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

[joose norri]

Dear Andriy, hi all,

I would just point out that the retro field is much wider than that, also purely orthodoxically. Illegal clusters, help retractors, defensive retractors, many other things, they are fully orthodox.

I remember your articles with Kornilov; I disagree to some extent, because it seemed to me that you put too much emphasis on numerical achievement. But that is exactly the point on the other hand: the retro field is simply too big. As a retro fan I am not so sure whether it was a wise decision to have the section after all.

It being a tourney among nation-teams, if there was a classical retro theme then not many countries could find composers with any experience. I'm all for it; it could serve as an incentive. But potentially it might be very barren.

Then, it is conceivably possible to formulate a retro theme and leave it open in which genre it is to be expressed. That would naturally be a catastrophe. No one on Earth can compare all those things, perhaps Michel can...

Best,
Joose


Subject: Re: [Retros] Solicitation for themes for WCCT-12 Section H


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<mailto: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<mailto: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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