The 64th World Congress of Chess Composition (WCSC) is in full swing in Fujairah, UAE. 

The first day of the World Solving Chess Championship saw FM Bilguun Sumia (pictured below) from Mongolia grab the lead. The member of the Mongolian chess national team he pulled a half-point ahead of the World Champion in solving Danila Pavlov and Nikos Sidiropoulos.

In the interview after the first day of solving, Bilguun said he was happy with his result, and his goal was to become the first GM both in chess and in solving in the history of Mongolia. 

Before the final round, however, Piotr Murdzia from Poland shot ahead with 55.25 points, just 0.25 points ahead of his closest rival, Ural Khasanov. Boris Tummes and Danila Pavlov shared third place and were not far behind. In the last round, the reigning champion, FIDE solving GM Danila Pavlov (FIDE) showed his mettle. He produced the best result and won the championship, scoring 84.5 points.

The 19-years-old Pavlov (pictured above)  won the World Chess Solving Championship for the second time in a row. He also won all three additional solving competitions with different formats, which took place in Fujairah during these days and delivered a tremendous overall performance. 

Solving IM Ural Khasanov (FIDE) took the silver medal while solving GM Piotr Murdzia (Poland) finished third. The leader after the first day, Bilguun Sumiya (Mongolia), took fourth place in the event. 

The competition was attended by Sheikh Sultan Bin Saleh Mohamed Alsharqi (pictured below).

Poland took gold medals in the team competition with 162.75 points, while Serbia came second with 153.75 points. Germany finished third on 138.75.

You can always put yourself in the participants' shoes and test your skills by tackling the problems from this contest.

64th World Congress of Chess Composition culminated in the WFCC Presidium election session, which took place on the 17th of November. There were two candidates for the position of the President of WFCC – Marjan Kovacevic (Serbia) and Thomas Maeder (Switzerland). 

With 13 votes versus 9 votes, Marjan Kovacevic became the new President of WFCC. Mr Kovačević has been FIDE Grandmaster in composition since 2007 and Grandmaster in solving since 1988. In previous years he held the position of WFCC Vice-president.

The elections of Vice-presidents were held right afterwards, with four candidates contending for three positions. As voted, Abdulla Ali Hassan Aal Barket Alameeri (UAE) became the first Vice-president, Vidmantas Satkus (Lithuania) is the second Vice-President, and Dinu-Ioan Nicula (Romania) took the position of the third Vice-president.

New WFCC President and three Vice-Presidents

The program continues with the WFCC Closing Session and the closing ceremony, followed by the international blitz tournament, which will take place on the 19th of November. More than 270 players have already registered there, including GM Salem Saleh, GM Pavel Eljanov, and others.

The total prize fund for all events is €40,000.

Official tournament website: https://wccc2022.wfcc.ch/

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Text and photos: Anastasiya Karlovich