Julia's Fairies

Julia's Fairies

Submit a problem for JF

Dear composers, I would like to present to you a special form I’ve made to submit a problem for JF:

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


Originals September 2023

JF Original Problems | September, 2023

The judge of JF-2023: K. Seetharaman
The judge of Retro & PG problems 2023-2024: Thierry Le Gleuher

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


21st Romanian Tzuica Tourney

65th WORLD CONGRESS OF CHESS COMPOSITION
Batumi 2-9 September 2023

21st Romanian Tzuica Tourney
Judges: Vlaicu Crişan & Eric Huber (Romania)

Theme: Helpself compositions (hs#n/hs=n) with at least 2 solutions showing each at least one Battery Dismantling.

(see the full Announcement in PDF)

Prizes – diplomas that will save the planet and bottles of Tzuica | The tourney is open worldwide.
Deadline: Wednesday, September 6th, 8 p.m | Send to: Eric Huber by e-mail at hubereric@yahoo.fr


AWARD Armin Geister 70 JT

The AWARD of the tourney Armin Geister 70 JT (Argentine twins: a) helpmate [h#] ; b) helpstalemate [h=])
by Czech magazine Sachova Skladba (No. 152, 10/2021), in honor of Armin Geister’s 70th birthday.

The winners of the Armin Geister 70 JT

Zpráva pořadatele
Jubilejní soutěže se zúčastnilo 17 skladatelů s 51 úlohami: Imrich Bandžuch (12), Vladislav Buňka (3), Michel Caillaud (2), Niels Danstrup (5), Branislav Djurašević (0,5), Marjan Kovačević (1), Ralf Krätschmer (1), Zoltán Labai (3), Sébastien Luce (3), Michael McDowell (1), Dieter Müller (1), Oleg Paradzinskij (1), Josip Pernarić (5), Ben Smolkin (6), Slobodan Šaletić (2,5), Sven Trommler (3), Hans Uitenbroek (1).
Všechny skladby byly anonymně předloženy rozhodčímu, jenž připravil následující výsledek


Originals June 2023

JF Original Problems | June, 2023

The judge of JF-2023: K. Seetharaman
The judge of Retro & PG problems 2023-2024: Thierry Le Gleuher

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


Wonderful JF’s community

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!!!

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.

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


A judge for the RETRO / PG 2023-24 – Thierry LE GLEUHER

I believe I have a day of the wonderful news! So, one more important news, especially for Retro and Proof Games composers: please, welcome your judge – Thierry Le Gleuher, who will take care of the tournament JF-R2023-24!

Thierry LE GLEUHER (France and Canada), born in 1959, composes mainly in retro genre. About 600 problems for 193 awards in international tournaments and championships. World Champion 2001-2003 of composition in retro genre. His works are often unexpected enigmas, and he favors in his approach the quality offered by the work to the solutionist. It is prudent to avoid hasty conclusions when looking for the solution. Thierry le Gleuher probably hid a finesse behind a back door!

Titles : French Champion in retro solving trounament (2009, 2011,2022) | World Champion of the FIDE for chess composition (2001-03) | International Master of the FIDE for chess composition (2010) | International Judge of the FIDE for retro (2014)

Occupations : Retro section editor of Phénix | Phénix website editor | Writer of the retro section of FIDE albums


New judge for JF-2013/II – Sébastien Luce

A good news!! JF has a new judge for the competition JF-2013/II as a replacement to Diyan Kostadinov appointed before – Sébastien Luce!

I’m grateful to Sébastien (France) for kindly offering his help. Some words from Sébastien I am glad to share with you:

Born 1963, playing OTB chess intensively since being eight, including World junior championship in 1982. International Master since 1990, five times French team champion with Clichy. Progressively stopped competitions to become a professional chess trainer. Beginning composing in 2012, with a complete opus of more than 2500 problems (not all published yet), mainly in fairies.

I like paradoxes, and would like to present myself as a composer with the only orthodox #3 I have produced. It is a Plachutta Azerbaïdjan.

I saw on JF the demand of Julia to judge the Part II of JF 2013, after the resignation of the previous judge. I accepted with pleasure ! 

🙂