Our cover problem is the first of its kind: the First Finnish Chess Problem of the Year. The decision to establish this recognition was made in the end of last year. Henry´s problem, with solution, as well as the problems ranked 2nd and 3rd are on pp. 15–16.
The annual meeting of our society took place on February 22, 2014. The most significant decisions were that Hannu Harkola was elected as the new Treasurer and the solving competition of our magazine will not continue. The latter means that the solutions will be published in the same issue with the original compositions. The main reasons for this are the decreasing number of solvers and the wish to have more up-to-date information in our magazine. We sincerely hope that this will not decrease the interest in our magazine and the original compositions, on the contrary! The report of the annual meeting, the report of activity in 2013 and financial data are on pp. 4–7.
The Finnish Championship of Solving of Chess Problems was held a few hours before the annual meeting. There were 17 solvers competing with most of Finnish top solvers present. The result and report by the winner Kari Karhunen are on p. 8, the problems and their solutions on pp. 9–10. Remarkably, Hannu Harkola achieved his first medal in these solving events and his second ever in any national championships. As you surely knew, he was the otb Finnish Junior Champion in 1961, which is some time ago!
The award of three-movers, published in TN in 2012–2013, is on p. 11.
Unfortunately, the judge Hans Gruber did not have too many problems to be judged
– please make a difference to this situation for the future by contributing
originals to the column editor.
Announcements to the European Championship in Solving and to the World Congress
of Chess Composition are on p. 12. The report on the recently concluded ISC,
International Solving Contest, starts from this page and ends on p. 15.
Paha pähkinä, Tough Nut to Crack, is on the p. 16. The composers are well known Grandmasters of Composition and they have produced a potentially tricky 4#, or what is your opinion?
The Study of the Year is an international recognition and this year the honours go to the Israeli chess professional with his 2nd Prize winner from the Jan Timman 60 JT. This most enjoyable study can be found on p. 16, where is also the invitation to the spring meeting of our society, to take place in April 12–13, 2014. If you are interested, please contact the secretary of ST.
On the next pages Grandmaster solver Kari Valtonen continues his research on the Nowotny theme with a comprehensive selection of examples. There is plenty of enjoyable and educative text available on pp. 18–25.
The report on the annual autumn meeting of ST in 2013 is on p. 26. The quick composing competition was for any kind of problems showing the exchange of places of two pieces, not Pawns, of the same colour. The winner by Terho Marlo shows the theme thrice in an interesting way. On the same report we have the first problem by Vilka Sipilä, showing the same theme. Vilka is an otb IM and has won the Finnish Championship in over-the-board play.
The original compositions columns start on p. 27. As mentioned earlier, the solving competition does not continue, which means that we will publish the solutions of the last issues of the year 2013 in this and future TN issues, as well as the solutions to originals published in the respective issue. Here, the solutions with comments to this issue´s originals are on pp. 41–46.
The next issue is due to appear before the start of the summer.
Published 1st April 2014