[Retros] Solicitation for themes for WCCT-12 Section H

[Andrey Frolkin]

Dear Joose, deal all,

Classical-style retros dominated the scene until the end of the 1980s; then
a PG boom began; some 10 years later, fairy retros came to prominence.
Kornilov and I published two articles in *feenschach* in the mid-2000s
trying to encourage colleagues to prevent the decline of the
classical-style domain, but the trend towards a retro section almost devoid
of “classicism” could not be reversed.

To me, and I am sure to quite a few other retro friends, classical style
was a very special kind of problems engulfed in the magic of OTB chess. I
don’t think composers like Plaksin, Kornilov, Hazebrouck or me would have
become retro analysts if retrograde analysis had been associated at that
time almost exclusively with e.g. Anti-Circe retractors.

Kornilov and I wrote 20 years ago that in some cases judging
classical-style retros alongside of fairy retros is like judging a runner
and a motorcyclist as to whose speed is highest.

But of course having three subsections for retros: a) classical style; b)
PGs; c) fairy retros would require having at least 9 judges (3*3) and that
is unrealistic.

However, classical-style retroanalysis is far from exhaustion, as proven
many times by composers like Dmitry Baibikov, Joaquim Crusats, Michel
Caillaud and some others. I fully agree with Andrew:

*retro is the home for retros - let's keep like that.*

Yours,

Andriy

вс, 26 янв. 2025 г. в 04:36, andrew buchanan <andrew at anselan.com>:

> Hi Joose,
>
> I can understand that today PGs dominate some retro spaces. But in the
> long term, non-PG retros may come to prominence again, or new forms of
> non-PG retro may be imagined. Conceptually, retro is the home for retros -
> let's keep like that.
>
> So my strong preference would be to keep Section H as retro, please, even
> though the chosen theme this year is almost certain to be PG.
>
> Thanks for all your work, Andriy & others.
>
> All the best,
> Andrew
>
>
> On Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 01:44:31 AM GMT+8, joose norri <
> joose_norri at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> Outside the topic of this post, well slightly,  it's really the time to
> make it plainly a PG section. There is no sense in pretending anymore.
>
> This, not being an official platform, I'll just put this forward. But
> naturally it could be put forward elsewhere too. If it is really wanted
> that it is a retro section, then this should be taken under serious
> consideration; or else it should be admitted that it is impossible to have
> a retro section.
>
> Yours,
>
> Joose Norri
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *Subject:* [Retros] Solicitation for themes for WCCT-12 Section H
>
>
> Dear friends,
>
> At present, efforts are underway to launch WCCT-12 as soon as possible.
> Apparently, Valery Kopyl will be (or has already been) approved as WCCT-12
> Director. To the best of my knowledge, the teams of the Russian Federation
> and Belarus won’t participate again.
>
> I’ve been asked to solicit proposals for Section H themes, to be followed
> by voting on the choice of one theme.
>
> So far, only one proposal has been received, from Romania.
>
> I’ve sent a solicitation for themes for Section H to almost 20 addresses,
> but I believe it makes sense to repeat this solicitation here as well. So
> if you have for Section H themes, please send them to me (preferably with
> at least one example). A possible deadline could be January 31.
>
> This will be followed by voting.
>
> Presumably, a PG theme will again be selected, as there seem to be not
> enough countries where composers publish high-quality classical-style
> retros. Moreover, although fairy retractors are abundant these days, there
> are not many countries where such problems are created. But there is no ban
> on proposing any sort of retro themes.
>
> Yours,
>
> Andrey (Andriy) Frolkin
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