My dear Friends,
Welcome home to those who were going to Japan!
I believe you all had a great time there!
The 55th World Congress of Chess Composition (WCCC)
and 36th World Chess Solving Championship (WCSC)
in Kobe, Japan,
took place from September 15th to September 22th, 2012.
The Awards from Composing tourneys I have for now:
- 3rd Bulgarian Wine Tourney – Kobe 2012
- 10th TZUICA TOURNEY – Kobe 2012
- 15th SABRA TOURNEY – Kobe 2012
- Vodka Tourney 2012 – Kobe 2012
Congratulations to the winners!!!
I’d appreciate if you send me to julia@juliasfairies.com more Awards for the site to add!
Congrats to Julia on getting an award in both tourneys !
Thanks! But this is why I have the both Awards 🙂 Hopefully, all of them will appear at WCCC2012 site soon. Congratulations to you for the 3rd Bulgarian Wine!
“For now I have 3 awards ” —- Julia,
Indeed true !! Three awards in 3 tourneys 🙂
🙂 Well, yes, I’ve added Awards of the Tourneys were participated myself – just because I’ve got them by email!
But I’d be happy to add more if anybody would send me!
These awards are made in a great hurry ! Still Ralf Kratschmer’s commended problem is a real surprise. Where is the pinned white piece or unpin in that problem? 🙂 🙂
SOME COMMENTS ABOUT SABRA – 2012 T.T.
This year’s SABRA -2012 T.T. is again an interesting competition with many well known participants. The creative level of competition seems traditionally high. But I have remarks about some awarded problems because I think that some nastly bugs are made by the authors and judge.
Writing this commentary, I want to remind you, that this competition was a blitz composing tournament – with little time for work of authors and judges. Therefore, the errors in one or another degree, are results from this lack of time.
Jan Haymann Israel – 2nd Prize
A deep and interesting idea! Here the solutions obviously are not completely identical in thematic attitude but that’s not a big trouble. But I think that the major weakness of the problem is the black Sc6 – a typical, bad cook – stopper! It is not difficult to eliminate this piece, with a black Pawn, for example, as shows on a diagram №1: 1.dxe3 Bf6 2.g5 Sxf3#; 1.d3 Qxg7 2.Bg5 Sc4#.
[img
[/img]
Kostas Prentos – 4th Prize –
Too curious situation! Here the black pieces and Qb8 Bh7 are just superfluous in the initial position – without them the solutions are the same, as shows on a Diagram N 2: a)1.Re7 Rb6 2.Sb5 Rc6#; b) 1.Be7 Bg6 2.Sd3 Bxf7#.
[img
[/img]
Despite the requirement of the theme, that in the beginning the pin is an obligatory element, I think that the formal implementation of this requirement using the superfluous pieces, is unacceptable. My conclusion is that on this basis the problem should be excluded from the award, even “post factum”.
Abdelaziz Onkoud – 3rd Honourable Mention
A problem with a banal known in h# – genre scheme, with main minus – the surplus black Rook – e1. Here also the pin is not needed in the solutions, as shows on a Diagram N 3: 1.b4 Bg1 2.Se4 Sd4#; 1.Bf7 Rg1 2.Se2 Sg5#.
[img
[/img]
Kohey Iamada 4th Hon Men –
A very nice job! But I can not understand: why the author uses a black Queen on a1? This piece is obviously technical – a cook-stopper, it increases the pin of the white Queen on the vertical “a”. But it is elementary to use black Pawn instead of black Queen: №4 1.g5 Re7 2.Sa5+ Qxe4#; 1.Rg6 Rh5 2.Ba7+ Qxe8#
[img
[/img]
How big minus is the use of a black Queen instead of a black pawn? In my opinion, it is a serious weakness of the problem, because the position with the black Queen is not sufficiently aesthetical and also – not economical.
Ralf Kratschmer – Commendation –
This task is obviously a misunderstanding in the tournament – it’s just not thematic – there is no pinned white figure!
In my opinion, the judge may change partial his award, eliminating the problems with superfluous black pieces which execute formal thematic pins. I think also that every author has right to improve his problem, making a better new versions.
Excellent analysis by Mr.Petkov. But many composers do not worry much about black economy (perhaps a carryover from direct mates).
Seems to be an extension on the theme of “weasels”.. mentioned in Feather’s “Black to Play”.. See also this matplus forum thread: http://www.matplus.net/pub/start.php?px=1334318452&app=forum&act=posts&tid=909&fid=tt&page=1
“I think also that every author has right to improve his problem…” … and other’s too? 😉
Petko is absolutely right about my problem. This was a bad oversight, caused by the fact that the knight unpins are also self-blocks; a typical constructional error, yet easy to forget during the composing process. Had I noticed this myself, I would have abandoned this idea from the beginning, as the matrix has this inherent fault.
