Unofficial World Championship Checker Problem Composing Contest 47 - Results

[Bill Salot]

Check out Contests 14 (2013), 25 (2015), 35 (2017), 44 (2019), and this just concluded 2-Phase Contest 47 (2019), all in odd-numbered years. They were the only problem composing contests that octogenarian composer Leo Springer (Netherlands) has ever entered. Incredibly he won or tied for first in all of them! A strange, man-down, winning finish to his compound stroke titled Impossible tied for first place in Contest 47. Gene Ellison, Slava Gorin (Russia), Mark Sokolovsky, Liam Stephens (Ireland) and Kathy Wirthwein were the 5 who voted for it.

Tied with Leo was our most-frequent-winner, second consecutive leading vote-getter, and fellow-octogenarian Roy Little. His Slow, Fast & Watch Out, was a giant stroke with a false solution, finishing with a delayed steal. George Hay and 4 others voted for it.

Tied for third place, with 3 votes each, was Ed Atkinson's Houdini, a shot with an escape requiring that a single King stymie 3 pieces (3 anonymous votes); and Bill Salot's Guard Change, a stroke into a 138-year-old classic example of the Guard Change maneuver (Canadian Lloyd Gordon and two others voted for it).

There were 271 visitors to the contest web site; 16 of them voted.

The Voters' Ladder now stands as follows:
1. Leo Springer (Netherlands) 3 winners picked in 4 tries (75%)
2. Liam Stephens (Ireland) 10 in 15 tries (67%)
3. Gene Ellison 8 in 14 tries (57%)
4-5 tie Kathy Wirthwein 6 in 12 tries (50%)
Slava Gorin (Russia) 6 in 12 tries (50%)
6. Lloyd Gordon (Canada) 5 in 10 tries (50%)
7. Wilma Wolverton 3 in 6 tries (50%)
14 others have either picked fewer than 50% winners or have voted in fewer than 4 contests.

[George Hay]

Generally, I don't like to see ties, but the double tie to Contest 47 is an exception, as it contained four high quality problems that made it hard for me to decide which one to vote for! Congratulations on a Tie for First Place to Leo Springer with Impossible and Roy Little with Slow, Fast & Watch Out. Congratulations on a Tie for Third Place to Ed Atkinson with Houdini and Bill Salot with Guard Change.

--George Hay