BCPS

The September issue featured a report by John Rice on the 45th World Congress of Chess Composition, which was held at Portoroz, Slovenia. The British Solving Team finished 6th in the World Solving Championship, with Jonathan Mestel taking the individual bronze medal. John Rice was elected to the post of President of the Permanent Commission for Chess Composition.

A number of problems from Quick Composing Tourneys were diagrammed, including the following from a tourney for proof games with diagonal/orthogonal correspondence between two elements of the solution.

Reto Aschwanden 1st Prize, Champagne Ty. WCCC, 2002 Proof Game in 17.5 moves

1.d4 a5 2.d5 a4 3.d6 a3 4.dxc7 d5 5.g4 Be6 6.c8B Qd6 7.Bxb7 Sd7 8.Bc6 0-0-0 9.g5 Sc5 10.Bd7+ Kb7 11.g6 Ka6 12.gxf7 g6 13.fxg8R Bh6 14.Rg7 Rdg8 15.Rf7 Rg7 16.Rf8 Bf7 17.Rg8 e6 18.Bc8+. Two promoted pieces, bishop and rook, perform a rectangular circuit.

The R.C.O. Matthews 75th Birthday Tourney for three-movers was judged by Robin's long-time composing partner Bob Burger. Don Smedley's joint first prizewinner can be examined in the Review of the Year. Various awards from The Problemist informal tourneys were published. Here are a couple of prizewinners.

C. J. Feather 1st Prize, The Problemist, 2001 Helpmate in 3: 2 solutions

1.Bxf4+ Sd8 2.Rxd8+ exd8Q 3.Kc4 Qd3; 1.Bxe6+ Rf8 2.Rxf8+ exf8Q 3.Kd4 Qc5. Annihilations of white force to give access to flights in preparation for mates by the promoted queens.

Irwin Stein & John M Rice 2nd Prize, The Problemist, 1999-2000 Selfmate in 2

1.c4 (>2.Bd5+ Bxf4) 1…Qxd2 2.Bxd3+ Qxf4; 1…fxg5 2.Bf5+ gxf4; 1…Sxg5 2.Bxg2+ Se4; 1…e5 2.Qxf2+ Qxf2. A fine blend of variations from the white battery.