Guided Chess Problem Composing Competition 2015 – results

The inaugural problem composing tourney linked to the 2015 Australian Junior Chess Championships has been completed. This event (announced in a previous column) aimed to encourage players and solvers to try their hand at constructing chess problems; some harder tasks, which were more suited to experienced composers, were also set. The final results were very close, and here are the prize winners:

1st Prize: Ilija Serafimović (Serbia)
2nd Prize: Ralf Krätschmer (Germany)
3rd Prize: Marko Lozajic (Serbia)

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all those who participated. At just ten years of age, the obviously talented Ilija managed to achieve a near-perfect score! Ralf is an established problemist, best-known for his more-movers. Marko is another junior who did very well. Both he and Ilija are students of the renowned Grandmaster of chess composition, Marjan Kovačević.

A document comprising the Tasks, Answers, and Results of the competition is now available for download. There you will find not only the "official" answers to the composing tasks, but also some of the contestants' alternative problem settings. Often I was surprised by these submitted positions – they illustrate the varied ways in which composers deal with the hurdles of construction.

Below I give the answer to the mate-in-three task that was reproduced in the October column. Only one contestant, Ilija, found this setting which is the most economical way of removing the 2.Kg6/Kg7 dual. After 1.Qg4! Ke5, only 2.Sc8+ works, leading to 2…Kd5 3.Se7 and 2…Kf6 3.Qg6, both model mates.

Nigel Nettheim will provide a Report on this composing event in due course, covering its organisational aspects.