Tournament Awards
Please send new awards (if possible PDF and PGN) to
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Polish Tourney 2018: Kuzmichev surprise winner with two spectacular studies
The annual tourney of the Polish Chess Federation was surprisingly dominated by Russian Vladimir Kuzmichev who won both 1st and 2nd prize. The first prize study was a miniature with allumwandlung split up in two lines. The study that secured Kuzmichev the double was almost as spectacular: White sacrificed four pieces in succession to win in style with his remaining promoted queen. There were also prizes to Minski/Nielsen (3rd), Gurgenidze/Minski (4th) and Gromov/Pervakov (5th). The judge, Jan Rusinek, evaluated a total of 49 studies. The preliminary award (PDF in Polish).
Arpad Rusz (Romania) wins Problemist Ukraine 2017-18
The award is ready for the biannual endgame study tournament of the periodical Problemist Ukraine.
The tournament of 2017-18 was judged by Sergei Osintsev, who awarded first prize to Arpad Rush for rook study showing asymmetry and long foresight.
Second prize went to the German duo Wieland Bruch and Martin Minski for a new interpertration of the age old theme of smothered mate.
The third prize study by Steffen Nielsen showed a new rook sacrifice in a R+P vs R+P ending. All in all the tournament saw 24 studies, of which all but 7 were awarded.
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Michail Hlinka and Mario Garcia win the Ceskoslovensky Sach 2018 magazine tournament: Ceskoslovensky Sach 2018
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Djurasevic and Campioli win Steniczka 90-MT – 12 year old Christopher Yoo wins his first prize
The provisional award of the Helmut Steniczka 90 Memorial Tournament is now available here: Steniczka 90 MT 2019.
The tournament was judged by Peter Krug (Austria).
The winner of the win section was Branislav Djurasevic (Serbia), showing a series of surprises with the difficult material NNB vs R.
In the draw section Marco Campioli (Italy) was succesful with an eventful 30 move study.
The tournament also saw a young newcomer to the scene of study tournaments.
American Christopher Yoo won 3rd prize in the win section and even cemented his succesful debut with a special honourable mention in the draw section.
Christopher Yoo is an OTB FM with a current rating of 2426, making him the 8th highest rated U14 player in the world.
Christopher Yoo
(picture taken by Austin Fuller for the Saint Louis Chess Club)
All in all 43 studies from 23 composers competed.
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Provisional award for the Michal Hlinka 65 Jubilee Tournament available, Hlinka 65 JT 2019.
See also: http://www.sach.cz/
Winner in Section A: Yuri Bazlov
and co-winners in section B: Jaroslav Polasek, Martin Minski & Oleg Pervakov and Geir S.Tallaksen Ostmoe.
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Oleg Pervakov is the winner of Persitz MT 2019
The Raaphi Persitz MT 2019 saw 37 studies judged by Amatzia Avni who described the tournament as being "of mixed quality".
The winner was Oleg Pervakov (Russia) ahead of Yuri Bazlov (Russia) in second and the German/Danish duo Martin Minski and Steffen Nielsen in third.
All three studies were highly tactical with mutual sacrifices. Jan Timman won a special prize for a surprising finish
showing two consecutive en passant captures closing defensive lines to the mating square.
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Rusz, Bruch and Minski win the Attila Koranyi Memorial tournament
The provisional award for the 2018 informal tourney of the magazine Magyar Sakkvilag is ready.
The tournament in honour of Attila Koranyi was won by two studies.
Arpad Rusz (Romania) showed a tactical study with a knight shockingly interfering two lines at once while sacrificing a queen.
The other, highly, unusual first prize study by Wieland Bruch and Martin Minski (both Germany) had a mainline of only four action-packed moves.
The tournament was judged by Peter Gyarmati (Hungary).
Koranyi MT 2018 (studies replayable)
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40 contestants for the WCCI 2016-2018
The deadline of entries for the WCCI 2016-18 study section has come and gone. 40 composers from a total of 16 countries,
including the top three finishers from the last championship, have submitted between 4 and 6 of their best studies for the
given period, and are now fighting for the titel of World Champion. The number of contestants for the previous championship was 35.
The competing composers in alphabetical order:
Afek, Yochanan (Israel); Aliev, Ilham (Azerbaijan) Arestov, Pavel (Russia), Avni, Amatzia(Israel); Bazlov, Yuri (Russia); Becker, Richard (USA); Borodavkin, Sergey(Ukraine); Didukh, Sergiy (Ukraine); Djurasevic, Branislav (Serbia); Gasparyan, Aleksey (Armenia); Gatti, Daniele (Italy); Gonzalez, Luis Miguel (Spain); Hlebec, Darko (Serbia); Ilincic, Borislav (Serbia); Jasik, Andrzej (Poland); Kalashnikov, Valery (Russia); Keith, Daniel (France); Khramtsevich, Mikhail (Belarus); Kopylov, Evgeny (Russia); Krug, Peter (Austria); Miljanic, Mirko (Serbia); Miloseski, Bosko (Macedonia); Minski, Martin (Germany); Neistadt, Vladimir (Russia); Nielsen, Steffen Slumstrup (Denmark); Oganesjan, Alexey (Russia); Ostmoe, Geir Sune Tallaksen (Norway); Pervakov, Oleg (reigning Champion, Russia); Popov, Alexei (Russia); Popov, Grigory (Russia); Rusz, Arpad (Romania); Samilo, Vladimir (Ukraine); Skripnik, Anatoly (Russia); Sochnev, Alexey (Russia); Syzonenko, Viktor (Ukraine); Stavrietskiy, Aleksandr (Russia); Tarasiuk, Vladislav (Ukraine); Topko, Leonid (Ukraine); Villeneuve, Alain (France); Yarmonov, Igor (Ukraine);
See the entries at the WFCC website.
