Summary of Tehtäväniekka 1/2020
The annual meeting of our society took place in February 15, 2020. The report on the meeting and other related material are on pp. 4–7. The Finnish Solving Championship was held on the same day, see pp. 8–12. We were happy to have several strong foreign participants. The future GM solver Aleksey Popov from Russia won with an excellent score, just ahead of his compatriot Maxim Romanov. The best Finnish participant was Kari Karhunen with a 3rd place. On the cover photo we have the happy medallists. There was also a B-group for less experienced solvers, won by Vihan Velagapudi, as in 2019.
On p. 6 we inform you on the subscription fees: if you are a paying subscriber, please do not forget to pay either 25 EUR (within Finland) or 28 EUR (foreign subscribers). On the same page we invite problemists to the spring meeting of our society, due to take place in April. The tradition to organise spring and autumn meetings is surprisingly long, because this will be the 60th meeting!
The Finnish Chess Problem of the Year 2019 has been chosen. The expert jury, consisting of Mikael Grönroos, Hannu Harkola, Unto Heinonen and Pauli Perkonoja had 15 compositions to evaluate. According to the rules, one composer may participate with no more than three compositions. See pp. 13–14 for the top three compositions.
The International Solving Contest, ISC, took place on January 26, 2020. The report and results of 13 Finnish participants are on pp. 11–12. Ten solvers participated in the group A, two in group B and one in group C. For the problems, solutions and complete results, see the Mat Plus web site http://www.matplus.net/isc.php.
Several Finnish problemists celebrate their significant birthdays in 2020, see p. 14 for details. On p. 25 we have dedication problems for some jubilants.
In TN 4/2016 we announced three composing competitions to honour Finnish problemists, who were born in 1916: Jan Hannelius, Antti G. Ojanen and Osmo Kaila. See pp. 15–24 for the awards. Thank you for the judges and congratulations to the successful composers!
A Tough Nut to Crack, selected by Neal Turner, provides challenges for even the best solvers, see p. 24. Ten recently successful Finnish compositions are on pp. 26–29. Thanks to Neal for compiling the material and congratulations to the composers!
On p. 30 we pay attention to a recent competition for young solvers in three age groups. Two young Finns participated in this event, which took place in Tallinn, Estonia, in the end of last year in connection to the European Championship in Rapid and Blitz. The organisers had named this as the European Youth Championship in Solving Chess Problems.
Joose Norri writes about Henri Rinck, born in 1870, on pp. 30–31, and about Gerhard W. Jensch on pp. 32–33. Kari Valtonen has judged the three-movers of Tehtäväniekka 2016–2019, see pp. 34–38. Our Israeli friend Paz Einat was recently recruited to judge the two-movers of TN 2010–2013, see pp. 39–45. Thank you for both judges!
The originals columns are on pp. 46–55. You are more than welcome to send your originals to the editors of the columns.
The next issue is due to appear in the start of the summer.
Published 17th March 2020
