Our cover problem is dedicated to OTB Grandmaster Heikki Westerinen. He is internationally surely the best known Finnish chess player with a very long career, including 18 participations in Chess Olympiads! Westerinen, who turned 70 on April 27, 2014, has for a long time been a member of our society. The dedication problem has a strong symbolism with pieces in the initial position forming the letter W and the final position being, of course, the letter H. See p. 59.
The European Championship in solving took place in May in Igalo, Montenegro. The results, problems and solutions are on pages 52–59. For the Finnish team the ECSC was anything but a success.
The sudden death of Paul Valois is a loss to the international community of chess composers and obviously especially to the British Chess Problem Society. On p. 66 we have a short obituary and a problem by Paul.
The oldest member of our society, Eero Saarenheimo, turns 95 years on June 21, 2014. On p. 60 you can find his first published problem from the year 1935 and a nice dedication problem by Hannu Harkola. Saarenheimo is celebrated by a national composing competition, which is announced also on p. 60.
Grandmaster Kari Valtonen, who won the World Championship of solving in 1984, is a versatile and active problemist. In this issue we are able to enjoy the results of Kari´s research on the en passant capture, see pp. 67–77.
Kari turned 60 in April 26, 2014. We have three dedication problems and three problems by Kari himself on pp. 61–63, accompanied by an article on Kari, his main achievements up to date and his meaning for the Finnish composing scene.
Aarne Dunder was born on June 11, 1914. As a composer he became known for his studies, but this is only a small part of his life´s work for chess. For example, Dunder edited chess columns for several decades, introducing several generations of Finns to chess composition. Henry Tanner remembers Aarne Dunder on p. 63–65 and shows three little known compositions by him.
Leo Valve is another Finnish problemist, who was born in 1914. His life ended already in 1952. On the back cover page of this issue you can find the photos of Dunder, Saarenheimo, Valve and Valtonen.
The study award of our magazine for studies published in 2003–2004 is on pp. 77–79. Because of unfortunate incidents the award by Ward Stoffelen was delayed, but better late than never!
On pp. 79–83 we have a subjective report on a problemist´s life in Belgium, where the editor-in-chief of this magazine has settled for the time being. Compared with life in Finland, the new location allows an easier participation in composition events in Continental Europe. The report includes such events as Henk Hagedoorn solving competition in the Netherlands, Warsaw Grand Prix, the Dutch Chess Problem meeting in Nunspeet and the Belgrade Problem Chess Festival.
The latest international event before the start of the summer was the Andernach meeting in Germany. Targeted mainly for fairy chess enthusiasts, the meeting took place for the 40th time and our report on this pleasant gathering is on pp. 84–85.
The British Residential Weekend is a traditional event and was visited this
year by Neal Turner. His report, translated into Finnish, is on pp. 86–87.
The weekend included solving, composing, lectures and discussions.
The originals columns start on p. 88. This time we do not have fairy chess originals,
but hopefully the next issue makes up for this. Please, contribute with your
comments and original compositions!
The next issue is due to appear in autumn.
Published 11th June 2014