Summary of Tehtäväniekka 3/2023
Our cover is a tribute to Kauko Virtanen, who died on 24th of July 2023 at the age of 91. Kauko published his first composition in 1951, worked for our society for several decades, wrote chess columns, judged composing competitions, organised events and encouraged generations of composers. He was known also abroad, as he was twice a director of a FIDE Album section, in addition to his compositions. The cover is one of his early efforts. For the solution, see p. 102.
Kari Valtonen has selected nine compositions by Kauko, see pp. 104–108. The most famous are 1, 7 and 8, but all are worth studying. On the next pages Kari writes about Kauko’s vibrant personality, see pp. 108–110. Finally, nine composers leave their farewell with compositions on pp. 110–111. On p. 111 ST announces Kauko Virtanen MT, please reprint, and participate!
Risto Pohjonen was born on 27th of June 1923 and died in 2005. On p. 112 Henry Tanner presents his activity and two examples of his composing, the second one is chosen by Teppo Mänttä.
The 16th ECSC in Bratislava included, of course, the traditional Open solving and the ECSC, but also interesting competitions of new types, which were welcome additions. See 113–114 for Terho Marlo’s report and pp. 115–121 for the results, problems, and solutions. The invitation to the autumn meeting of our society is on p. 117, feel free to participate!
The more-movers published in our magazine in 2016–2019 have been judged by Terho Marlo, see the award on pp. 122–124. Neal Turner has picked a difficult composition for solvers, see Paha Pähkinä on p. 124. On the next pages we have an interesting article by Antonio Tarnawiecki about short threats in more-movers. His interest was first aroused by György Bakcsi’s compositions and recently other composers have used this kind of a tool, as you will see on pp. 125–127. Solving a 3# by Otto Wurzburg gave Paavo Tikka an idea to compose an elegant and economical 4#. However, after finishing composing his search for anticipations unearthed a complete predecessor by Yevgeni Bogdanov, see p. 128.
On pages 129–131 we are happy to present ten recently successful Finnish compositions, compiled by Neal Turner. A strong OTB player and a long-time chess enthusiast Ilmari Brander died in June at the age of 83, see p. 132 for two compositions to honour his legacy.
The originals sections start from p. 133 and offer a wide variety. For this issue we decided to skip the studies, but this is only a temporary setback. Your originals and contributions are most welcome, as always! On p. 136 you can find a list of the Finnish compositions selected in the FIDE Album 2019–2021, in which the selection process is almost finished. On p. 138 & 142 we have the updated list of FIDE Album points of Finnish composers, in alphabetical order.
The next issue is due to appear in December.