If a correction with standard material proves impossible, as it appears to be, a compromise might be the following position:
Kostas Prentos
Sabra TT, Kobe 2012 (version)
[img]http://www.ankona.ch/diagrams/99997.png[/img]
h#2 b) Pd5->c5 (6+11) C+
a) 1.Ba7 Rb7 2.Sb6 Rc7#
b) 1.Re3 Bg6 2.Se4 Bxf7#
I see the things pretty differently. Helpmate tourneys are overwhelmed with Prizes where the main theme is accidental and thus irrelevant.
Kostas’ problem is by no means a lone example, it only reflects the wiew of the majority. In the improved version bRb8 and bBh7 are indeed necessary, they prevent cooks, but not essentially because of the pin. Moves 2.Sb6/Se4 essentially have other functions. Few changes and the pin vanishes:
White Pd6 Pa4 Kh4 Rb3 Pc3 Bc2 Pe2
Black Sa8 Pd7 Bh7 Pd5 Re5 Sg5 Kc4 Bd4 Qd1
Twin Move d5 c5
Sorry, in previous example a black Rook should be added on b8 (or g3 for e.g.). And it’s easy to get rid of bBh7 as well.
So, black/white critical/anticritical moves are nice but the pins are irrelevant.
Nikola, my failure to provide a convincing improvement does not mean that I see things in a different way than you. And I don’t believe that the majority of problemists with full information, would accept superfluous pieces in a problem, for a fake effect, as in my original Sabra entry.
In any case, you are right to say that in the version, the pins are not essential and the unpinning knight moves have other functions, as well. Yet, for lack of a better version, and after having “wasted” much more time for a correction than for the original flawed problem, I think I will rest for now.
Dear Kostas I am terribly sorry if anyone gets the impression that I wished to comment particularly your problem. It was already “on the menu” and I (mis)used it to illustrate some general points.
What is bRa5 doing in Com. by Rodolfo Riva – spoiling a miniature?
And is there a true pin in 1st HM by Mario Parrinello? What happens if wK is on b1 and bPa2 moved to f6 in the diagram position?
Dear Nikola, I understand what you are saying and I agree with you. It is surprising to what extend non-essential pins were used in this tourney. Still, I have the impression that most us would accept your point, if we searched deeper and analyzed the problems they way you and Petko did.
It is very useful to do this analysis, even if it is to criticize certain problems or judgments. There is nothing wrong with criticism, when it is justified.
Award of the Vodka Tourney you find on http://www.selivanov.ru/download/Awards/2012/Vodka%20Tourney%202012-awards.pdf
Thank you very much! I’ve added Vodka Award to my post as well!
In my Vodka tourney problem the black King should be on f6
Congratulations with the 1st prize! Have you participated in any other tourneys? Maybe you could send me more Awards for the site? 🙂
Thanks for congatulations 🙂 I participated in Tzuika Ty- fairy section (2nd Pr.), Vodka Ty (1st Pr.) and Sake Ty (commendation). Also compose 2 symbols problems dedication to Kobe participants. I will publish some stories about these problems after 1-2 days in my website. Will be difficult to send you more awards, because I have it in the congress bulletin, but they are in booklet, not as files for publication. So probably I will select and upload some award winners, but need a little time for rest (so long travel – I just come back at home few hours ago)
Oh, Mario Parrinello use the new condition “Anti Take & Make” even in his Tzuika 3rd HM problem. Very nice
And thank to Petko Petkov for his interesting analyse on Sabra Tourney above. Yes, in such a tourneys where the award should be prepared just for couple of hours after deadline some oversights are possible…
Congrats Diyan on your prizes in WCCC tourneys. The theme “Avanta” is not clear. Does it just mean pawn moves ?
Avanta was the theme of the Vodka Tourney and means two (or more) pawns on a row which play both they possible moves from its initial position.
Have uploaded the full bulletin of the 55th WCCC (later will add somewhere on the tourney’s page) – see https://juliasfairies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/55thWCCC_Booklet.pdf
The revised version of the Kobe WCCC bulletin is available for download at the Congress website: http://wccc2012kobe.com/kobe2012booklet.pdf
Some versions of awarded problems in the long thematic tourney replaced the original diagrams, and 3 problems were removed from the Sabra award (see Petko’s comments above). There may be more changes, but these are the ones I noticed, after a quick glance.
Quite a justice, now the problem ranked as 4th shows a true pin/unpin?! Also the original “miniature-avoidance” remains commended.
Oh, thanks! I’ve added it my page of results: https://juliasfairies.com/tourneys/tourneys-results/
(as final version of The full bulletin of the 55th WCCC)
You are right, Nikola, but at least some justice has been restored.
As far as I am concerned, it is a relief that my problem is removed from the award, as I didn’t know what to do with it. Putting the embarrassment and the frustration aside, it is as if this problem was never composed.