Summary of Tehtäväniekka 2/2026

Our cover composition won 100 years ago a JT to honour the oldest Finnish chess club, Helsinki Chess Club, founded in 1886. The composer Julius Gunst was born 130 years ago, in 1896, so there are three reasons to publish this classical study. See p. 94 for the solution.

The European Championship in Solving was held in Skopje, North Macedonia, in the beginning of May. See pp. 56–65 for a report on the event, followed by relevant information on the competition. Only two Finnish solvers participated, so there was no chance for success in the team competition. However, our solvers did reasonably well by finishing ahead of four teams and by winning an individual gold in the seniors’ competition. We hope that in future competitions we will have more solvers to allow us a chance in the team event.

The spring meeting of our society took place during the first weekend of May. The program included competitions in solving and composing, discussions and lectures. Eleven problemists participated in this pleasant meeting, see pp. 65–66 for a short report. On p. 66 you are invited to test your solving skills with Paha pähkinä No. 108, selected by Neal Turner. He presents a h#4 with two solutions – can you find one of them or even both?

This issue includes three awards, and the first one is for studies published in 2025, see pp. 67–72. The second one is for fairy chess problems published in 2023, see pp. 73–83. The third one is for selfmates published in 2022–2023, pp. 83–89. We are very grateful to the judges for their valuable work and congratulate the successful composers! For each award, there is a claims period for three months. In the next pages Neal continues his valuable work in compiling recently successful Finnish compositions, see pp. 90–93.

The originals columns start from p. 94 and offer a wide variety of originals in different genres. We do welcome your compositions, please contact the editors of the columns!

The next issue is due to appear in early September.