Summary of Tehtäväniekka 3/2018
The composer of our cover problem, Eero Saarenheimo, passed away at the age of 99 on July 16, 2018. Saarenheimo published his first composition in 1935, see the first 2# on p. 111. His career as a composer lasted until 1959, the selfmate on p. 112 was his last published composition. He was the secretary of our society in 1937–1939, until the WWII broke out. After the war Saarenheimo had finished his history studies at the university and started to work as a teacher of history. In 1952 he moved to the Finnish Broadcasting Company. As he later explained, his work demanded a lot of time and energy, pushing composing slowly aside. In 1999 our society published his book Ruutulaudan lumoissa, roughly translated as Under the Spell of the Chess Board. It includes a description of the history of chess composition in Finland and a selection of Saarenheimo’s compositions. During his retirement, he wrote several high-class books on history and culture. Saarenheimo received the title of a professor in 1979. See pp. 111–113 for an obituary and three compositions dedicated to his memory.
The first pages of this issue deal with the Ohrid WFCC meeting, which took place during the first week of September. We publish the results of the open solving competition and of the World Championship competition, a selection of successful problems in composing competitions and reports on official decisions, solving events and general impressions. See pp. 96–110.
The autumn meeting of our society takes place in the last weekend of October. There will be, for example, lectures, solving and composing events and discussions. See p. 110 for the invitation. The award for helpmates in 2–3 moves, published in our magazine during the years 2015–2016, is on pp. 114–118. Many thanks to Michal Dragoun for his expert work!
Paha Pähkinä, A Tough Nut to Crack, can be found on p. 118. Recently successful Finnish compositions are on pp. 119–122. Thanks to Neal Turner for compiling the material and congratulations to the composers of these ten compositions! It is nice to see a successful Finnish study by Pauli Perkonoja & Harri Hurme. Has Timo Kallio, who has not published a lot lately, made a comeback with two successes in The Problemist?
In the originals column we have a h#3 by Unto Heinonen, see p. 130. In the three solutions, all mating moves arrive to the square of the Black king in the diagram position. Harry Fougiaxis, our tireless helpmate editor, searched the WinChloe database for other examples, see pp. 123–125. There are many methods of presenting the general idea, as a close examination will reveal.
Joose Norri writes of the Black dual, see pp. 126–127. The concept is controversial, for example, in selfmates: is it a dual if there is more than one mating move for Black? Obviously, there are such cases, as Joose demonstrates with his third example. If there would be a single dual, the whole cyclic idea would suffer. But what about the first composition, is 5.- Qxd2/Rxd2# a dual or not?
The originals columns are on pp. 128–138. You are most welcome to send your brightest ideas to our column editors, see the columns for contact information.
The next issue is due to appear in December.
Published 16th October 2018
