Summary of Tehtäväniekka 4/2018

Our cover problem is a tribute to Neal Turner, who celebrates his 70th birthday on December 19, 2018. Neal, living in Finland for several decades, has been active in many fields of chess composition. He has been a successful tournament director in solving and composing competitions, also abroad. Neal has composed in different genres, recently especially fairies, edits the popular column Paha Pähkinä and is the librarian of our society. See pp. 156–158 for a selection of his compositions, followed by dedication problems for him.

Our society´s annual meeting of 2019 takes place on February 23. On the same day we have the Finnish Championship in Solving, see p. 144. For an invitation in English, please visit the WFCC website, as the competition is a part of the Solving World Cup.

Finland celebrated its 100 years of independence in 2018. We contributed with a team composing match against the Netherlands, announced in December 2017. The awards and results can be found on pp. 146–154. Our Dutch friends won the match convincingly. Congratulations!

The autumn meeting of our society took place during the last weekend of October. There were 11 participants, see p. 155. The program included composing, lectures, discussions and solving. No points for guessing who directed the solving competition… The quick composing competition was for any kind of compositions with unpin avoidance: in the try there is an unpin, in the solution the unpin is avoided.

On p. 158 we have compositions dedicated to the memory of Eero Saarenheimo, who passed away recently, see the previous issue. On the next page we have a set of seven compositions, all mate in seven and with seven pieces, dedicated to Pauli Perkonoja, who turned 77 in July.

A calendar of international and domestic events for 2019 is on p. 160, followed by the award of Janne Syväniemi 50 JT. The competition was for helpmates in three or more moves without twinning and with an odd number of solutions. 32 entries were received, and the top honour went to GM Unto Heinonen.

Michel Caillaud has both cooked and corrected an old composition of his, using the recently developed computer program Jacobi, see p. 169. Kari Valtonen continues his articles and deals this time with Pickaninny, see pp. 170–180. Plenty of material for enjoyment and education, once again! It is worth noticing that with the kind permission of Kari, Hannu Harkola has made 35 articles of Kari available in the internet, see p. 169.

The originals columns start on p. 181. Your contributions to the columns are welcome! Paha Pähkinä, a Tough Nut to Crack, selected by Neal Turner, offers a rewarding mate in three on p. 191.

Thank you, dear readers, for the year 2018! The next issue is due to appear in March 2019.

Published 10th December 2018