The five judges, Martin Minski (Germany), Harold van der Heijden (The Netherlands), Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen (Denmark), Arpad Rusz (Romania) and Peter Gyarmati (Hungary) now have until May 31th, 2019 to finish their verdicts. The final results will be published on June 30th, 2019 at the latest.
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Due to the change of Judge the Provisional Award (planned for 15 Jan) for the Benko 90 JT will be delayed.
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Nielsen wins ChessStar 2018
The annual tourney of the chessstar.com website was won by Steffen Nielsen (Denmark) with a tactical battle ending in a subtle bishop endgame.
The duo Pervakov/Sumbatyan secured 2nd prize with a logical study where a seemingly anonymous pawn on h7 plays the central role.
The tourney was judged by Sergiy Didukh.
23 studies participated. The award (in Russian).
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FIDE Album 2016-2018 announcement
Composers are invited to submit their best studies for the FIDE Album 2016-18
Read the announcement on the WFCC Website
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DUE TO BECOMING A TOO BIG PAGE, THE REFERENCE TABLE IS MOVED TO ANOTHER SUBPAGE !
Also to be found by Menu-tab Awards
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15-12-2018: Pavel Arestov and Aleksandr Zhukov are the winners of the Shahmat Bestechiliyi 15 JT 2018
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26-11-2018: Vladislav Tarasiuk is the winner of the 6th FIDE World Cup 2018 !
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25-11-2018: 19th Ukraine championship won by Vladislav Tarasiuk.
Ukraine 19th Championship 2018
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In the draw section (22 studies) the winners are David Gurgenidze (Georgia) and Martin Minski (Germany)with a tactical study ending up in a spectacular stalemate reminding us of a famous study by Gurgenidze himself from 1985 (HHDBV # 28338; Polish Chess Federation Tourney, 1st prize).
The second prize winner is a surprise, namely Marc Gelly, a French composer who up until now has no study to his name in the Harold van der Heijden database.
Third prize is won by Marco Campioli (Italy) in typically eventful and dramatic style.
The judge for both the win and the draw section was Michal Hlinka (Slovakia).
24-11-2018: Provisional award: Caputto-95 JT 2018 UAPA 7th
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Martin Minski wins The Problemist tournament 2016-2017
22-11-2018: Replay all the studies here: The Problemist 2016-2017
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The Moscow Tournament of 2018 is won by Romanian Arpad Rusz
with a highly original rook endgame resulting in a mating attack after mutual queen promotions.
The move 4. Rh1!!, in comparison to the try 4. Rf1?, the composer describes as a "pseudo-Turton", securing that the (not yet promoted) queen gets decisive access to a8 from g8.
All in all, 30 studies competed and judge Sergey Osintsev decided to award 5 prizes (1 special prize).
22-11-2018: Moscow 2018
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Pervakov and Didukh win the 2018 Batumi Chess Olympiad
An endgame study tourney was held in connection with the 2018 Batumi Chess Olympiad.
There were two sections, both judged by International Arbiter David Gurgenidze.
The win section was won by Oleg Pervakov with an epic tactical study featuring a suble logical try.
In the draw section Sergey Didukh was succesful with a logical study showing long foresight effect in a knight endgame.
The awards are awailable here (in PDF):
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21-11-2018: Gravure 2018
The study section of the Gravure tourney 2018 saw the Russian duo Oleg Pervakov and Mikhail Gromov winning ahead of a field of 18 composers.
Gravure is a traditional cross genre tourney requiring studies and problems with 8-10 pieces.
The winning study shows a highly suprising tactic (9. Rg5!!) as well a thematic try where a similar move (9. Rh5+) fails to work.
The second prize went to Sergei Osintsev, likewise from Russia. Oleg Pervakov secured another strong tournament result winning third prize.
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18-11-2018: Provisional award 4th Royal Maroc Chess Federation: FMRE 4th Moroccan 2018
17-10-2018: Kondratyuk 70 MT 2018
2-10-2018: Die Schwalbe 2016
30-9-2018: Pat a Mat 2016-2017
and Problem Paradise 2016-2017.
17-9-2018: 3rd Youth Chess Composing Challenge 2018
Provisional award JIRTDAN 2018.
16-9-2018: Hillel Aloni 80 MT 2017 (Updated 15.10.2018)
Tournament Calender.
