Page 2 - Chess Composition News Today

In this second part of an "understanding chess composition competition" trilogy, Study of the Month columnist SIEGFRIED HORNECKER surveys the official FIDE Album, an anthology of the best chess compositions. His selections include a study co-composed by Levon Aronian. | Photo: Arves.org

Pattern recognition is a major feat of the human brain, albeit one that can lead to wrong outputs. Examples include seeing faces where there are none, known as pareidolia. Once it was believed that the planet Mars has a face structure on it, speculations about former inhabitants of the planet ran wild, later it turned out that this isn't the case and could be attributed to the low resolution of the photo. | Photo: Pixabay

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. But in the end the reigning Champion, FIDE solving GM Danila Pavlov (pictured), showed his mettle and defended his title.

Judit Polgar's Global Chess Festival was held in Budapest, Hungary, on the 8th of October this year. Among other things, the current edition of the annual gala hosted a study composing cum exhibition event called Chess Artistry Adventure. The artful program in memory of the late Pal Benko has received fourteen original studies from some of the best composers in the world. In an article we published last month, four of these were explained in detail. Today, as it were, we venture deeper into ...

From building character to sharpening cognitive abilities to meliorating neurological disorders like Autism, the benefits of the ancient game of chess are many and wide-ranging. In fact, having evolved through one and a half millennia, it is more than just a game today. It is a cultural and intellectual phenomenon: an inspiration for visual artists, a playground for experimentation for scientists, and a pedagogical tool for educationists; but more than anything else, it is a common tongue connec...

Due to recent events, in these times of turmoil that have divided the world, I will this time not speak on behalf of the WFCC, but on behalf of my own, my personal opinion. | Photos: Pixabay

Humans formed belief systems based on stellar bodies. If you ask an astrologer about it, he might tell you his beliefs which of those have the most influence on your life. If you ask a scientist, he will likely name at least two: Sun and Earth. Ancient cultures already measured a phenomenon that - relative to each other - Earth rotates around the sun as well as around its own axis. A full rotation around itself is called a "day", a full rotation around the sun a "year". Relat...

The Serbian name "Darko" comes from "Dar" for "gift". Good wishes are bestowed often upon our children, be it luck with the Biblical name "The son of luck" or "Benjamin", or in this case, the gift of being gifted. A special gift indeed was given to Darko Hlebec, an interesting composing style. Study specialist Siegfried Hornecker presents presents examples of his work and Darko's comments about it.

A special kind of magic trick is to turn one thing into another — a.k.a. a switcheroo. In endgame studies, one such transformation is turning a stalemate into a checkmate. Columnist Siegfried Hornecker shows phenomenal examples which made use of this fantastic ‘magic trick’. | Pictured: Ernest Pogosyants

€29.90 As seen in Douglas Adams’ masterpiece A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or in Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question, computers, given enough time, might be able to solve every question. Not always will two words — “Fiat Lux” — be the outcome of their research, nor the answer to life, the universe and everything, however, arguments are made that computers might technically be able to give the solution to chess problems, yet lack what a human would be able ...