Our cover problem honours Henry Tanner, well known both in Finland and abroad. Henry turns 60 on April 20. We have a short article on him on p. 20, trying to describe his extensive activity as a composer, solver, researcher, writer etc. Henry´s large collection of chess composition publications has been most useful to many Finns. On p. 21 you will find dedication problems to celebrate the anniversaries of this spring´s jubilees.
The ISC, International Solving Contest, was held on January 25. In Finland the venue was Chess Arena in Helsinki. The same venue hosted also the annual meeting of our society on February 21. The report on the meeting and the annual report of ST are on pp. 4–7. Before the meeting the Finnish Solving Championship took place, with a set of problems selected by Kari Valtonen. Kari Karhunen won convincingly, see pp. 8–11. The Finnish ISC results are on p. 10.
On p. 11 we pay attention to the 75th birthday of Leo Lahdenmäki, a long-time ST member and auditor of our society. Henry Tanner has composed a clever dedication problem to the jubilee. His initials LL refer also to the pair of bishops, prominent in this helpmate in 7,5. On p. 13 you have a comprehensive list of this year´s Finnish problemists celebrating their significant birthdays.
The Finnish Chess Problem of the Year 2014 has been selected. The honour goes to Janne Syväniemi with his 1st Prize winner in Eero Saarenheimo 95 JT. See pp. 12–13 for the top three and also TN 4–5/2014 for more information on the winning problem.
The themes, some theme examples and most important information on the recently announced 10th WCCT are on pp. 14–19.
The spring meeting of ST takes place on April 11–12, see the invitation on p. 19. Our society has had weekend meetings twice a year since the late 1980s and this is the 50th such meeting.
On pp. 22–33 Kari Valtonen focuses his research on an idea with many names: vacation, clearance, unblock, anti-block, annihilation. Essential reading for anyone interested in chess composition theory!
The founding meeting of ST took place on February 7, 1935. This means that our society is now 80 years of age, but still going strong. See. p. 33 for a small article on this event, which we will otherwise pass without celebrations.
Janne Syväniemi became interested in the Umnov theme in the Crete congress in 2010, and developed the idea further for the threemovers section of the 9th WCCT. The idea to combine Umnov with Laitinen theme was certainly ambitious and did not quite lead to a satisfactory result – but it was a close call! See pp. 34–36.
The originals columns are on pp. 37–47. We are very happy to have a new helpmate editor, as Harry Fougiaxis kindly volunteered to edit this column. Please, contribute to all of our originals sections!
Neal Turner has once again selected a tricky solving challenge for his Paha pähkinä, A Tough Nut to Crack. See p. 47 and check if your estimation of a difficulty corresponds with Neal´s. On the same page we present a new booklet presenting dedication compositions by Jorma Pitkänen.
The next issue is due to appear in the summer of 2015.
Published 1st April 2015