The ACF Website wishes a big congratulations to Ed Atkinson, the composer of Beginners' Delight, which was voted the winner of
Unofficial World Championship Checker Problem Composing Contest #19 .
Unofficial World Championship Checker Problem Composing Contest #19 .
Contest #19 - Results
Several finishing "Locks" were demonstrated. But one lesson shone through again. The sparkle of a stroke beats the depth of a study. In the future, more effort will be put into avoiding an unfair mixture of such styles in the same contest.
For the second contest in a row, Ed Atkinson submitted a fill-in problem. It completed the quartet of "Lock" entries. Again it was a stroke, and again it was a top vote-getter. His "Beginners' Delight" featured a quintuple jump into a "Back Lock". It dominated the field with 8 votes. Ed said, "It took about ten minutes to compose. I never even sat down."
In a 2nd place with 5 votes was Roy Little's "Roadblock Ahead".
In 3rd place with 4 votes was Bill Salot's "Front & Back Locks".
Roy and Bill both strategically employed "Front" and "Back Locks" in tandem, a rarity. Their settings assuredly took much longer than ten minutes to compose.
By the way, Ed, Roy, and Bill have each backlogged dozens of entries suitable for challenging almost any problem style. If they have no suitable candidates, chances are they will compose one. Why not try your luck against them?
Arguably the most difficult problem in Contest #19 was Louis Cowie's "Clipper". It incredibly received just 1 vote. Its closing "Double Lock" (simultaneous "Front" and "Back Locks") was ingeniously hidden to the very end.
294 visited the contest, down some from recent contests.
Repeated below is the introduction to Contest #19:
Contest #19 - "Lock Problems" - September 26 - October 31, 2014
For purposes of this contest, a "Lock" is a position in which moving one of two adjacent pieces results in the immediate sacrifice of both to an opposing piece located either in front of them or in back of them. Hence a "Lock" may be either a "Front Lock" or a "Back Lock". Many published problems are based on the "Lock" theme, starting with Payne, 1756. Slocum composed at least three of them. Here are four classy new ones by modern day composers with very different approaches. They are in alphabetical order and in order of decreasing size.
See them animated. Then please cast your vote for the one you deem best. Your participation is much appreciated.
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