[Retros] Fairy retros

[Bernd Gräfrath]

Dear Andrey,

I think that it is possible to compare the relative achievements of a runner and a motorcyclist in one competition: Someone who runs 100 meters in 9 seconds has achieved something much better than a motorcyclist who need "only" 8 seconds for this distance. Competent judges take this into consideration. Of course, they can also decide to divide an informal tourney into two or three (or even four: classical retroanalysis, fairy retroanalysis, proof games, fairy proof games) separate sections...

It is true that there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of new orthodox retros published throughout the world in the past decade.
In your feenschach essay, you offer a plausible explanation (feenschach 160, page 112): "Unfortunately, classical retros offer much smaller scope for development, in comparison with fairy and conditional RA."

About the general point which Per raised, I agree with Joost.

Best wishes,

Bernd

P.S. concerning your other e-mail: I have sent my awards for the retros of Probleemblad 2005 and 2006 to Peter van den Heuvel some years ago, and he has never answered.





> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

> Von: "afretro" <afretro at yandex.ru>

> Gesendet: 05.09.09 04:13:35

> An: The Retrograde Analysis Mailing List <retros at janko.at>

> Betreff: [Retros]  Fairy retros




> Dear Per,

> Thank you for the point you have raised. For about one hundred years there were few SPGs and few fairy retros, so the tradition of including them among orthodox retros appeared to be quite natural. Then followed a boom of non-orthodox retros (SPGs, retros with stipulations affecting retroplay like “Minimal number of moves by the black king?,” and fairy retros). A debate as to the expediency of including them under one heading would be of purely academic importance, if it were not for the issue of tourney judgment. By now, hundreds of fairy rules and pieces have been proposed and many of them make it relatively easy to break orthodox retro records; moreover, new types can be invented specifically for the sake of achieving new records; these easily achieved records may impress judges much more than outstanding orthodox retros with long and complicated solutions. Kornilov and I wrote a couple of articles touching in particular on this subject (feenschach Heft 154 (2004) and Heft 160 (2005)). In our view, allowing fairy retros to compete side by side with traditional ones is like allowing a motorcyclist to compete with a runner. If chess composition continues to be a “competition sport,” I hope that someday SPGs and fairy retros will be separated from orthodox retros. By the way, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of new orthodox retros published throughout the world in the past decade.

> Yours,

> Andrey

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