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

Wed Jan 29 06:48:28 EST 2025

Hi Andrew,

To the best of my knowledge, no decision on that issue has been made.

Any retro themes can be proposed. I only remarked that it seems unrealistic
to find enough composers to submit classical-style or fairy retros to
Section H. In the previous WCCT, all participating countries submitted PG
entries, if I am not mistaken.

But I’ve already received a bunch of proposals that include fairy and
classical-style themes. These proposals will be put to the vote of the
countries concerned.

Yours,

Andriy

January 29, 2025

ср, 29 янв. 2025 г. в 13:41, andrew buchanan <andrew at anselan.com>:

> Hi,
>
> All the other genres will rotate themes.
>
> I'd like to see the retro genre rotate themes in the same way, and I'm ok
> with that subject matter being sometimes classical retro, sometimes PG,
> sometimes fairy retro. It would be good to learn more about these spaces.
> It's not really about winning.
>
> KEY:
> I would like to see the following as a reply here:
> (1) Who made the decision that we must stick to proof games again this
> year.
> (2) A written form of that decision.
> (3) A explanation of why this decision has been made.
>
> I am CCing Marjan here, and hope he can ensure a reply is forthcoming.
>
> Thanks
> Andrew
>
> On Monday, January 27, 2025 at 07:38:07 PM GMT+8, joose norri <
> joose_norri at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I correct myself: defensive retractors are not pure retros. At least it
> can be seen that way, although as we know the best ones have retro
> refutations, and one can also argue about help retractors. But illegal
> clusters are - and so is the legal cluster. (Not that that one is very
> important.)
> Joose
>
> *Subject:* Re: [Retros] Solicitation for themes for WCCT-12 Section H
>
> 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>:
>
> 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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