Judge J.Sprenger: “I received 37 studies from the Directors in anonymous form and would like to thank them for checking anticipations. Composing a fresh and original malyutka is not easy nowadays since most (if not all) tactical and strategical motives with so few pieces have been explored. Therefore, I focused on studies where different motives are successfully combined, or where the solution improves our understanding of the underlying material constellation. Given that the genre is tough, I was pleasantly surprised to see several good studies that could also compete in ordinary tournaments. In the end, I included 15 studies into the award (three prizes, five honorable mentions and seven commendations), a percentage of slightly above 40%”.
Cirtdan 2024
