World Solving Cup: Titles for Piorun and Sidiropoulos

In Poland, eight minutes decided the winner; in the Netherlands, one subtle endgame study made the difference. The series of open national competitions for the World Solving Cup 2022/23 started in October 2022, with the Swiss championship won by Martinas Limontas (Lithuania). Then, in February, Dolf Wissmann (Netherlands) came out on top in Finland, and March began with the win for the Nikos Sidiropoulos of Greece in the Netherlands. The Polish championship, held in Sękocin Stary, the suburbs of Warsaw, was the test for domestic pride. Will the most successful nation in chess solving, with 12 titles in World Championship (WCSC) and five in European (ECSC) since 2009, allow any foreigner to win on Polish soil? It was the strongest national tournament since 2020, with 2425 points average solvers rating of the top ten, among the 28 participants from Great Britain, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Many titled solvers took part in this competition: Valery Kopyl, Martynas Limontas and Piotr Górski with single medals from World Chess Solving Championship, and two multi-medalists: Piotr Murdzia (8 times World champion, 16 medals altogether) and Kacper Piorun (5 times World champion, nine medals altogether). Vasil Ďačuk from Ukraine, the current individual World champion in composing, selected the 18 problems to be solved during six rounds and conducted the competition. Solvers focused before the first round: Kacper Piorun (left) and Piotr Górski (right) in the first rows | Photo: Piotr Górski In the end, as many expected, it boiled down to the battle of Murdzia and Piorun. On the 1st day, both gained equal points after solving all the two-movers and three-movers perfectly and getting the best (but not maximal) result in the round of studies. Kacper was ahead by 14 minutes.  On the second day, both had identical results in help-mates, more-movers and self-mates. Thus, time became the decisive tiebreaker. Piotr, the record holder with 22 domestic titles, managed to catch up by 6 minutes, but it was not enough to close the cap. The total available time was 360 minutes, and Kacper Piorun became the Polish Solving Champion thanks to the 8 minutes difference! After the 1st day, no less than 11 solvers had about the same chances for the remaining third place on the podium. While the first two were not a surprise, no one expected 17-year-old Kevinas Kuznecovas from Lithuania to get the bronze medal. On the way to it, Kevinas obtained his final FIDE Solving Master norm (for achieving it a solver needs a performance rating of at least 2450 and the highest rating of at least 2350 points). He was followed closely by another Lithuanian, Martynas Limontas, the current leader in the WSC Standings. The 2019 World Champion, Piotr Górski, was only 11th after the 1st day, but the 2nd day elevated him to 5th place and the bronze medal in the Polish national classification. As one of the main organizers, he was under triple pressure, expecting the birth of his sixth child. The happy event came already the next day, and Piotr Górski became the sole “kids champion” among the World champions in solving, surpassing the “record” of the German Michael Pfannkuche. Best Polish juniors: Szymon Boryna (bronze), Michał Koziorowicz (gold), Radosław Psyk (silver), and the main judge Vasil Ďačuk Another exciting rivalry was among the best Polish juniors. In November 2022, Radosław Psyk and Michał Koziorowicz became the Polish OTB U20 champion and vice-champion, respectively. In solving, however, Michał successfully defended the junior gold medal, and the bronze went to Szymon Boryna.  In the following table, you will find the results of the top 10 solvers.  Final standings: The full results are available here.  The next two problems were among the hardest nuts to crack: 1 White to play and mate in five moves In the starting position, white has a strong move 1. Bf5. This kind of sacrifice with double threat, known as Novotny interference, stops Black’s f8-rook from preventing 2. gxf4# and h3-bishop from averting 2. Nd7#. Taking White’s bishop on f5 does not help. However, 1. Bf5? is not a solution because of 1…dxc4! Hint: Can we allow Black’s king to move to d4? This year, even for some of the best solvers in the world, 100 minutes was too little time to solve three endgames completely. The best result was 6 points out of possible 15, and each of the medal winners got full 5 points for a different endgame! The next one was fully solved only by the overall winner Kacper Piorun, and Jakub Marciniszyn (10th place), with all others not getting even a single point:  2 White to play and win White is two knights down, but Black’s king can be trapped using the white pawns. The first move seems natural 1. d3+. How should white proceed later? For instance, 2. Bd8 (threatening 3. Bb6#) is met with: 2… Ng4+ 3. Ke2 Nf4+ 4. Kd2 Nd5! (and even stronger 2…Qf7+!). Black knight on d5 stops all checkmate attempts. Hint: How can White prevent the black knight from reaching d5-square? The Dutch Solving Championship took place the same weekend as the Polish one, but the overall atmosphere was very much different. In the nice town of Nunspeet, in the middle of the Netherlands, more than 30 people participated in the yearly gathering of the Dutch problemists, where the national championship was only a part of an extensive program that included lectures, composing tourneys, and unofficial solving competitions. Nicely decorated solving hall in Nunspeet | Photo Luc Palmans The 28th edition of the Dutch Open Solving Championship brought together 18 participants in the A-group and 9 in the B-group. The conditions were perfect: big tables, spacious room, no disturbing noise and refreshments at hand.  Nikos Sidiropoulos from Greece, who resides in Belgium, has been consistently improving lately. This time, he managed to edge out the favourite Eddy Van Beers just behind him. Third place went to the Slovak Richard Dobiaš, who lives in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, followed by two-time World Champion Michel