Summary of Tehtäväniekka 1/2025

The cover art celebrates the 90th anniversary of our society, founded in the 7th of February, 1935. See p. 8 and pay also attention to our web page, which in 2025 presents monthly a Finnish composition to honour the history of Finnish chess composition.

The annual meeting of ST took place on 15th of February 2025, see pp. 4–7. Our membership and subscription fees remain the same as in 2024, see p. 7. The Finnish Solving Championship, held on the same day, attracted 20 solvers. See pp. 10–14 for the report, results, problems, and their solutions.

The 21st ISC (International Solving Contest) took place on 19th of January 2025. A short report is on p. 9 with three examples, one from each group, and the results of the Finnish participants.

Neal Turner has compiled recent successes by Finnish composers, see pp. 15–18. Further on this page are the significant birthdays of Finnish problemists in 2025. Congratulations!

The Finnish Chess Problem of the Year 2024 was chosen by Hannu Harkola, Pauli Perkonoja and Janne Syväniemi. They evaluated 15 compositions from nine composers, see pp. 19–20 for the top three. On p. 20 we invite you to our spring meeting in the beginning of April.

Hannu Harkola introduces us to helpselfmates on pp. 21–22 and Henry Tanner presents additional information on this topic on pp. 22–23. On the latter page Neal Turner presents another Paha Pähkinä, a true challenge for solvers. On the next two pages Henry Tanner informs on the Technical Excellence Challenge and presents Finnish successes in the 2nd edition of this competition. On p. 26 we have compositions dedicated to problemists for their significant birthdays.

The originals columns are on pp. 27–39 and our back cover shows photos from the Finnish Solving Championship.

The next issue is due to appear in May of 2025.