The cover of this issue shows the cover of another magazine, published more than 50 years ago. The composition on the cover page won a helpmate section of an international team composing match. The composer, Raimo Sailas, has not been very prolific because of professional reasons, being for a long time the highest-ranking civil servant in the Finnish Ministry of Finance. See pp. 100–101 for more information, another lovely helpmate and three compositions dedicated to the jubilee. We are happy to announce Raimo Sailas 70 JT for helpmates with at least one tempo move by either white or black.
A lion´s share of this issue deals with the WFCC congress in Ostróda, Poland. We have a short description of the composing and solving competitions on pp. 88–91. In solving competitions our team finished on the 7th place, which is acceptable. In the individual competition some of us did better than expected, but some did not fulfill the expectations. See pp. 92–98 for the problems, solutions and results of the solving competitions. In the composing competitions we had no success, which was a disappointment.
On p. 91–92 we inform on the official meetings and decisions. It is worth noting that Hannu Harkola received the title of Honorary Master of Chess Composition, congratulations! On p. 99–103 we pay tribute to Finnish problemists celebrating their anniversaries. Jorma Pitkänen is the most productive Finnish problemist of past decades. Jorma announces a composing competition to honour his 75th birthday, see the announcement on p. 99. The competition is for helpmates in at least 5½ moves with White minimal force and with a White knight giving mate at least once. Veikko Valo has been very active in promoting chess and chess compositions in Finland for several decades. Editing chess columns, teaching chess for young people, writing introductions to chess and compiling an extensive collection of chess books has not left him much time for composing, but he has certainly made up for this with other kinds of activity.
The invitation to the autumn meeting of our society is on p. 103. On the next pages we have the award of helpmate moremovers for the years 2006–2007. For these years no judge had been appointed until Harry Fougiaxis became the helpmate originals editor. Sincere thanks to Harry and for the judge Silvio Baier, who did quick and efficient work, see pp. 104–111! On the final page of this award we have Neal Turner´s solving challenge: Paha pähkinä, A Tough Nut to Crack.
Kari Valtonen has done serious and extensive research on reversal themes and we can enjoy the results on pp. 112–125. Kari has found several early examples on famous themes such as Dombrovskis, Hannelius, Banny and Vladimirov. For example, it seems that the first compositions showing Hannelius theme were composed already in 1873 and 1876, see examples S13 and S14, and the first Banny presentations also during the same century, see S31 and S32. The article is in Finnish, but if you wish to receive information in English, please contact Kari by email.
On p. 126 we inform on the launch of World Solving Cup and on pp. 127–129 we have recently successful Finnish compositions, compiled by Neal Turner. On the next page we have a composition by Teppo Mänttä, which won the famous competition Wenigsteiner-Jahrespreis. Congratulations!
The originals sections start on p. 131. Please, contribute with your entries! The FIDE album points of Finnish composers are on p. 142. On the last page of this issue we have topical photos, photographed by Hannu Harkola and Neal Turner.
The next issue is due to appear in December 2015.
Published 22nd September 2015