(30.06.2013) The 5th ChessProblems.ca Thematic Tournament requires original chess compositions employing the Back-Home fairy condition, recently invented by Nicolas Dupont.

Entries should be submitted to the tourney director, Nicolas Dupont, via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The closing date is December 31st, 2013.

The tournament sections and judges are as follows:

Section 1: Help and Help-Self

Any type of help and help-self stipulations. Fairy units are allowed, but no additional fairy conditions.

Judges: Vlaicu Crisan and Eric Huber (Romania).

Section 2: Series-Movers

Any type of series and parry-series stipulations. Additional fairy conditions are allowed, but no fairy units.

Judge: Paul Raican (Romania).

Section 3: Proof Games

No fairy units or additional conditions are allowed.

Judge: Michel Caillaud (France).

Back-Home definition: If a piece can legally move to the square it occupied in the diagram position, it must move to this back-home square. Back-home moves are prevalent to the virtual capture of the opponent King by any piece, i.e. checks are fairy. If more back-home moves are possible, the side-on-move chooses which move to play.

The back-home square of a Pawn which is promoted during the solution is the initial diagram square of this Pawn.

Back-Home compositions can be veried with WinChloe version 3.24 (the French name of the condition is “Retour”) and we hope that Popeye support will be added soon. Entries in Section 1 and 2 must be C+. Each submitted proof game must be at least back-home legal; to ensure this, please scan your intended solution using the WinChloe's command “Mode Redaction”.

Thematic examples:

BH1: 1.Gd3 Bc4 2.Gb5 Bb3 3.Gb2 Rh7 4.Gg7 Rh3 5.Ge5 Rd3 6.f5 Bd5#

BH2: 1.e1B 2.Ba3 b2 3.Kc2 b1Q 3.Bc1 Qb3#

BH3: 1.Sxb6 2.Sxa6 3.Rxd7 4.Rc7 5.Kb8 6.Sa4 7.Sb4 8.Rf7 9.Rf1#

BH4: 1.g7 2.Bg6 3.g8R 4.Rf8 5.Rf5 6.Be8 7.Bb5 8.c6=

BH5: 1.e4 a5 2.e5 a4 3.e6 Ra5 4.Ba6 Re5+ 5.Se2 d5 6.0-0 Qd6 7.exf7+ Kd7

8.f4 Qb4 9.f5 Kc6 10.Kf2 Kb6 11.Rh1 Ka7 12.Sg1 Ka8 13.Bf1 Bd7 14.Ke1 (C+ using a non official solving program)