The second issue of 2013 starts with the report on our society´s spring
meeting, held in the end of April. For the first time ever we had a foreign
guest at our spring or autumn meetings, because Hans Gruber was able to participate.
There was a good turnout of 17 participants, who enjoyed composing, solving,
lectures and various competitions. It was also a pleasure to learn of a traditional
Finnish farm, which has successfully turned into a modern enterprise with many
products with health benefits. See p. 48 for more information and consider participating
our autumn meeting in the end of October at the same place, invitation on p.
85. The cover photo shows a glimpse of the main hall in which the spring meeting
took place.
The 9th ECSC was held in Vilnius, Lithuania, in April. The event ran smoothly
and offered a nice possibility to meet problemists from many European countries.
The report with results, problems and their solutions is on pp. 49-55. The Finnish
success story continued, as Harri Hurme won the Senior Championship for the
second successive year. Congratulations! Kari Karhunen solved steadily and well,
managing to reach the top ten in both Open competition as well as in the ECSC.
Our team finished seventh of 17 participating teams, which was neither a disaster
nor a great triumph.
As well known, the next major international solving event is the WCSC in Batumi,
Georgia in the end of September.
Kari Valtonen has researched the history of chess and chess problems, as the
reader may be able to check by studying his article on pp. 56-65. There are
plenty of material and illustrative problems, resulting in a most interesting
article!
Our regular collaborator Henry Tanner noticed some time ago a problem from an
old newspaper, was dated February 15, 1914. The composer was referred to as
"A.M.S.", no other data on his identity was revealed. The problem,
S1 in Henry´s article on p. 66, is a nice 2# with a flight-giving key
and a cross-check variation. This problem is not in databases such as WinChloe
or YACPDB. Based on his investigations Henry concludes that the composer has
to be Arthur M. Sparke. Henry´s article on pp. 66-72 ends with an English
summary and three questions for our readers, asking for more information. We
hope that you enjoy also this historical survey!
On pp. 72-73 Per Olin asks for WFCC to change and/or refine the categorization
of chess compositions. Henry Tanner responds to Per´s article on pp. 73-75.
There is surely more discussion to follow, so stay tuned!
The column Paha Pähkinä on p.75, edited by Neal Turner and presenting
solving challenges, shows this time a simple-looking helpmate in three. It is
an elegant and well constructed composition - and anything but easy to solve.
On the next page we have the award of a national composing competition for compositions
using the pieces of Shatranj, an early version of chess. There was only one
entry, but that was a good one and deserved a prize in the award of Henry Tanner
and Aaro Jalas, the initiator of this competition.
The originals columns on pp. 76-85 consist of orthodox mates, studies, selfmates,
fairy chess problems and retros. This time there is no helpmate column nor solvers´
scores, but the next issue will correct this shortcoming.The column editors
are always happy to receive your entries, so please contribute!
The next issue is due to appear in autumn.
Published 30st July 2013