On this page a calender of all known Endgame study tournaments which are running with information:
Also a very good page to check tournament announcements is on UAPA: Informal Tournaments, Formal Tournaments.
Another good calendar for study tournaments is chess-compose blogspot.
Latest update on 4-3-2019.
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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN COMPOSING FOR INDIVIDUALS
(WCCI) 2016-18
ANNOUNCEMENT
The WFCC is inviting composers of all countries to participate in the 2016-18 WCCI. The tourney director is Dmitry Turevsky (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target="_blank">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). The competition will be held according to the system used in the previous championship, with changes in the points 4, 5, 8 and 12 of the rules.
Time Schedule
- September 2018: Announcement
- January 20th 2019 12 Midnight UTC: Deadline for the submission of entries to the director
- February 1st 2019: Entries and spreadsheets for the scores sent by email to the judges
- June 1st 2019: Judges’ marks sent to the director
- June 15th 2019: Provisional results sent to the Supervising Panel and to the WFCC president
- June 30th 2019: Final results published on the WFCC site
Judges for studies:
D) Endgame studies: van der Heijden, Harold (NED), Gyarmati, Peter (HUN), Minski, Martin (GER), Nielsen, Steffen Slumstrup (DEN), Rusz, Arpad (ROU).
All details at WFCC.
Latest News
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Not a subscriber on EG yet?
The most quality magazine about Chess Endgame studies for over 53 years !!
The annual subscription to EG (Jan. 1 - Dec. 31) is only € 30,- euro for 4 issues.
Check it out at: EG
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Update: 22-3-2019:
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The Problemist march 2019 by Yochanan Afek
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Eddy van Beers wins the Arves solving contest at Nunspeet:
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4-3-2018: New issue of Finales Y Temas 108
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The amazing Chess Query Language (CQL) developed by Gady Costeff and Lewis Stiller
has been improved to version 6.0 !
Look here for the latest Release Notes with the improvements and changes.
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Anna Haast wins the 10th International Solving Contest Arves 2019 at Wijk Aan Zee
during Tata Steel chess tournament
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Tip: the Chessify app on your mobile phone
(Apple and Android):
Chessify is a must-have tool for chess lovers.
It allows to scan and digitize chess diagrams from books, journals, pdf files,
or other sources with acceptable recognition efficiency,
which makes its scanner the best chess OCR tool (optical character recognition) in the market.
The app also allows the users to analyze the digitized positions either locally or on cloud servers for free.
The strongest chess engines are used for analysis, such as Stockfish 10.
The cloud Stockfish engine can be used for free at about 25.000 kN/s speed for 10 seconds.
If you want to play or analyze interesting chess positions and puzzles, Chessify is a perfect and free app for you.
Notably, you can also save the needed positions (FEN) in the app’s storage and share them with other chess applications.
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At the website by Arpad Rusz the announcement is made about the publication of the studies
for the World Championship in Composing for Individuals (WCCI 2016-18)
organized by the World Federation of Chess Composition.
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Sergei Tkachenko has written many new books about endgame studies:
Biography's about Gorgiev, Tigran 1910-1976, Zinar, Mikhail 1951 and Rezvov, Nikolay 1921-2013:
With 100 studies each and pictures.
And by material theme:
You may find more details about them and more chessbooks at: http://www.elkandruby.com/
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Due to the change of Judge the Provisional Award (planned for 15 Jan) for the Benko 90 JT will be delayed.
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At "Elk and Ruby Publishing House" high quality Chess books are published.
Also about Endgame studies.
Oleg Pervakov (born in 1960 in the city of Kirov) is widely recognized as Russia’s greatest living chess composer.
He has composed nearly 500 studies and he has won the individual chess composition world championship three times: in 2004-2006, 2007-2009 and 2013-2015.
In this book, Sergei Tkachenko, a member of the Ukrainian team that won the 5th World Chess Composition Tournament in 1997
and which came second in 2000, 2004, 2013, and 2017, has selected 100 of Oleg Pervakov’s best studies.
The selection is quite varied – from elegant short studies with six moves to romantic grotesques with many pieces on board and over 30 moves to the solution.
Yet what all of these studies have in common is spectacular play by both sides.
And watch out: they are tough! That said, Oleg’s compositions are never boring.
You may buy this collection of studies to test your endgame tactical abilities, to improve your endgame understanding, or simply to appreciate chess in all its beauty.
Unlike previous studies books compiled by Sergei Tkachenko this book is not pocket-sized due to its longer solutions.
Available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/5604071048
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The leading publishing house Quality Chess has just released a new title by Yochanan Afek
Practical Chess Beauty
Summing up a creative career of over 50 years the new hardcover book introduces in 464 pages
Yochanan’s selected endgame studies, games and fragments, as well as bites from his problems in other genres all presented in thematic chapters.
The book is available in online chess shops and on the publisher’s website also in a digital version from Forward Chess.
Look it up here:
Author Yochanan Afek with Jan Timman (left) and the new book.
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Cook found in 2nd prize study in Hillel Aloni 80 MT 2017
Correction is created and added to this page.
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Everyday a quote in the footer of each page about chess or art.