В Альбом ФИДЕ отобрано 179 этюдов.
Директор: Мартин Мински.
Судьи: Стеффен Нильсен, Арпад Рус, Бранислав Джурашевич (2/3), Ян Шпренгер (1/3). Сербский судья не смог закончить свою работу вовремя, и был заменен более шустрым и строгим немцем.
Запасной судья Йоханан Афек оценивал 15 этюдов.
По итогам Альбома чемпион мира стал гроссмейстером.
Thank you for the statistics, Serhiy.
The album is, in my view, at a high level. The arrival of Didukh at the FA and a very productive triennium by Nielsen make a difference with the FA 2016-18. Also composers whose name is not Nielsen, Pervakov, Didukh or Minski made very interesting contributions. The album is therefore not only stronger, but also more diverse than its predecessor: it represents a variety of styles and approaches to study composition, implemented at high level. Note that this result has been reached despite a relatively high percentage of selected studies: 20,5%.
Of course, there are some weaker studies, too, but most of them sneaked in at the WCCI. The FA judges could do anything about that.
The process is not perfect, of course. With 1000 studies to judge, slight inaccuracies and inconsistencies are inevitable, and half a point more or less often makes the difference. I was certainly a bit lucky this time with four 8-pointers (but also two studies left out with 7,5 points). Others told me that they were disappointed, and I can see why. But overall, I think that there were no gross injustices. One can argue that some authors deserved 2-3 studies more, and others perhaps 1-2 studies less, but if this the range we are talking about, I think the judges (well, mostly, Steffen, Arpad and Branislav) did a good job. Compare the scandal at the FA 2013-15…
Director removed the obstacle-judge and the main plan worked well.
We have two new Super GMs ( >100 points ).
And the 4-time WC is a 3-time GM now.