The first issue of the year 2013 starts with reports on three traditional events,
held in the beginning of the calendar year. Both the annual meeting of Suomen
tehtäväniekat and the Finnish Solving Championship took place in Helsinki
on February 23, 2013. The cover photo is from the start of the solving competition,
with familiar and perhaps not so familiar faces.
The annual meeting of our society dealt with the past year by approving the
proceedings and the fnancial statements of the year 2012. There was a significant
deficit of more than 500 EUR. This is a slightly worrying sign, hopefully we
can make a better result in 2013.
Usually the board of ST has been re-elected rather quickly in these annual meetings.
This year was a notable exception, as our long-time Treasurer Kauko Virtanen
had decided that enough is enough and left his post for the next generation.
Kenneth Solja is our new Treasurer and Kauko, after a service of 31 years, was
heartily thanked for his devoted work. He will still continue to assist, if
necessary, and manages the subscriptions of foreign chess magazines to ST members.
Thank you, Kauko!
The Finnish Solving Championship, held just before the meeting, was won by Joose
Norri. The problems proved to be quite a challenge for solvers. See pp. 8-10
for results, problems and their solutions - and check out how you would have
managed!
The end of last year witnessed untimely deaths of several prominent problemists:
Tony Lewis, Dan Meinking, Leif Schmidt, Christopher Reeves and Sergei Shedei
passed away the last few months of 2012. The life of Serbian GM Milan Velimirovic
came to an end on February 25, 2013. See p. 11 for Hannu Harkola´s text.
The 9th International Solving Contest, ISC, took place on January 27, 2013.
ISC is held simultaneously all over the globe. In Finland we had one venue,
the Chess Arena in Helsinki. The competition was directed by Axel Steinbrink
and every participating country had local controllers responsible for their
country´s competition arrangement. In Finland, this task was once again,
entrusted to Neal Turner. ISC results, problems and solutions are on pp. 12-15.
We arranged also a lightweight solving competition in the beginning of January,
targeted mainly for less experienced solvers and otb players. See p. 12 for
an example of this competition.
Joose Norri has been inspired by the Jenever study composing competition in
Jesi WFCC congress 2011, requiring for white and black B-promotion. See pp.
16-17.
Kari Valtonen delights us with a historical survey dealing with the early two-movers.
See pp. 18-28 for many interesting problems, seeds for future development. Kari
has himself written an excellent summary in English, relieving the editor-in-chief
the trouble of expressing the core of his interesting article.
The annual spring meeting of ST takes place at an earlier date than usually,
March 16-17. The choice of this time is explained by the fact that Hans Gruber
is currently in Finland and able to participate in our meeting as the first
foreigner ever. There will be possibilities for composing, solving, listening
or giving lectures on various topics, discussions etc. And, of course, we have
the Finnish sauna reserved for us and our special guest. If you are interested
in participating such meeting in future, please contact us.
The originals columns on pp. 29-41 offer the traditional menu: orthodox mates,
studies, helpmates, selfmates, fairy chess problems and retros. The column editors
are always happy to receive your entries, so please contribute! Some columns
suffer from the lack of entries, some do not.
The next issue is due to appear in late spring.
Published 11th March 2013