WFCC Honorary President Harry Fougiaxis and Anirudh Daga during the closing ceremony of the Fujairah World Congress of Chess Composition 2022
Photo: Fujairah Chess & Culture Club

The inaugural FIDE World Solving Championships for Youth (Florianópolis, November 4) and Cadets (Montesilvano, November 21) will take place this autumn. For the first time, the FIDE solving events will be organized in cooperation with the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC) as a part of the FIDE & WFCC Special Projects 2024, celebrating FIDE Centenary.

The WFCC-guided solving events can be followed on the Chess-Results server, in the Federation Selection list under the abbreviation WFC. The basic information includes Regulations for championships U14, U16 & U8 in Brazil, and for championships U8, U10 & U12 in Italy, both with instructions about writing solutions and illustrative examples. There are also Registration forms for Florianópolis and for Montesilvano.

Another important and unique novelty in the FIDE & WFCC cooperation, the first installment in a series of free online solving lessons organized by a young Indian player, composer and solver Anirudh Daga (16), in cooperation with the WFCC president Marjan Kovačević will be launched in two weeks, on September 7. Although primarily aimed to prepare young participants for solving in Brazil and Italy, the online sessions will be open for everybody around the world. Fill out the Registration form to show your interest, by clicking on the given link or scanning the QR code below, using a phone!

The initial goal is to explain the big structural differences between common chess puzzles that dominate the Internet and real chess compositions, with their own principles, theories, themes, schools, and styles that have developed throughout chess history. Naturally, priority will be given to practical aspects of solving. The first topic will be the general approach to the competition, including the way of writing solutions. The next sessions will touch on special aspects of composing genres featured in the FIDE Youth Championships 2024: Mate in 2, Mate in 3, Mate in 4 and Endgame Studies. The sessions will be in English and open to all questions each Saturday from 1 PM GMT from September 7 to October 5.

How difficult can the problems for cadets and juniors be? A week ago, Prague hosted the European Youth Chess Solving Championships in the age categories U10, U14, and U18, and only two out of 206 solvers managed to score a maximum of 40 points. Let’s take a look at the endgame from U14 category competition:

Viktor A. Nikolaev

White to play and win

At first glance, the position doesn’t promise any headache. It looks like white just has to stop the passed pawns, while g-pawn will secure them an easy victory. Many solvers started correctly and, after White’s smart fourth move, believed the mission was accomplished. In fact, the real fight just started at this point … We have got used to thinking for the white side, but looking for an inspired counterplay by an opponent is often a real challenge. Polish junior Wladyslaw Pycinski was perceptive enough to keep analyzing in-depth, and it brought him the golden medal ahead of the participants who rushed to hand in their solving sheets earlier in order to gain the advantage of the shorter time that is used as the main tiebreak.

In the photo from Prague, you can see a young solver at the beginning of the long journey to solve this endgame study, looking for White’s correct second move.

Photo: EYCC / Anezka Kruzikova

Get registered and prepared for the upcoming solving adventures in Brazil and Italy; there will be no opponents except for hard-to-find moves!

Solution:

Viktor A. Nikolaev, 2. Prize USSR Sports Committee, 1955

1. Nf3 d3 2. Bh6 Kd4+ 3.Nxd4 e1=Q 4.Bd2+ Ka6 5. Bxe1 d2 6. Nc2 d1=Q 7.Nb4+ Ka5 8.Nd3+ Ka4 9. Nb2

Written by Marjan Kovačević, WFCC president

Official website: WFCC – World Federation for Chess Composition