Contest 25 Underway

[Bill Salot]

Unofficial World Championship Checker Problem Composing Contest Number 25 was activated this morning and has already received several visitors, but no votes yet. After you review them, please come back and press the voting button for the one you like best. It will help determine whether composer Roy Little retains his crown.

The original, unpublished problems in Contest 25 demonstrate a drastic change in style, one that is both solvable and satisfying when solved. Go ahead and push the pieces around (nobody is looking). If you get impatient or frustrated, or to check your solution, go to the animation. A couple of the entries ended in circular jumps which baffled the animator, so the final jumps are not animated, but they are obvious when you get to that point.

Enjoy!

[George Hay]

The contest composers outdid themselves in Contest 25!

--George Hay

[tgf]

Lone Ranger is phenomenal!

[jeff webster]

Thanks Bill, all of them are great, I encourage anyone to look

[JR Smith]

They are all excellent problems, its just a coin flip. I really enjoy this part of ACF, thanks Bill for providing these problem and entertaining us.

[tgf]

The contests are far and beyond a simple effort, one can only imagine the skills required to program the animation.
But it seems Bill has access to only the contests area of the ACF site, otherwise he would have fixed all those non-working links.

[Bill Salot]

Here are the Contest 25 Results:

The four contest entries were considered equal going in. But the voters saw differences that propelled two of them far ahead of the pack. In all 4 problems, a lone White King captured all of the opposing pieces, executing a 6-piece sweep in the process.

Dutch treat, by Netherlands resident Leo Springer, his second win in two tries, and Lone Ranger, by Bill Salot, tied for first with 6 votes each. They had the fewest Red Kings, but the most total Red pieces.

Dutch Treat offered Hobson’s Choices twice, and ended with one piece beating two. Lone Ranger was biggest and longest, and its White King traveled farthest; from 1 to 28.

Third with 2 votes was Thirteen, by Ed Atkinson. It had a sextuple jump from 13 to 13 on the 13th move.

Trailing with 1 vote was Northwind, by Roy Little, who relinquishes his title.

The number of contest visitors increased to 318.

[George Hay]

That was a great contest, full of surprises to the very end!
On the last day of voting it was a tie, with one vote cast on the last day.
It was a tie breaker for third place!

--George Hay