The composition on the cover won the first prize in Harri Hurme 70 JT, a composing competition with the theme “Rose, twin”. The award by the jubilee is on pp. 22–30. Any stipulation and any kind of twinning were allowed. Of 17 entries, 10 made it to the award.
As usual, the first issue of the year starts with traditional events from the year´s first months. The first one is the ISC. The results of the ten Finnish participants, eight solving in Helsinki and two abroad, are on p. 10. For the problems, solutions and all results, see the Mat Plus web site http://www.matplus.net/isc.php
The invitation to the spring meeting of our society for the second weekend in April is on p. 10.
The annual meeting of our society took place in February 25, 2017. The report on the meeting and other related material are on pp. 4–7. The Finnish Championship in Solving was held on the same day, see. pp. 8–9 and 11–12. The competition was, as in 2016, a part of the World Solving Cup. In a tight race the young and promising Alexey Popov of Russia managed to win the event ahead of Kari Karhunen. They had equal points, but Alexey was seven minutes quicker. The 3rd place went to Joose Norri. The problems, selected by Neal Turner, were perhaps not as difficult as they often have been, or what is your opinion?
We are happy to publish the award of 3#s published in 2014–2015 in Tehtäväniekka. The judge, Martin Hoffman from Switzerland, did expert work, see pp. 12–13.
The Finnish Chess Problem of the Year 2016 was selected by four knowledgeable Finnish problemists: Unto Heinonen, Harri Hurme, Pauli Perkonoja and Janne Syväniemi. The title was given to a 4# by Jorma Paavilainen, published in the issue of 2/2016 of our magazine. See pp. 14–15 for the top three compositions.
A Tough Nut to Crack translates into Finnish roughly as Paha Pähkinä. It is selected by Neal Turner, see p. 15. This h#7 with two solutions baffled all solvers in a recent Belgian Solving Championship. On the same page we share the announcement of Jan Timman 65 JT.
Recently successful Finnish compositions are on pp. 16–18. Thanks to Neal Turner for compiling the material and congratulations to the successful composers! On p. 18 we list Finnish problemists celebrating their significant birthdays this year.
Henry Tanner revives – at least for this time – the so-called 4-corner project, which is for any kind of compositions in which all corners of the chessboard are occupied. In addition to Henry, we are glad to see Roméo Bédoni, Sébastien Luce and Terho Marlo to have fresh ideas in this field. See pp. 19–22.
Kari Valtonen continues his series of articles by discussing chess problem terminology and definitions. This time Kari presents us terms starting in Finnish with either W, X or Y. Obviously, many such terms are based on the names of foreign composers and/or foreign terms, see pp. 31–42.
On the following page we pay tribute to Aatos Fred, who was born 100 years ago, on April 11, 1917. He was a very strong player, representing Finland in seven Chess Olympiads between 1952 and 1964. Fred published at least about 20 compositions.
The originals columns are on pp. 45–59. Please, note that we publish the entries of three 100 MTs, announced in Tehtäväniekka 4/2016, in the originals columns. You are most welcome to participate or to send your originals!
The next issue is due to appear in the start summer.
Published 21st March 2017