accepted by Shankar to judge.

Animated diagrams use Py2Web by Dmitri Turevski and WinChloe‘s graphics, Christian Poisson

Unpin in JF10JT: important clarification

Tournamens, JF 29 Comments

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:

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).

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)

FCCP Update! (06.01.2022)

Fairy Classification 1 comment

Our project has now covered more than 90% of the top frequently used elements in WinChloe and almost all the elements in Popeye, as well as other unsupported ones. We are taking a break while we continue adding new elements and also work on modifying the visual interface to show alternative classifications of elements and groups, as also other related information like history and example problems. This may take some more time.

Till then, for your reading pleasure, we present one more “by-product” article and a listing of matplus forum posts on fairy definition and classification related content (with hyperlinks to each post)! – Shankar Ram, FCCP project

 

Jubilee Theme Tourney by Hungarian Chess Composers website

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The Hungarian Chess Composers website on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the introduction of the site, announces a Jubilee Theme Tourney in Orthodox and Fairy sections.

Theme: Helpmate in 3 or more moves, which including battery creation with three or more solutions.
I.) In solutions a) and b), A and B form two-way batteries, then give battery mates. The front piece cannot attack the king in the mate position.
II.) In solution c), after the front piece (A) of the battery that has been created is captured, the long-range piece (B) of the battery gives mate.

Judges: I. Orthodox section: Ladislav Packa |  II. Fairy section: Vlaicu CRISAN 
Fairy pieces and fairy conditions are allowed.

Please, send computer tested problems only (indicate the program used for testing), to tournament director János Mikitovics, j.mikitovics@gmail.com, till September 30, 2022.
Number of entries per composer: no limit | Joint problems: no limit | The prize money pool is: € 1,000.
The Premilinary and Final Award will be published on the Hungarian Chess Composers website.

 

Armin Geister 70 JT

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Armin Geister 70 JT

In honor of Armin Geister’s 70th birthday the Czech magazine Sachova Skladba (No. 152, 10/2021) announces a tourney for orthodox twinnings:
a) helpmate [h#]
b) helpstalemate [h=].
Entries to be sent to Jiri Jelinek by e-mail: jjelinek@atlas.cz
C 19.7.2022, Judge: Armin Geister, book prizes.

← Example problem:
a) 1.Qg3 Rf7 2.Ke5 Bf6+ 3.Kf4 Bd4# ; b) 1.Qc1 Bxc1 2.Rg4 Rd2+ 3.Ke3 Kxg4=

 

Danka Petkova 100 MT Award by Petko Petkov

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Award Danka Petkova 100 MT

Dear Friends,
With great delay I publish the award of the tournament Danka Petkova 100 MT2020-2021, due to my long illness after a very unsuccessful and dangerous vaccination against Covid. I apologize to everyone who waited for this material. Many thanks to the participants in the tournament, to the winners – world-famous masters, as well as to the readers who will look with interest at the tournament problems!
Be healthy, cheerful and happy in the New 2022
Yours: Petko Petkov

Award JF 2021/II (Shankar Ram)

Awards, JF 2 Comments

Do you believe in Santa? You have to, as a real miracle has happened on this New Year’s night! 

And here is him, with a surprising gift to all of you – Shankar Ram with the Award JF-2021/II (July-December 2021!)

Award JF-2021/II (fully prepared by Shankar Ram)

What can I say? I’m amazed! I feel I’ve got so wonderful gifts for this New year: two JF’s awards of 2021 (Ofer Comay and Shankar Ram) and also the acceptance to judge the next fairy tournament – JF-2022/I – from Vlaicu Crișan!
This is something what gives me energy and wish to do this work, to smile and to be glad and proud about so wonderful members of our society! Let’s spend the New year 2022 as we have started it!