News from Bern, (6), Friday

In the morning the delegates of the countries had a meeting for last decisions. The next World Congress for Chess Composition (58th WCCC) will be held in Ostróda in Poland from 01 thru 08 of August 2015. The Ostróda is a small city with developing tourism due to the lakes of the area. (The other candidate, Burgas in Bulgaria, did not gather enough votes).

After the meal, the presentation of titles for new Masters and of results for the composing tourneys started. The Greek solver Nikos Mendrinos become FIDE Master in Solving, (among many others).

Every composing tourney is related with a country. The Award contains Prizes, Honourable Mentions, Commendations, and some presents are given to composers. The best (among the Congress participants) receives a bottle with drink of the related country, and the next receive books, t-shirts, pottery items, dolls etc.. The tourneys are named accordingly : French Champagne, Japanese Sake, Romanian Juika.
Until last year the Greece was present with a Metaxa Brandy tourney, but the organizer Pavlos Moutecidis did not come to Bern.

For the Greek composers, as you can see in the Congress Bulletin (http://www.kunstschach.ch/wccc2014/docs/WCCC2014_Berne_Booklet.pdf) ...

Mr Themis Argirakopoulos received from the Romanians Vlaicu Crişan and Eric Huber the second Prize in Juika tourney (fairy section).

Mr Emmanuel Manolas received
1) Commendation from the German Hans Peter Rehm in the Quick Composing tourney (three hours).
2) Commendation from the Japanese Tadashi Wakashima in the Sake tourney.
3) Commendation from the Bulgarian Diyan Kostadinov in the Bulgarian Wine tourney.

Mr Kostas Prentos is the best solver and the best composer we have. (Well done Kostas!). He surpassed his previous record (it was 9 problems awarded in the bulletin) and received three bottles with drinks and other presents with eleven (11) awarded problems in the Congress buletin, namely
1) Commendation from the German Hans Peter Rehm in the Quick Composing tourney (three hours).
2) First Prize from the French Michel Caillaud in the Champagne tourney.
3) Third Honourable Mention in the Champagne tourney.
4) Commendation from the Israeli Menachem Witztum in the Sampra tourney.
5) Fourth Prize from the Japanese Tadashi Wakashima in the Sake tourney.
6) Second Honourable Mention in the Sake tourney.
7) Third Honourable Mention in the Sake tourney.
8) Fourth Honourabe Mention in the Sake tourney.
9) Commendation in the Sake tourney.
10) Sixth Prize from the Bulgarian Diyan Kostadinov in the Bulgarian Wine tourney.
11) Second Honourable Mention in the Bulgarian Wine tourney.

In the afternoon we were invited by Mayor of Bern. He presented with humor the city of Bern, which holds the same face the last five hundred years, and he offered sausages, wine and refreshments.

The farewell dinner was held inside a military gymnastics room, which was converted to a restaurant, and the last prizes were given to veterans and organizers.